OREANDA-NEWS. Kinder Morgan has sued a state of Massachusetts agency to gain construction easements to build its Connecticut Expansion project through the Otis State Forest.

The pipeline company anticipates the 70mn cf/d (2mn m3/d) pipeline in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts coming into service this fall, but environmental conditions and regulatory hurdles have caused delays recently for other pipeline projects in the northeast, such as the much larger Constitution Pipeline.

Kinder Morgan subsidiary and project operator Tennessee Gas pipeline (TGP) filed a motion last month against the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation at the Berkshire Superior Court in Massachusetts to fell trees in the Otis State Forest, Kinder Morgan said. This week the court delayed by two weeks a hearing scheduled for yesterday at the state Attorney General's request.

TGP last week requested that the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) give it permission to proceed with tree felling along all portions of the project. But FERC replied on 25 March saying it needed more information and requested that TGP clarify that it "would not fell trees in areas where it has not obtained an easement," such as the Otis State Forest.

The project includes a 3.8mi (6km) underground segment in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, about 2mi of which will be situated within the state forest, Kinder Morgan said.

TGP has operated pipelines across this right of way for more than 30 years, and maintains that the federal Natural Gas Act preempts the state's easement laws. But environmental group Sandisfield Taxpayers Opposing the Pipeline has said in a FERC filing that TGP's claims about its federal permits are misleading.

The suit was a necessary step to ensure that construction can begin this June and the project can be operational for the winter, Kinder Morgan said.