This statement was submitted by Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline, a group organized to block the proposed NED pipeline.
On Monday, March 23 at 7 pm., the Stephentown Town Board will hold a public hearing at the Stephentown Volunteer Fire Hall, 35 Grange Hall Road, about the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project, a large, high-pressure interstate transmission line proposed by Texas-based energy giant Kinder Morgan (through its subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline). [private]The hearing was scheduled, following the approval of a motion by Councilman Philip Roder, at the urging of dozens of concerned residents in attendance, including members of the local opposition group, Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline (SNYFGP), who presented the board with a strongly worded resolution against the pipeline, and its many risks to health, safety and property owners’ rights, that it hopes the town will adopt.
At that February 23rd meeting, Town Supervisor Lawrence Eckhardt stated he had already received a large number of e-mails, letters and phone calls from concerned residents and the Board was researching the issue and considering the best way to act effectively in response to local concerns, including conversations with supervisors from neighboring towns, The Association of Towns of the State of New York and officials from Rensselaer County.
Eckhardt has since informed representatives of SNYFGP that the Board plans to act in response to the will of the town as expressed at this public hearing. He explained that attendees will be asked to state their names, where they live, their position for or against the pipeline and their reasons for that position. Numbers for and against the pipeline will then be tallied to determine the Town’s will.
Attendance on March 23rd is expected to exceed the near-capacity crowd that previously filled the same venue on February 5th for a SNYFGP-hosted forum, which many have called the largest meeting of its kind in Stephentown in recent memory. Over 180 residents and their elected representatives attended that meeting to learn more about the NED proposal and voice their concerns, which included the possibilties of lower property values, higher property taxes, the pipeline company’s taking of private land by eminent domain, the lower safety standards for pipelines in rural areas like Stephentown and the prospect of living in the so-called “incineration zone”. An even larger crowd attended SNYFGP’s latest forum at the Nassau Sportsmen Club on February 28.
Five major pipeline incidents were reported in January as well as previous high-profile gas pipeline explosions such as the one in 2010 near San Francisco that created “a wall of fire more than 1,000 feet high” which created a shock wave that registered as a magnitude 1.1 earthquake by the United States Geological Survey. In addition, this month is the 25th anniversary of the pipeline explosion that devastated North Blenheim, New York, about 80 miles west of Stephentown.
If Stephentown adopts a resolution against NED, it would be the first town in New York to do so, joining the list of 52 communities that have already taken a stand against Kinder Morgan and this project in Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire.
Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline (SNYFGP) is an all-volunteer group of concerned citizens who oppose Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Energy Direct (NED) project. It maintains a web site at http://stopnypipeline.org and on Facebook and Twitter.[/private]