re: Ongoing gas outage in Newport, RI. Experts coming out disagreeing with the official cause cited, while thousands remain without heat in the coldest part of winter.

National Guard is literally out in force on the streets.

(Check out BU professor's name).

"Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips said that regional policy dictates that gas must go to heating needs before it gets to power generators, so if there were an unusual step-up in demand, there should have been problems with electric supply at the same time as the heating disruption. According to data from the New England power grid, electric generation from gas-fired power plants remained steady throughout the day on Monday.

“I’m not buying Enbridge’s explanation until more facts are known,” said Phillips, who has led research on gas leaks and other pipeline problems. “We have had cold snaps as bad or worse over the last few years without such a system-level failure.”

Greg Cunningham, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, was also skeptical. Utilities like National Grid plan their system needs years in advance and tie up contracts for supply and space on pipelines to guarantee they can meet customer demand, he said. Those plans, which factor in days of extreme cold and periods of extended cold, must then be vetted by regulators, such as the Rhode Public Utilities Commission.

“Yes it’s been cold, but it hasn’t been that cold and it hasn’t been that cold for that long,” said Cunningham, an environmental lawyer. “This idea that a few cold days in January have triggered some issue with their gas supply just doesn’t make sense.”

In its statement that attributed the outage to higher demand, Enbridge acknowledged that a “temporary reduction in available natural gas supply exacerbated the conditions that led to this disruption in service,” but did not explain the cause of the reduction. The company has not responded to repeated attempts to clarify its statement."

I've been saying since this happened, there's moar to this than what we're being told. I did a dig a couple days ago noting these same gas companies have had a long time battle going on with Newport County re: LNG supertankers posing a danger while passing through the very narrow channel of Narragansett Bay. Newport County will not allow them the license.

https://www.newportri.com/news/20190123/natural-gas-experts-cast-doubt-on-outage-explanation