Pipeline company Kinder Morgan announced it filed a proposal with authorities in Maine to expand natural gas capacity for the state.

Kinder subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. filed a proposal with the Maine Public Utilities Commission to bring gas to the region through its proposed Northeast Energy Direct Project.

"We are thrilled to be able to offer the state of Maine a contract for capacity on Tennessee Gas Pipeline's proposed Northeast Energy Direct Project that will bring needed natural gas to New England and support both gas and electric reliability," Kimberly Watson, regional president for Kinder Morgan, said in a statement Wednesday.

Kinder says the project could have the capacity to bring roughly 500 million cubic feet of natural gas from regional shale plays to the region per day.

Regional governors had expressed support for projects that could lower the cost of energy in an area without much pipeline infrastructure.

Kinder's proposed project would draw on gas reserves from regional shale areas. Opponents of the pipeline worry about the fallout from hydraulic fracturing in shale and have expressed concern the project would run through sensitive ecosystems along the East Coast.