WE DON’T WANT A FOSSIL FUEL FUTURE – RENEWABLE ENERGY NOW!
Philadelphia – A group of Pennsylvania residents claimed eminent domain today for a right-of-way through the lobby of a Penn’s Landing hotel during two energy industry conferences. Using their own bodies and lengths of industrial tubing, they built their own pipeline to carry their message to industry and government officials who want to double down on investment in fossil fuels and fracking instead of shifting to renewable energy sources.
“Converting coal-fired plants to gas often really means building a new gas-fired plant. It’s another investment that justifies more fracking, more pipelines to Philadelphia and more pollution,” said Meenal Raval, a Mt. Airy business owner. “Using fracked gas for power causes a path of destruction from wells, pipelines, and compressor stations through thousands of communities.”
The chairman of the NPGP Summit is Michael Krancer, who served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and then returned to his partnership at Blank Rome, where he heads the law firm’s Energy, Petrochemical & Natural Resources Practice. Krancer is also a member of the Greater Philadelphia Energy Action Team, a trade group that recently announced plans to seek public funding for a massive natural gas pipeline to Philadelphia.
“This is the revolving door in action,” said Angela Vogel of EDGE (Ending Dirty Gas Exploitation). “The same people go back and forth between government and industry, working together to keep profiting by poisoning us.”
On Monday an NGPG session called How to Overcome Environmentalist & Community Opposition and Accelerate the Approval Process included the topic “How to influence regulators and dominate the regulatory review and permitting process.” Tuesday morning featured pipeline proponent Philip Rinaldi, CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions, whose refinery has suffered multiple fires in the past two years and produces two-thirds of the toxic air emissions from industrial sources in Philadelphia.
Built along two tidal rivers, Philadelphia is the city second-most at risk to power outages from climate-change-fueled storms. Members of the public who brought their message to the conferences say that reliance on fossil fuels undermines global efforts to slow climate change and locks the city and the state into decades of fossil fuel use while the rest of the world shifts to energy efficiency and renewables.
“Monday’s presenter on community opposition said, ‘Listen, listen, listen’ to what communities tell you. We are telling these industries that Philadelphia wants clean energy, not the fossil fuels that are making Philadelphia the asthma capital of the Northeast, poisoning our drinking water, scarring our state with pipelines, and destroying our planet,” said Elizabeth Arnold of EDGE (Encouraging Development of a Green Economy).
Since April 2014, 10 fracking infrastructure projects have been canceled or delayed. Here’s the list:
April 2014: The Bluegrass Pipeline in Kentucky was stopped by a court decision upholding landowners’ rights against the use of eminent domain to take their land for private profit.
November 2015: The Port Ambrose liquified natural gas (LNG) project was vetoed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The project was proposed by Liberty Natural Gas off the shores of New York and New Jersey.
March 2016: The Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and 223-mile Pacific Connector pipeline in Oregon were rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), signifying FERC’s first gas-infrastructure rejection in 30 years.
March 2016: The Republican-dominated Georgia legislature voted overwhelming for a one-year moratorium on any new gas pipelines, setting back efforts to build the Palmetto Pipeline.
March 2016: FERC announced a seven-month delay on making a decision about the Penn East pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and a 10-month delay for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
April 2016: The Oregon LNG company announced that it’s ending its years-long effort to build an export terminal and pipeline.
April 2016: Kinder Morgan announced it is suspending its efforts to build the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, which would have run from Pennsylvania through New York into Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
April 2016: Dominion Resources announces that the start time for beginning construction on the Atlantic Coast pipeline, going from West Virginia through Virginia into North Carolina, is being moved back from this fall to summer 2017.
April 2016: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation rejected the application of the Constitution Pipeline company for a water quality permit, a permit it must have in order to begin construction.
“We are actually experiencing the clean energy revolution, it’s really happening right now,” I said to my wife when I heard the news about the Constitution Pipeline.
It’s very significant that the movement against fracking and fracking infrastructure projects is winning these victories, but it does not mean we can take a break. As of March 24, FERC lists 58 interstate gas pipelines on its website.
We need to gain strength from these victories and, with the wind shifting from a headwind to being more at our back, step up our pressure on FERC, and the gas and pipeline industry. Join Beyond Extreme Energy from May 15 to May 22 in Washington, DC, for the Rubber Stamp Rebellion.
Ted Glick is a cofounder of Beyond Extreme Energy and a climate activist since 2003. Past writings and other information can be found here, and you can follow him on Twitter @jtglick.
Greg Smith (All Souls Unitarian Universalist) , Natalie Pien (Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun) , Maria Bergheim (Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun), Clarke Herbert (Alexandria Unitarian Universalist), Ellen Taylor, Bob Gardiner, and Debbie Wagner (from left to right)
People of faith showed up at FERC’s monthly Commission Meeting on April 21 to take a stand against fracked gas pipeline permits. Natalie Pien spoke up as a Unitarian Universalist from Leesburg, VA. Much gratitude to Greg Smith for the pictures and the videos, and also for coining the great term “protestify
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“My name is Natalie Pien, a Unitarian Universalist from Leesburg, VA. Your approvals of fracked gas projects are morally, ethically, & spiritually wrong! It is against my faith. The Unitarian Universalist 7th Principle is “Respect for the interdependent web of life of which we are a part.” Your approvals are destroying the web. NO NEW PERMITS! FERC DOESN’T WORK” –Natalie Pien
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Next, Maria Bergheim spoke up, also from the UU church in Leesburg and a member of 350 Loudoun with Natalie Pien. Following her, you hear from Rhett Engelking and David Schwartzman who spoke about the precautionary principle.
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I was nervous going in. I had an idea of what I was going to say but something else came to mind while I was sitting in that room watching all of those employees in suits. I saw Norman Bay and felt disgusted. When they sat down at their long meeting table, I immediately wanted to say something, but I knew I had to wait. It made me ill to think they get paid money to okay natural gas pipelines.
How is this so called Energy Regulatory Commission suppose to actually regulate energy with natural gas? It’s not safe!
I sat there quietly stewing while they started their meeting. Natalie Pien was the first to get up and speak out. I sat there a few minutes longer when it hit me. How can anyone sleep at night when they are knowingly allowing pipelines to destroy communities? What if a pipeline went through their community and made their children sick? I’ll bet then, they would object!
I felt the need to speak out against these gas pipelines. Communities are destroyed by them.No one is safe when the pipelines leak!
I was nervous but then I was fueled by Natalie speaking out and feeling disgusted by what they do. –Maria Bergheim
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This action was initiated when Lise Van Susteren and Ted Glick from Interfaith Moral Action on Climate wrote a letter to people of faith from the DC area inviting them to inject their voices in the ongoing intervention at FERC.
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Dear Sister and Brother Climate Activists,
We are writing as members of the steering committee of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate. IMAC has been supporting for many months the efforts of Beyond Extreme Energy at FERC.
Many of you are familiar with FERC – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – an agency that for years has been quietly rubber stamping all requests by the oil and gas industry to build more disastrous infrastructure pipelines – virtually assuring the use of dirty fossil fuels for decades to come.
We are reaching out to you today to let you know that FERC’s unchecked collaboration with the polluters – up until now free from scrutiny – is ending.
For the last 17 months a growing group of activists has been interrupting FERCS’ monthly meetings – to expose their insider game and to force the commissioners and industry polluters to face the truth about the destruction they are unleashing on people and places all over our country and the world.
As members of the faith community, you have a special role to play – because you, especially, have the standing to deliver a moral message – one that can reach the hearts and minds of people who need to be reminded of the injunction against harming life and who need in this time of deepening crisis to be awakened to the call for stewardship.
We are reaching out to ask you to join us at the next FERC meeting to be interrupted – the morning of Thursday, April 21. I, Lise, have personally participated in one of these actions, and I can tell you that they are important, that you will have 20 or 30 seconds to speak from your heart to the FERC Commissioners, and then you will be escorted out of the room and the building by FERC security. That is what happens.
Those who are interested should contact one of us, and we will take it from there.
Can you make it?
Lise Van Susteren
Ted Glick
If you would like to plug into further efforts to FERC’s monthly Commission Meetings, please sign up here to get a monthly recruitment e-mail.
To learn more about the upcoming Rubber Stamp Rebellion, please click here.
Dozens of Democracy Spring Activists Show up at FERC for Donuts, Bagels, and Coffee While Calling Out FERC for its Undemocratic Ways
Washington, DC– Since Monday, hundreds of people from all over the country have been sitting-in on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC as a part of the Democracy Spring mobilization. They’re here to call for an end to the corrupting influence of money in politics. On the first day of the sit-ins, over 400 people were arrested and filled DC’s holding cells to capacity. It was the largest civil disobedience action at the Capitol in US history. Every day since then, the sit-ins have continued. Democracy Spring organizers are calling on folks to get to DC. Click here if you want to find out how.
In addition to Congress, another place where money is a democracy-killing poison is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Because FERC receives its funding from the oil and gas industries it’s supposed to regulate, it ends up operating as an arm of the industry by rubber stamping virtually every project application that crosses its desk.
To call attention to FERC’s undemocratic ways and to support the folks who are sitting in on the Capitol steps, Beyond Extreme Energy served donuts, bagels, and coffee in front of FERC on Wednesday ahead of Democracy Spring’s direct action training that takes place every morning over the course of the mobilization.
Elisabeth Hoffman of MD showing us the difference between FERC and the communities it hurtsAfter marching from Philly with Democracy Spring, 350 MA members Shira (Williamstown) and Sue (Salem) join the Dunkin’ Democracy action at FERC. Shira’s sign refers to Article 97 of the MA Constitution which many are looking to as a way to stop companies like Kinder Morgan from taking land to build pipelines. Behind them is an image of FERC Commissioner Colette Honorable imposed on a merry-go-round animal, part of an art piece designed by Kim Fraczek to portray the revolving door between FERC and the industry it supposedly regulates
Dozens of Democracy Spring activists fuel up ahead of another day of action. While gathered at FERC, we shared stories of pipelines, compressor stations, LNG export facilities, and the FERC rubber stamp machine.
Maren from North Carolina and Ben from the DC area helped plan the Dunkin’ Democracy breakfast and have been part of the ongoing Democracy Spring sit-ins. It’s clear that all of our issues are connected. Money out of politics, and an end to fracking and fracked gas infrastructure!Lining the sidewalks at FERC, we sing, chant, and share stories of our different but interrelated struggles.
Beyond Extreme Energy is getting ready for a Rubber Stamp Rebellion in May! Click here to learn more and sign up. The drums of the rebellion are starting to sound.
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Beyond Extreme Energy is currently raising money to fund the Rubber Stamp Rebellion. Please click here if you can make a much appreciated financial contribution.
Friends and activists gather to witness the tree-cutting on the Gerhart land.
Federal Marshals with automatic weapons and bullet proof vests, sheriff deputies dispatched to “keep people safe,” state troopers there in support. Something terrible must be happening in Pennsylvania’s forests. Something terrible is happening and it is not just in forests; large corporations are taking lands owned by Pennsylvanians and the federal marshals, the sheriff deputies, and the state troopers and our courts were dispatched to help them do it.
Who could blame Stephen Gerhart, 85, for thinking that the darker times he’d lived through were over when he moved to Pennsylvania in 1957; the Nazi occupation of his native Hungary, the Communist “liberation,” and the brutal Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 were evils he had to endure when he was young.
Who could blame Gerhart if he thought that he would quietly live out the rest of his days on the wooded hills in Huntingdon County that he and his wife Ellen had lived on for the last 34 years, in the forest they had pledged to protect when they bought the property in 1982 by signing up for the Forest Stewardship Program.
Ellen and Stephen Gerhart
Who could blame him for thinking he was living a nightmare when, on March 28 of this year, Stephen had to endure one more brutality at the hands of the state – a chain saw crew ripping apart the woodlands he and Ellen looked after all these decades.
This atrocity came about after Huntingdon County President Judge George N. Zanic ruled that Sunoco Logistics, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Corporation (ETC), was a public utility and could condemn, via eminent domain, a 3-acre right-of-way through the Gerhart property to run the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
The seizure of private lands so that pipelines can be constructed is a troubling phenomenon that has wracked several communities in Pennsylvania over the last several weeks.
In early March, Williams Partners, recently acquired by ETC, unleashed a chainsaw crew on North Harford Maple, a family-owned sugar bush near New Milford. U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion had earlier ruled that Williams Partners was a public utility and allowed it to seize a 125-foot right of way through the heart of the producing trees to lay the Constitution pipeline. North Harford Maple is owned by Cathy Holleran, and the Holleran family had derived a significant income from maple products produced on the property.
Neither the Gerharts nor the Hollerans wanted the pipelines to pass through their properties. Both families were offered compensation. The Gerharts were offered $100,000 for the 3-acre right-of-way. In both cases, it was not about the money; there was a desire to retain something money cannot buy.
In the Holleran’s case, it was a life-sustaining business and magnificent old maples. For the Gerharts, it was the beauty of the forest and the wild things that inhabit it. For Williams Partners and Sunoco Logistics, it was all about taking what was not theirs.
Eminent domain has its roots in antiquity, when all lands belonged to a sovereign. In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of eminent domain to condemnations “for the public good” and requires “just compensation.”
Both the Mariner East 2 and the Constitution pipelines are projects of multi-billion-dollar corporations. Their aim is profit, and the public good for their projects is debatable. What’s not debatable is that neither the Gerharts nor Hollerans have received any compensation, let alone a just compensation as the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution dictates.
A just compensation would take the Hollerans’ business into consideration. A just compensation would take 34 years of nurturing into consideration. Of course, a pipeline presents a whole other wrinkle to eminent domain. With pipelines, you get compensated once but you continue to pay taxes on a piece of property that remains “yours” but you cannot develop. You may not be able to get homeowners insurance.
Susquehanna County
On March 2, with the sap flowing, seven federal marshals armed with automatic weapons and clad in bulletproof vests and state police arrived at the Holleran property in Susquehanna County to protect the chainsaw crew from the demonstrably nonviolent Holleran family and friends there to witness and document the destruction. The Constitution pipeline hasn’t been approved in New York, so it’s completion isn’t certain, yet, Williams Partners chose to move forward with the cutting anyway. With the family looking on, completion of the cutting was completed on March 4. A visibly shaken Megan Holleran, a family member and field technician for North Harford Maple, said, “I have no words for how heartbroken I am. We’ve been preparing for this for years, but watching the trees fall was harder than I ever imagined.”
Megan Holleran, near maple trees cut for the Constitution pipeline.
Shortly afterward, Williams Partners announced that it was ceasing work on the pipeline for 6 months. When Megan Holleran heard this news she said, “It proves that I was right when I said it was completely unnecessary for them to do this at this time. It’s proof of how stupid it was that they came out and cut our trees already.”
Huntingdon County
On March 28, county sheriff deputies and state police arrived at the Gerhart property to protect the chainsaw crew. Judge Zanik, ignoring that the pipeline isn’t permitted yet, that Sunoco misrepresented the character of the Gerharts’ property – the wetlands was more extensive, by a factor of 7, than indicated on Sunoco Logistics’ map – gave permission for cutting to begin.
The Gerharts, like the Hollerans, had assembled friends to witness and document the destruction. However, the Gerhart property also had three tree sitters, people perched high in trees or suspended between trees, to act as a physical barrier to the crews and protectors for the trees. The sheriff, protesting all the time that he was there to protect the safety of all involved, nonetheless permitted the chainsaw crew to engage in reckless behavior that endangered those in the trees and arrested several people, including one individual that was not in the right of way. Those arrested were charged with indirect civil contempt and had bail set at $100,000. They also faced up to 6 months in jail.
Broken system
The eminent domain process is broken. It allows wealthy interests to steal property from others. It may be legal, but it is not right. The courts may sanction it, but there is no justice.
Having lived through the Nazis, the Hungarian Communists, and the Soviets, Stephen Gerhart knows a little something about injustice. In a letter to Judge Zanik, Stephen Gerhart wrote, ” It is unjust to give [Sunoco Logistics] the right of eminent domain so that they can trample on the rights of the people of Pennsylvania.”
The Gerharts placed their land in state stewardship program, but the state gave permission for them to be felled for the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Josh Fox and Tim DeChristopher make pancakes for FERC commissioners on a solar-powered cooktop. Photo by Eleanor Goldfield of ArtKillingAction.
UPDATE: View Josh Fox’s short film about the Holleran family, their maple trees, climate change and the #PancakesNotPipelines action at FERC.
March 24, Washington, DC — Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox, Megan Holleran and five others were arrested in the driveway of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) while waiting for commissioners to join them for pancakes topped with the last drops of maple syrup from the Holleran family farm in New Milford, Pa. They and about two dozen other activists were protesting FERC’s approval of the clear-cutting of a wide swath of maple trees at the Holleran farm.
Before their arrest, Gabe Shapiro, BXE organizer Don Weightman, Ashfield (MA) Selectman Ron Coler, Megan Holleran, Jane Kendall , Josh Fox and Bethany Yarrow block a driveway at FERC while waiting for commissioners to join them for pancakes.
Blocked by guards from entering the FERC building, Fox repeatedly called on the commissioners to come down for “the last dregs of syrup” and a conversation about fracked-gas infrastructure and climate change. “Everyone I know is fighting a pipeline or a compressor station or a power plant that is in front of FERC for approval,” said Fox, wearing an apron that said “Pancakes not Pipelines.” “It is clear to me that FERC has to be the most destructive agency in the United States right now. They are faceless, nameless, unelected and ignore citizen input. I think of FERC as the Phantom Menace. The agency’s commissioners have been rubber-stamping fracking infrastructure all over country that threatens local communities and the planet by accelerating climate change.”
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher, wearing a chef’s cap and a “Pancakes not Pipelines” apron,” cooked the pancakes on a solar-powered cooktop set up on the sidewalk in front of FERC. DeChristopher said FERC had “cut down life-giving maple trees to make room for a death-dealing pipeline.” The agency has been “able to get away with this shameful behavior by operating in the shadows. We’re here today to invite FERC employees into the open, to engage in a human way with the people whose lives are impacted by FERC’s decisions.”
Protesters carried banners that said “Stop the Methane Pipeline” and “Pancakes not Pipelines.” Led by singer-songwriter Bethany Yarrow, who was also arrested and is the daughter of Peter Yarrow, protesters sang songs, including “We Shall Not Be Moved” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round.”
While seated at a table, eating pancakes and waiting for FERC commissioners or employees to join them, several people hurt directly by the agency’s permits also spoke.
Holleran, among those arrested with Fox, said FERC had given approval for the trees to be cleared before the pipeline had all the required permits. “We followed all the rules. We asked them to wait before doing irreparable harm to our farm. This could happen to anyone,” she said. “FERC, come on down and chat with me. FERC has a chance to be accountable now.”
Nancy Vann, a Westchester, NY, landowner who blocked tree-cutting on her land for the Spectra Energy’s Alqonquin Incremental Market (AIM), said, “Each tree that is cut is another step toward an uninhabitable planet. I’m here for Megan and her family and for the 20 million people living within a 50-mile radius of the pipeline that’s planning to go 105 feet from the Indian Point nuclear power plant and two earthquake fault lines.”
Activist and psychiatrist Lise van Susteren said, “We are here to tell [FERC] we will not stand by while you have this unholy alliance with industry.” Psychiatrists and other health-care professionals have to report to authorities any child abuse, she said. “Every child stands to suffer because of what we are doing to the climate.”
“We can not afford to think what is happening now doesn’t affect us all,” said Aria Doe, co-founder of the Action Center for Education and Community Development in Rockaways, NY, where neighborhoods were inundated by Hurricane Sandy. Much of the pollution ends up in poor communities of color, she said. “I’m here for my future grandchildren.”
Robin Maguire from Conestoga, PA, said the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline is routed through sacred burial sites.
Also at the action was Karenna Gore of the Center for Earth Ethics.
In addition to Fox, Holleran and Yarrow, those arrested were: Gabe Shapiro, a student at Hampshire College, MA; Jane Kendall from New York City; Don Weightman, a BXE organizer from Philadelphia; Ron Coler, a Select Board member of Ashfield, MA, who’s fighting the NED pipeline and Connecticut Expansion.
Yarrow’s 9-year-old daughter, Valentina Ossa, watched in tears as her mother, still singing, was handcuffed and put in a Homeland Security van.
Beyond Extreme Energy organized the action, one of many the group has led at FERC. BXE is working with groups and individuals across the United States to revoke FERC’s mandate to operate an arm of the oil and gas industry. It seeks an end to FERC permits for new pipelines and other projects that allow the expansion of the fracked-gas industry. BXE has made this demand in an escalating series of protests at FERC beginning in 2014 and including disruptions at the monthly FERC meetings, described in the March 20, 2016, New York Times article “Environmental Activists Take to Local Protests for Global Results.”
BXE will continue its actions at FERC during the Rubber Stamp Rebellion planned from May 15 to 22.
On Thursday March 24 at noon, Josh Fox, Bethany Yarrow, Karenna Gore, and Tim DeChristopher, together with Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), and families, concerned citizens and landowners, will cook and serve pancakes at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to protest its role in wrecking the Holleran family maple farm in New Milford PA. FERC’s pipeline permit gave the Constitution Pipeline Company and its chainsaw team – flanked by heavily-armed federal marshals – the supposed “right” to clear-cut Hollerans’ the maple tree stand on the family farm, in the middle of the maple sugaring season, despite the pipeline not having all the necessary permits from state agencies.
The pancakes will be cooked using solar power, and served with maple syrup – to honor the Hollerans and their farm – to FERC employees and passersby.
The protest will confront FERC for their reckless and dangerous behavior that helped Constitution seize property by eminent domain and prematurely cut the Hollerans’ trees. BXE will also demand that FERC stop issuing permits for the new pipelines and other projects supporting the expansion of the fracked gas industry, which is ruining our neighborhoods and countryside , threatening the health and safety of all of us, and adding to the climate crisis.
The action will be made into a video by award-winning documentary filmmaker Josh Fox. He is on tour with his new film “How to Let Go of the World: and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change.” To learn more about the film and Josh’s tour, visit www.howtoletgomovie.com.
Who: Josh Fox, award-winning documentary film-maker (GASLAND)
Bethany Yarrow, singer-songwriter
Karenna Gore, Director of Center for Earth Ethics
Tim DeChristopher, environmental activist, co-founder, Climate Disobedience Center
and other guests
Beyond Extreme Energy
What: Pancakes cooked with solar power, and served with maple syrup – to honor the Hollerans and their maple tree farm – to FERC employees and passersby
On Thursday March, 17, 2016, 13 members of ResistAIM Pipeline, a group of concerned New York State (NYS) residents, took turns standing up during the monthly public meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to ask the commissioners why they have ignored NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo’s urgent request to immediately halt construction on Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project. Governor Cuomo directed four NYS agencies to conduct an independent safety assessment of the AIM Pipeline and its proximity to Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The Governor told the New York Times, “The safety of New Yorkers is the first responsibility of state government when making any decision.” All 13 New York residents were forced from the room for speaking truth to power. They stood one-by-one in succession, addressing each commissioner by name, putting faces to an agency that has until now remained faceless. Read more about what happened during the meeting here, and continue reading below to hear directly from some of the brave folks who stood up that day.
Members of ResistAIM come together after being kicked out of FERC.
We are shining a spotlight on a formerly invisible, but extremely powerful gear in the giant machine of the fossil fuel industry. Pipelines metastasize because FERC allows them to spread across the country with no accountability to our safety, our economy, nor the futures of generations to come. The beam of our spotlight was focused today on FERC and in the harsh light, the agency was pulled out of the shadows and exposed for its thuggery and its soullessness. — JK Canepa
It was important to me to confront the FERC commissioners because they, by virtue of their chosen profession, are murderers. They continually rubber stamp fossil fuel infrastructure projects which , by extension, hurt public citizens. People lose their homes, their livelihoods, their health, and their lives for the sake of corporate profit.
I live in Westchester where we are at risk of catastrophic destruction. If the Spectra AIM pipeline gets to run gas, we could potentially experience “Fukushima on Hudson,” gas leaks, and gas explosions! This particular pipeline is too close to the aging nuclear power plant which is also dangerously close to two fault line! What could possibly go wrong?
All this and I haven’t even mentioned how the fracking and transportation of gas is! And– at this time on this planet we need to be transitioning to renewables–NOT increasing the infrastructure to transport dangerous, dirty fuels. — Cari Gardner, Hastings on Hudson, NY
Cari Gardner. Photo credit: Erik McGregor
Today was so important because for decades FERC has been destroying communities and families and land as a group of nameless, faceless bureaucrats. But this fight against fossil fuel infrastructure is all about people. Today a group of individual people from New York got to stand up and confront the individual people that make up the commission and make decisions that affect and threaten our daily lives. The era of FERC hiding behind its anonymity to bring devastation to our front yards is over. FERC must be accountable and stop dangerous projects like Spectra’s AIM pipeline now. — Jessica Roff, Brooklyn, New York
Jessica Roff. Photo Credit: Erik McGregor
Been fighting the AIM pipeline for nearly three years. It is going through my community property–but even more important it is going within 105 feet of safety structures at Indian Point nuclear plant. The plant sits on two earthquake fault lines and the NRC considers it the most dangerous plant in the U.S. That endangers 20 million people in our region and the financial center of our country and the world.– Nancy Vann, Peekskill, NY
I grew as a person from meeting this group for the first time. Their energy gave me the strength to speak at the meeting. My hope is for FERC to respond to Governor Cuomo immediately and stop/halt/cancel/rescind the Spectra AIM pipeline. –Kevin O’Keefe, Long Island, NY
Kevin O’Keefe. Photo Credit: Erik McGregor
I live in Westchester County and have been fighting the dangerous Spectra high pressure AIM gas pipeline sited a mere 105 feet from critical infrastructure at the Indian Point nuclear power facility. Pipeline and nuclear safety experts have repeatedly and urgently issued warnings that a pipeline rupture next to Indian Point could result in a nuclear catastrophe similar to or worst than the Fukushima disaster. More than 20 million people who live within the 50 mile radius of the co-location of the AIM pipeline and the aging and troubled nuclear plant are in serious harm’s way and the financial center of the world is also threatened. A few weeks ago NY Gov. Cuomo finally acknowledged the dangers to public health and safety and directed four state agencies to conduct an independent safety assessment and called on FERC to halt AIM pipeline construction and suspend its approval.
But FERC chooses to continue to ignore the Governor’s requests and the vehement warnings of leading safety experts as well as similar demands from local, state, and federal officials and the people of New York. For the last three years I’ve worked hard to acquire knowledge, work with the experts, educate others, and continually communicate to FERC via documents and testimonies and calls the inherent dangers and need to fully address this issue, and withdraw its approval.
Coming to Washington, DC today and attending the FERC’s monthly meeting enabled me to come face-to-face with the four commissioners and speak truth to power. It is one of the most important opportunities to directly express these critical messages to the commissioners in person. Now my message has been heard loudly and clearly and others in the room have borne witness to my words and expression of these facts. They can’t unknow it or look the other way any longer.
Come to DC and tell the FERC commissioners face-to-face they cannot look the other way anymore, they cannot ignore the dangers, they cannot rubber stamp fossil fuel infrastructure projects, they cannot destroy the health of the people across this nation and they cannot pollute our air, water, and soil, and they cannot destroy our climate!”–Ellen Weininger, White Plains, NY
Ellen Weininger. Photo Credit: Erik McGregor
Beyond Extreme Energy and our allies across the country have been bringing truth to FERC meetings for over a year and a half, and we intend to continue until all permits for fossil fuel infrastructure are stopped. If you’re interested in learning more about this effort, or want to be connected to future actions at monthly Commission Meetings, please leave us your contact information here.
In May, Beyond Extreme Energy and many of our friends are planning a Rubber Stamp Rebellion. We will continue to show the names and faces behind this grotesque agency. Learn more here.
The faces of three FERC commissioners. From left to right–Cheryl LaFleur, Norman Bay, and Tony Clark. Photo Credit: Erik McGregor
Construction on Spectra’s new AIM Pipeline continues despite Governor Cuomo’s request to FERC to immediately halt construction while state conducts an independent risk assessment of pipeline construction next to accident-prone Indian Point Nuclear Plant.
ResistAIM Press Release
By Jess Roff
Contact: Courtney Williams, (609) 468-7080, resistAIM@gmail.com
Pictures by Erik McGregor
Video by Kim Fraczek
Washington, DC 03-17-16 - Today at 11:05 AM, ResistAIM Pipeline, a group of concerned New York State (NYS) residents, led by Nancy Vann – a Peekskill landowner whose property was taken by Spectra for pipeline construction – stood up in the monthly public meeting of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to ask the commissioners why they have ignored NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo’s urgent request to immediately halt construction on Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project. Governor Cuomo directed four NYS agencies to conduct an independent safety assessment of the AIM Pipeline and its proximity to Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The Governor told the New York Times, “The safety of New Yorkers is the first responsibility of state government when making any decision.”
In a further display of their disregard for public safety, FERC’s security assaulted the first speaker, Nancy Vann, forcefully removing her, and knocking her to the ground when she demanded access to the cane she needs to walk. The entire commission watched blithely during this assault and then as each of the next 12 New Yorkers was removed when they stood to ask FERC to listen to Governor Cuomo, halt construction of the AIM Pipeline, and protect more than 20 million people.
Officials recently discovered an exponential increase in radioactive tritium leaking into the groundwater from Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. This leak follows six other recent safety and security breaches at the plant including several emergency shut downs over an eight month period.
The administration is urging FERC to suspend their approval of Spectra’s AIM Pipeline pending the results of the analysis, a move that could halt completion of the controversial project.
FERC’s response when reached by the press was “We will not comment on that letter.”
Spectra’s new high-pressure, 42-inch diameter pipeline would run within 105 feet of criticalsafetyinfrastructureatIndianPoint.InMayof2015,aSpectraEnergyp ipeline ruptured underneath the Arkansas River; Spectra was unaware of it until the Coast Guard informed them of the rupture.
“FERC is inviting disaster by choosing to ignore the vehement warnings by scores of pipeline and nuclear safety experts, health professionals and local, state, and federal officials regarding the clear and present danger posed by the siting and construction of Spectra’s high pressure AIM gas pipeline,” says Ellen Weininger, a co-founder of Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE). “NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo just directed four state agencies to conduct an independent safety analysis and called for FERC to halt construction and withdraw its permit. FERC continues to abdicate its responsibility while the health and safety of more than 20 million people who live and work within a 50 mile radius as well as the financial center of the world, hang in the balance. Without further delay, FERC must halt the AIM pipeline construction and rescind its approval of the project.”
The pipeline is being built against the wishes of the local communities from Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam, which have all passed resolutions opposing it. In some areas Spectra Energy has used eminent domain to seize property for construction against the will of landowners and homeowners. This has outraged residents and environmental and public safety advocates who point to Spectra’s abysmal safety record as proof that the company cannot be trusted to construct a pipeline safely. “FERC should stop pursuing this unconstitutional process of allowing the AIM pipeline to proceed and land to be taken prior to the completion of Governor Cuomo’s risk assessment,” said Nancy Vann, a Resist AIM member and president of Safe Energy Rights Group (SEnRG).
“FERC must be made to see that it is operating in opposition to the public need and to public opinion. The idea that we need increased capacity for fracked gas, more particularly, gas destined for China and other countries, is abhorrent to me,” said Donald Gardner, a Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester resident, “It is crucial for FERC to confront and ultimately answer the question: why extend infrastructure and a delivery system for a deadly, ultimately finite source of power, which poisons the water and air, endangers the population, is being built by the Indian Point nuclear facility, and sits atop two earthquake fault lines? What could possibly go wrong? We must start our real transition to safe and renewable fuel sources, now.”
This regulatory failure demonstrates that the agencies involved – FERC and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) – are unwilling to consider the full impacts of this project. Congresswoman Nita Lowey and Congressman Eliot Engel wrote to FERC and the NRC saying, “…As elected representatives of residents in the Hudson Valley, we believe FERC and NRC’s primary responsibility should be to protect the health and safety of the 20 million people who live within the 50 mile radius of [Indian Point]. Despite the widespread calls for an independent risk assessment, FERC and NRC have disputed the need and instead relied on Spectra and Entergy’s calculations…we call on FERC and NRC to require Spectra and Entergy to fund an independent transient risk assessment for the AIM Project as soon as possible.”
As Spectra fast-tracks construction of the pipeline, municipalities and organizations from Boston to New York are preparing to take FERC to Federal Court to challenge the pipeline approval. Despite these numerous outstanding legal challenges, the ongoing New York State risk assessment, and Governor Cuomo’s request to halt construction, Federal law allows Spectra to proceed with construction, leaving impacted communities no recourse to address their concerns while faced with imminent harm from pipeline construction and operations.
In addition to its obvious safety and security risks, the AIM pipeline would increase our dependence on climate-changing fossil fuels at a time when the nations of the world are increasingly recognizing the need to move to renewable energy.
“We won this round,” said Francis Eatherington, who was roughly escorted from a FERC meeting last September.
(Washington, D.C.) March 16, 2016 – Beyond Extreme Energy celebrates FERC’s rejection on March 11 of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline in Oregon. Officially, FERC cited as its reason the applicants’ lack of market demand for the gas, but we know that grassroots concerns and activism are always dismissed by the powers that be. We know that opponents of both the terminal and the pipeline fought hard against the taking of private property by eminent domain for someone else’s private profit, and also opposed the destruction of wildlife habitat and the release of climate-warming methane that this project would have caused.
Two of these opponents flew across the country last September to join BXE’s 18-day fast in front of FERC headquarters. Francis Eatherington, a retired conservation director for Cascadia Wildlands and a landowner in the path of the now-cancelled pipeline, wrote to BXE as soon as the decision was released. “We are stunned! We had prepared for the day when it was approved … but we didn’t have any press releases prepared for this. I want to thank everyone in BXE who helped me get around in D.C. last September and complain to FERC. We did it! We won this round.”
Eatherington was roughly escorted from the September 2015 FERC commissioners’ meeting when she tried to raise her concerns about the project, after having submitted comments and testified at many local hearings, where her concerns were ignored.
Jacob Lebel, a student at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Ore., and a plaintiff in Our Children’s Trust lawsuit that specifically targeted the Jordan Cove LNG project as incompatible with youths’ right to inherit a stable planet not destroyed by climate change, wrote, “Great news indeed. Hope this brings hope and courage to all the other communities fighting these projects around the U.S. and the world. Stay strong!”
BXE will continue to oppose what has been until this decision a decades-long, uninterrupted string of approvals for gas pipelines and related infrastructure by FERC.
We also continue to oppose the ongoing construction of Dominion Resources’ LNG export facility in the middle of the southern Maryland town of Lusby. And we support the lawsuit filed against FERC on March 2 by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, charging the agency with corruption and favoritism toward the natural gas industry, which funds its operations.
”We hope this decision is the beginning of a change of heart and policy by FERC commissioners,” said BXE member Ted Glick, “but we’re not holding our breath. The rebellion against FERC is one aimed at radically transforming how energy is produced, transported and consumed in this country. The health of communities and the planet depends on making energy generation and distribution locally sourced, democratically controlled, and greenhouse gas-free.”
Beyond Extreme Energy 