BillHustonBlog: Tell Governor Cuomo to reject Dominion's "New Market Project"

Dear friends, please consider signing the following letter...

From: Liz Haskins <madcopreservation@aol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:59 PM
Subject: Tell Governor Cuomo to reject Dominion's "New Market Project"

Let's maintain the momentum seen in New York's rejection of the Constitution Pipeline!

Today Dominion Transmission Inc. is proposing a major expansion of its 50-year-old aging pipeline to bring more fracked gas into our state (112 million cubic feet/day more). The so-called "New Market Project" would increase the capacity of Dominion's 200-mile long pipeline from Pennsylvania to the Finger Lakes, Syracuse, Utica, and Albany, and build a new connection to the Iroquois pipeline for sending gas out of the country: two new polluting compressor stations in Chemung and Madison counties, the massive expansion of another in Montgomery County, and additional equipment in Tompkins County, Utica, and Schenectady. Besides promoting fracked gas, threatening public health, and endangering the safety of communities along the corridor, Dominion's "New Market Project" will exacerbate climate change by pumping 200,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the air every year from compressor stations, along with over TWO MILLION tons of carbon dioxide a year when additional gas flowing in the pipeline is burned. Add methane into the equation and those greenhouse gas impacts double. We need a consistent policy against more fracked gas infrastructure in New York. Tell Governor Cuomo to reject Dominion's "New Market Project" by sending the letter below...

To send the following letter to Governor Cuomo, click here

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Dear Governor Cuomo,

I urge you to reject Dominion's proposed "New Market Project."

Across New York, people have become increasingly aware of the danger that natural gas and the proliferation of gas infrastructure poses to our future—our health, our climate, and our economy. Several gas expansion projects being considered, and some now already under construction, are moving our state toward greater dependency on fossil fuels at precisely the time when you have correctly said we must take a different course to prevent climate catastrophe. You have the authority and moral obligation to lead us in a better direction and make the Empire State a positive example for the United States. This calls for not only the rapid large-scale development of renewables, but also a clear departure from gas. I appreciate that you prohibited high-volume hydraulic fracking in New York and denied permits for the Constitution Pipeline. However, New York is more dependent on fracked gas today than it was when you announced a ban on fracking over a year ago. Standing up to FERC requires a consistent and timely response to the myriad of gas infrastructure projects that threaten our state, including those that have not made headlines.

Dominion's proposed "New Market Project" stretches over 200 miles with new facilities or modifications proposed in Chemung, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Schenectady and Tompkins Counties--all in New York. The project would involve the construction of two new compressor stations, the massive expansion of a third, and other changes to recklessly pump an additional 112,000 Dekatherms per day of fracked gas into our state from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia through a pipeline that is over 50 years old. And we are not so naive as to believe that Dominion's goal stops there. Given the scale of what has been proposed, we have no doubt that if this project is approved, Dominion will seek to push even more gas through New York in the future. In Chemung County, the project would cross a tributary of Bulkley Creek, a designated "Class C" water for fish that Dominion wants to trench through like the Constitution Pipeline that you wisely rejected. Exacerbating climate change, the project would pump 200,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide into the air every year from compressor stations, along with over TWO MILLION tons of carbon dioxide a year when additional gas flowing in the pipeline is burned. Add methane into the equation and those greenhouse gas impacts double.

The public has provided ample reasons to FERC for why this project should be rejected and how mitigation measures are inadequate, but so far they have fallen on deaf ears. Despite the insistence of numerous citizens and municipalities, a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement has not been performed of the health, safety, and climate impacts of this project. Further, instead of taking a close look at the growing body of evidence submitted by the Madison County Department of Health and others regarding the adverse impacts of compressor stations on public health, FERC offered up its own flawed health assessment based on models that categorically dismiss those real-world impacts. How many more examples of adults and children with daily nausea, headaches, nose-bleeds like in Minisink will New York accept? Or worse, when will it be too late to undo the damage of respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological disease, cancer, and birth defects caused by exposure to pollutants that the gas industry and FERC continue to underestimate? In the absence of any meaningful government response, accredited researchers in cooperation with concerned communities in both Madison and Montgomery counties have initiated studies of air pollution and public health surrounding Dominion's proposed compressor stations there, should this flawed project move forward.

Yet Dominion and FERC have dismissed our concerns, rejected alternative sites or other mitigation like vapor recovery that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and public exposure, instead pushing forward with the singular goal of promoting the consumption of more fracked gas. Perhaps most insidious, the gas industry and its partners like National Grid, continue to use the worn-out scare tactic that more gas is needed to meet winter heating needs. The fact is that Dominion's existing compressor station in Montgomery County remains idle most of the time because of limited demand in Albany. In reality, almost all of the gas associated with Dominion's "New Market Project" would be transferred to the Iroquois Pipeline using leaky reciprocating compressors proposed for the same facility that would operate around the clock. It is also common knowledge that Dominion, which has more than a 50% share in Iroquois, intends to reverse flow of the Iroquois pipeline so that gas can be exported to Canada. Most of Dominion's "New Market" is not even the United States.

Finally, except for a few temporary construction jobs, almost no one will be gainfully employed as the result of this project. Dominion stated in its application to FERC that this project would create merely three permanent, full-time jobs. Studies have consistently shown that there are far more permanent jobs to be created with renewable energy, including wind and solar. Those could be solid manufacturing, installation, and maintenance jobs tied to the production of renewable energy right here in the great state of New York. The only big winners in Dominion's project are corporate executives who stand to profit by raising the domestic price of gas while depleting America's reserves. The rest of us will pay dearly with reduced air quality, impaired health, and higher energy bills.

Governor, the future is in your hands. Rather than attaching our state to a toxic fossil fuel feeding tube from Pennsylvania, I urge you to lead us in a different direction. You can put a stop to FERC's reckless endangerment of New York and New Yorkers by rejecting air and water permits for Dominion's "New Market Project" and demanding that a full comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement be prepared. Again, please do what is right to protect the people and environment of New York.

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To send this letter to Governor Cuomo, click here

Thank you!