Mass. Regulator Blames Cuomo for Blocking Pipelines to New England
In what we would say is an unusual, very public rebuke of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the former chairperson of the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities says that Cuomo is to blame for a near-emergency situation in New England during the winter of 2017/2018 when the region was within two days of a massive blackout due to lack of electricity. The lack of electricity is because New England doesn’t have enough natural gas to feed power plants during critical load periods.
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How dumb must you be to not understand that if there’s not enough gas supply, you can’t hook up new customers to the distribution grid? Yet some New York City legislators, 17 of them, are vilifying National Grid, one of NYC’s two main natural gas utilities, because National Grid continues to deny new customers who want gas service to be hooked up. It’s clearly Andrew Cuomo’s fault–he denied permission to build a pipeline to bring new supplies of gas to the region. Yet the legislators close ranks for this putz and blame the company that can’t get those new supplies. Some of these same legislators OPPOSE the pipeline! Yet they want more natgas. What kind of mental gymnastics does that require?
In Lansing, NY, just outside of Planet Ithaca in Tompkins County, the local utility (NYSEG) wanted to build a short pipeline in 2017 to supply new customers with natural gas, but was blocked by crazies who irrationally hate fossil fuels (see 
Once again the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), a corrupt political tool in the hands of an autocratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, has issued a denial of a federal Clean Water Act Section 401 water crossing permit for the National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project. Fortunately, DEC’s rejection doesn’t mean a hill of beans since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) overruled the DEC last year.
In April President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, is a vicious politician. He operates much like a mafia boss. Case in point: Cuomo refuses to allow a new pipeline to be built to the New York City (and Long Island) region, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project (see 
A new group has formed in New York State with the aim of using a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision as ammunition to sue NY over its ban on hydraulic fracturing. The new group, called Landowner Advocates of New York (LANY), was started by MDN friend Vic Furman. Could this finally be the solution to force Andrew Cuomo to allow fracking?
This is no joke. It’s not an “Onion” piece where we’re trying to fool you. In June the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see 
A radical anti-fossil fuel group (rich snobs) from Cooperstown, NY, in Otsego County (calling themselves Otsego 2000), sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in federal court a year ago to try and stop a project to build a couple of compressor stations in upstate New York, using the argument global warming wasn’t factored into the decision-making process (see 
New York State is so screwed. Let’s just be honest–there’s no saving the Empire State now. (We can say these things because we live here.) Following the passage of a recent law (see 
In a sad development, the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGANY) is losing its superb executive director, Brad Gill (an MDN friend), and its paid office staff, in an effort to cut expenses. The administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo has been hostile to the oil and gas industry in NY–not only with a ban on fracking, but also with new environmental regulations that affect conventional drillers. Cuomo’s actions are having a negative effect on O&G in NY, and IOGANY is dealing with the fallout as best they can. The board of directors is slimming down and will now handle the day-to-day affairs of the association. Along with several other current directors, Brad will remain involved with IOGANY but in a different capacity while he pursues his other oil and gas interests.