American Gas - April 2013 - (Page 20)

“Ultimately, natural gas is a critical part of Hawaii’s future, providing a way to reduce the state’s dependency on imported oil, increase energy security, lower costs, and help achieve the state’s clean and renewable energy goals,” Jeff Kissel, president and CEO of Hawai’i Gas, told American Gas. An energy consultant told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in March that natural gas could lower the state’s electricity bills “for many years to come.” —Gary James eLM street Gas for Native America An LDC overcomes the complexity of rural delivery For residents of the Wind River Indian Reservation, obtaining natural gas is becoming as easy as finding water for this resident of nearby Yellowstone National Park. Wind river indian reservation— Several years ago, the Wyoming Public Service Commission asked SourceGas, Wyoming’s largest natural gas distributor, to develop a plan to increase the reach of natural gas service in the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. Many homes on the reservation did not have service, and those residents were paying shutterstock © kavraM 20 AmericAn GAs april 2013 relatively high prices to heat their homes with wood and propane. Expanding service was not an easy task. According to a SourceGas report on the project, just over 550 homes had service, and another 1,024 were potential candidates for it. But the reservation is largely rural, spanning some 3,500 square miles, and customers’ homes are, on average, three times farther apart than those of other SourceGas customers in Wyoming. That meant installation costs would be high and require an upfront investment from customers that could negate much of the potential savings from switching to gas. Getting right-of-way for gas lines was also complicated. Land ownership on the reservation is diverse, with various tribal, private, and federal owners. Sorting it all out promised to be time-consuming and expensive. SourceGas worked with a variety of stakeholders to move the effort forward: Wyoming legislators, the public service commission, tribal authorities, and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The company also communicated extensively with reservation residents, using meetings, information packets, and radio advertising to explain the initiative. This work bore fruit. For example, to ease upfront costs, SourceGas presented and the public service commission approved an “extra incentive allowance” that would let new customers pay off construction costs gradually, over as many as 15 years, as part of their regular gas bills. And to help with the right-ofway issues, tribal officials streamlined approval processes and signed a license agreement that let SourceGas begin installing pipes in several areas while the federal right-of-way application worked its way through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Today, SourceGas reports that it has been able to put in miles of pipe and bring natural gas service to more than 220 additional homes. The company has also identified 60 more potential projects that would include another 552 residents and nine commercial businesses on the reservation. Wyoming State Rep. Patrick Goggles, who represents the area and serves on the Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing committee, told reporters that “SourceGas has been a good corporate citizen on the Wind River Indian Reservation.” —P.H.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - April 2013

American Gas - April 2013
Contents
President's Message
Subject Index
LNG Sports Car: Racing Toward Acceptance
Digest
Issues
Updates
Need to Know
By the Numbers
People and Places
Water, Water Anywhere
Asia
State House
State House
Elm Street
LNG: Riding the Wave
Beyond the Headlines
Profile
Crisis Management
Jobs
Buyer's Guide: Mapping and GIS
Marketplace
Headway

American Gas - April 2013