Denials of new service to continue without second natural gas pipeline
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – More than 60 new homes and businesses in Bullitt County have been denied natural gas service because of continued delays to a pipeline extension approved in 2017, Louisville Gas and Electric Company confirmed today. The list of denials for new and expanded service will continue to grow, potentially impacting economic growth in the area since the single existing pipeline serving Bullitt County is at capacity.
The pipeline extension was reviewed and approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission in 2017. LG&E has been unable to acquire easements along the pipeline route for 11 remaining pieces of property, two of which were purchased by Bernheim in late 2018 – well after the project was approved -- and are located two miles north of the Bernheim Arboretum.
“LG&E has been a long-time financial supporter of Bernheim Arboretum. We treasure its legacy in our region,” said John P. Malloy, LG&E vice president of gas distribution. “But we also have an obligation to serve the larger community and our future together, and we take this responsibility very seriously. We hate telling families buying a new house or moving into the area – or businesses wanting to open and create new jobs – that they can’t have natural gas service, but we have no choice right now.”
The parcel purchased by Bernheim in late 2018 is not open to the public and contains less than 4,000 feet of the planned approximate 12-mile pipeline route in Bullitt County. That pipeline easement area involves only 0.028 percent of Bernheim’s total holdings of more than 16,000 acres in the region and runs along an existing powerline right-of-way in that area, purposefully chosen to minimize impacts to the countryside.
In addition to denials for new and expanded natural gas service in Bullitt County, LG&E cautioned existing natural gas customers to be prepared for interruptions in service should an outage occur, since there is no current backup to the existing distribution system which began in the 1960s.
Additional important facts and a project map can be found at lge-ku.com/bernheim.
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Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve nearly 1.3 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 328,000 natural gas and 414,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 555,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. More information is available at www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.
