Williams CEO: Politics, not prices, are slowing nat gas pipeline development

• The decline in prices has not changed the need for pipelines, as the continued position of natural gas as a cheep feedstock for electricity generators and other producers has offset any slowdown in drilling, Williams Cos. (WMB, WPZ) CEO Alan Armstrong says; instead, it is political hassles and complex regulation that make moving gas to market more uncertain and expensive.
• On the CEO's mind were recent expansions of the company's largest line, the 10,500-mile Transco system running from the Gulf coast to New England, which have run into delays and lengthy permitting applications, especially in the Northeast; building the 122-mile Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to upstate New York cost $4.8M/mile vs. $1.7M/mile to lay a pipeline at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
• Echoing other natural gas producers and shippers, Armstrong says blanket opposition to pipelines is increasing the cost of fuel and forcing some sectors to rely on high-carbon alternatives such as coal.
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