from Ted Glick’s personal account:
I spoke to Norman Bay for several minutes today, Day 9 of the 18-day water-only Fast for No New Permits, on the sidewalk in front of FERC. I went up to him when he was seen leaving the building with an assistant. I introduced myself and walked next to him, asking if he would come down to receive the five copies of the Pope’s encyclical we will be bringing to FERC on September 25th at noon. He said he would consider it.
Then he stopped and we looked each other in the eye. He told me that he respected what we were doing with the fast and the commitment it showed as far as our beliefs. He said he felt this type of action was a good type of action.
However, he went on to say that he really had problems with us disrupting their monthly meetings and asked if we would stop doing that.
I responded: how can we do that when there’s no change at FERC as far as permitting gas pipelines and fracking infrastructure, one after the other, with virtually no exceptions.
His response: these are just pipelines. We’re a regulatory agency. Blaming us is like blaming the steel companies that make pipes. It’s the production of the gas that you need to deal with.
My response: how can you say you have no responsibility for the expansion of fracking? Without pipelines and infrastructure the fracked gas industry couldn’t be expanding and the gas wouldn’t be sent around the world. And you have a legal responsibility to do environmental impact statements and assessments which address the climate and environmental impacts. You also are supposed to be acting in the public interest, not the interests of the gas industry.
At that point, he checked out on the conversation, said something to the effect of “we should talk more,” and he headed off down the sidewalk.
The BXE fasters will discuss this new development and determine next steps.
Beyond Extreme Energy 