When The Daily Advance took jabs at JLF in an editorial about
the request by Piedmont Natural Gas to raise customer rates and merge
the Eastern North Carolina Natural Gas project into its customer base,
Paul Chesser, who has written extensively on the project, responded
with a letter to the editor. He wrote that Carolina Journal has simply
reported testimony made before the Utilities Commission – testimony
that refutes points made in the paper’s editorial. For example, the
paper wrote that Piedmont “seems confident” it can build a customer
base for natural gas in the area. Not so. NC State Economics Professor
Mitch Renkow testified to the Commission on behalf of Piedmont that
“there is substantial probability that (Eastern North Carolina Natural
Gas) will never become economically viable.” The boondoggle began in
1998 when voters approved $200 million in bonds to put natural gas
lines in 22 northeastern counties. Read the series here.