Williams Files with FERC for New Access Point to NYC from Transco Pipeline
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said it’s critical that NYC get more supplies of shale gas—in the near future. New York has new rules going into effect starting in 2015 that will ban certain types of fuel oil, which means all of those apartment buildings will need to be heated with an alternative, and windmills won’t do the job (see Why Mayor Mike Bloomberg Suddenly Loves Fracking).
Williams Partners yesterday filed an application with FERC to provide a new delivery point from their Transco pipeline to provide additional natural gas to NYC—but it involves constructing a new 3.2-mile pipeline (mostly offshore) to make it happen. Welcome to the next flashpoint in the anti-fracking wars…
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A draft assessment written in early 2012 by the New York State Dept. of Health, at the request of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), offers us insight into the state’s thinking about potential public health impacts from fracking. The opinion expressed by the health department (and the DEC), at least at that time? If the DEC’s proposed new fracking regulations are adopted, shale drilling would be safe and public health would be protected.
Once again, anti-fracking elected political leaders in New York (people who need to be voted out of office, see their names below) are trying to pressure the waffling Gov. Andrew Cuomo into extending the new public comment period from 30 days to 90 days. A group of them sent a letter to Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Joe Martens requesting the extension (dated Dec. 21, copy of the letter embedded below).
What’s this? The mostly-anti-drilling Associated Press appears to be throwing in the towel and admitting the DEC is likely to release new fracking rules in New York in February?! Indeed they are. But at the same time they are only too happy to cast doubt on when drilling might actually begin (hint—don’t plan on it next year):
The out-of-control New York State Attorney General’s office (Eric Schneiderman, AG) continues to be, well, out-of-control. We’ve just learned that in October Schneiderman’s office launched an ethics investigation against board members of several townships in Broome County, NY—board members who voted on a resolution that says, in essence, “We’ll wait for the DEC before we make any decisions about whether or not to allow fracking in the town.” Those resolutions are widely seen as pro-drilling, even though the language is neither pro- nor anti-drilling.
