FERC Approves Expansion of Dominion Pipeline in Upstate NY

Good news! The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) have approved Dominion’s $165 million New Market Project, a project that expands Dominion’s transmission pipeline from western New York across the state to the Capital Region of the state, near Albany. As with any fossil fuel-related project, radical environmentalists objected (see NY Antis Flood FERC in Fight Against Dominion’s New Market Project). The favorite tactic of anti-drillers is to “demand” that FERC exceed its authority by not only evaluating whether this specific project will have negative impacts on the envirnoment or health of people living near it–but also consider that the pipeline means more shale drilling and possibly (gasp) exports. FERC, under law, cannot consider those things. And when they follow the law and do their job, it sends anti fossil fuelers into a tizzy fit. As they are now with the announcement that FERC has approved the New Market Project (albeit seven months late)…