Kinder Morgan Inc. and Southern Co. are moving ahead with a roughly $7.6 billion natural gas pipeline that would run 470 miles from Middle Tennessee to central Georgia, one of the largest gas infrastructure projects proposed in the Southeast, as landowners along the route begin receiving notices.
The Southeast Connector is being developed by Southern Natural Gas Co., which the two companies own equally. A project fact sheet dated November shows Kinder Morgan expects to carry about $3.1 billion of the cost. The line is designed to move up to 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas a day and could be expanded if more customers sign up, with final capacity and spending depending on the project’s ultimate scope.
A $1.3 billion Tennessee stretch
About 150 miles of the line would sit in Tennessee, starting near an existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline compressor station in Sumner County, north of Nashville, and running south through about 10 counties, including Macon, Trousdale, Smith, DeKalb, Cannon, Warren, Coffee, Franklin and Marion, before crossing Alabama into Georgia. Kinder Morgan puts the Tennessee portion at about $1.3 billion. HERE Nashville reported the route and its local effects, noting that the path isn’t final and could shift during federal review.
The companies say the project responds to rising demand for gas deliveries on Southern Natural Gas’s system from utilities, factories and gas-fired power plants, as electricity use climbs across the region. They expect about 7,000 temporary construction jobs and 50 permanent positions.
A long road to approval
Nothing is approved. Kinder Morgan plans to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin a pre-filing review by the end of 2026, file a formal certificate application in the third quarter of 2027, start construction in late 2028 and begin service in phases starting in late 2030. The Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service will also weigh in.
For pipeline owners, projects of this size are typically backed by long-term contracts with utilities and power producers and funded from operating cash flow and investment-grade bond sales, which makes them a steady source of corporate debt issuance over the construction period. For more local business coverage, see HERE Nashville Business.
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