
A model for other Cortland Co. towns? There are actually over 200 NY towns/cities/counties that have imposed bans or moratoria on various aspects of fossil fuel extraction, production, transportation and infrastructure. Except for very specific bans on selling municipal water and processing fracking waste at the Cortland’s municipal treatment plant, this is the first ban in Cortland County and one of the most comprehensive state-wide. This ban is based on the town’s comprehensive plan and on a revision of the zoning code, local and external legal and technical consultation and extensive official and citizen participation.
Preble’s ban recognizes that the threats to its agricultural and rural character extend far beyond the drilling of gas wells because explosive fossil fuels require massive industrialization–pipelines, storage facilities, surface transportation by trucks and rail, compressors, etc. Even if the NY hydrofracking ban remains in place, the fossil fuel infrastructure will continue to expand.
Concerns go beyond “worry” about water contamination, explosions, health dangers, economic boom and bust and destruction of existing economies. Research from PA, CO, TX and other heavily industrialized fossil fuel production areas is providing proof that these impacts are real and significant. This week’s fatal gas main explosion in New York City reminds us that continuing to rely on fossil fuels and our aging infrastructure is a dead end.
Filed under Bans, Community Impacts, Cortland Data, Infrastructure, Regulation, Shale Gas Development-Hydrofracking, Transportation
Tagged with ban, bans, comprehensive plan, Cortland Co., Cortland Standard, energy infrastructure, hydrofracking, Industrialization, NY, opinion, Preble, propane, storage, Town of Preble, transportation
Plan to connect Millennium pipeline to Dominion pipeline in Cortlandville.
MILLENNIUM PIPELINE COMPANY PROVES WE CAN’T TRUST
ANYTHING THEY SAY:
On Monday, December 16th, a senior Millennium vice president
e-mailed me and said “Unfortunately, the markets (sic) participation
did not materialize in a sufficient quantity to justify pursuit of the
project at this time.”
However, by Wednesday, December 18th, the Millennium media
spokesman changed that position and told the newspapers “Based
on that initial response there was not sufficient demand to move
forward with the development all the way to Syracuse, so we are still
evaluating the southern part of that line.”
Their plan now appears to be consideration of constructing of a
large, high pressure pipeline from the Millennium east/west pipeline
in Broome County to connect with the Dominion pipeline in the middle
of Cortland County.
So, if we can’t trust their senior vp in charge of the project, how
can we trust their landmen when they come to our doors?
Rest assured that the Stop the I-81 Pipeline resistance group
will continue our work of educating landowners and our communities,
and that we will double down our efforts until everyone is protected.
Our research shows that building a 30 mile pipeline to connect
the Millennium to the Dominion makes no sense, because these
pipelines already cross near Horseheads, in Chemung County. On
September 9, 2013, the pro-fracking Marcellus Drilling News, ran an
article which stated:
The story of the northeast: Too much Marcellus
Shale natural gas, not enough pipelines to move it all
to market. More pipelines are on the way like the
Constitution, but in the meantime, how to move the
enormous amount of gas already flowing? 1
On Friday, the Millennium Pipeline, a major
transmission pipeline that transverses New York
State . . . announced a binding open season through
September 13 on a proposal to ship more Marcellus
gas by creating an interconnect between Dominion
Transmission’s pipeline and the Millennium at or near
Horseheads, NY.
We will need to continue to research how a corporation can
attempt to justify to FERC, or its shareholders, the much more costly
and disruptive 30 mile pipeline, rather than the interconnect in
Horseheads where the two lines already cross.
Unfortunately, the residents and landowners of our
communities cannot get reliable information from this corporation,
and so, we will continue our work, and our research which we will
share with our neighbors.
Landowners will never stop defending their property against
eminent domain by private corporations that seek to build
dangerous, redundant and unnecessary fracked gas infrastructure
across the landscape, bringing ruin to farms, destroying property
values, menacing air quality and drinking water. Millennium should
expect and will receive stiff, well-organized and well-researched
citizen resistance at every step.
Unfractured,
Joe Heath
December 20, 2013
1 Here, the industry is openly admitting what we have known and said repeatedly: these
pipelines are only about moving fracked gas to increase corporate profits.
Page 2 of 2
Filed under Cortland Data, Pipelines, Route 81 Pipeline, Stop the I81 Pipeline
Tagged with Broome Co., Catherine Wilde, Cortland Co., Cortland Standard, Dominion, Joe Heath, Millennium Pipeline Extension, NY, Onondaga Co., pipelines, Stop the I 81 Pipeline