Columbia Gas Systems Millennium project ($700 million), which is to connect Canadian Natural Gas sources to New York and Pennsylvania, received FERC go-ahead on September 19, 2002. Current plans are for Phase I of the Millennium line to be in service by November 2006, although the project has yet to be approved by FERC in its revised form. The second phase is currently on hold until 2008 or later owing to increased competition and a changed market in the New York City metropolitan area. If it is completed, Millennium will transport up to 714 MMcf/d of natural gas, providing an environmentally preferred option for generating electricity. According to the Millennium Pipeline consortiums web site, more than 90 percent of the pipelines 425-mile overland route uses existing utility corridors, with about 224 miles of the project replacing and upgrading a 50-year-old pipeline system owned and operated by Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.
Growing U.S. demand for Canadian natural gas has been a dominant factor underlying many of the pipeline expansion projects this decade. The U.S. and Canadian natural gas grids are highly interconnected and Canadian natural gas has become an increasingly important component of the total natural gas supply for the United States. This is especially true for certain U.S. regions such as the Northeast, Midwest, the Pacific Northwest and California, which depend on Canadian natural gas for significant amounts of their supply. Overall, the United States received about 3.6 Tcf of natural gas (gross) from Canada during 2004, up from 3.5 Tcf in 2003. Mexico is a small net importer of natural gas from the United States.
Considerable progress has occurred in recent years to connect Canadian natural gas supplies to U.S. consumers. The Northern Border Pipeline, an extension of the Nova Pipeline, came onstream in late 1999 and connects to Chicago through the upper Midwest. A further extension to Indiana entered service in 2001. The Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline came onstream in January 2000, running from Sable Island to New England, with further extensions into the Boston area to be completed during 2003. The pipeline has a capacity of 400 MMcf/d.