Will Companies Continue Making Grants after Pipelines are Built?
We love pipelines. We love the companies that build them. Pipelines are the safest form of transportation period–bar none. The thing we don’t love is how pipeline companies are buying support for their projects. We’ve written about it before (see Constitution Pipeline Payments to Groups – Donations or Payola?; PennEast Payola? Buying Support One Community at a Time; and Kinder Morgan Hops on the Pipeline Payola Bandwagon in NEPA). Our objection is not to these midstream companies making community grants–much needed funds for very worthy purposes. Our objection is to the timing of the grants. Rather than make the grants before all of the permits are granted and the work has begun, wait and make the grants after the work has begun–to prove you want to be a good neighbor. An article from Schoharie County, NY about the Constitution Pipeline’s payola caught our eye and sparked a question for us: Will the Constitution still be making these community grants, to prove they’re good neighbors, long after the pipeline is built?…
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We finally have the final version of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) from the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). This is the document that would control where and how (and if) fracking is done in the Empire State. The Final SGEIS (or FSGEIS), a full copy embedded below, is more than 2,000 pages long. No, we’ve not yet read it. But what we do know is that if drillers can drill and frack a well using less than 300,000 gallons of water, it’s permitted under this FSGEIS. Is such a thing possible? Probably not–at least not economically. You won’t make any money, so it’s a moot point. The FSGEIS is not the final document that will be issued. The very last thing to come will be a “Findings statement” by DEC Commissioner (and anti-driller) Joe Martens. According to state law, Martens cannot issue the Findings statement before 10 days from issuing the FSGEIS. Martens knows he’s going to get his rear-end sued from now until he leaves office, so he’ll take his time before releasing the Findings statement, which will essentially say “we don’t have enough science to prove fracking doesn’t harm people or the environment, so the safe thing to do is disallow it for now.” The phraseology he uses will be scrutinized and will be the basis of what we predict is at least several, possibly many lawsuits. Pro-drillers are not going away. Our property rights have been unconstitutionally stripped away. We will fight until we win…
New York State’s anti-drilling Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, Joe Martens, is doing his best to concoct a litigation-proof Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The SGEIS is the document that will find too many “troubling” aspects of fracking to allow it in New York. Except there’s potentially a loophole coming in the SGEIS, if press reports can be believed. Fracking WILL be allowed IF it uses under 300,000 gallons of “liquid”–the liquid most likely being water. (A typical well takes 5-8 million gallons of water to frack.) The NY loophole of using up to 300,000 gallons of liquid leads pro-drillers like MDN to muse: Is there an alternative liquid, other than water, that can be used to frack a well economically at under 300K gallons? What if the substance is foam and not liquid–is foam exempt from the 300K gallon cap? Or how about this: Can a driller use 299,999 gallons of water to frack a well and get enough gas out of it to break even and wait until the idiot we have in office now (Gov. Andrew Cuomo) is gone and go back later and re-frack the same well once the 300K gallon restriction is lifted? Hey, it’s fun to speculate. We’re not trying to foster false hope, but we do wonder if there’s a loophole in the SGEIS that can be exploited so landowners and drillers (the good guys) can beat extremist environmentalists like Cuomo, Martens and Yoko Ono (the bad guys)…