“The retreat brings people together, builds community in the forest, gets participants outside and off their screens, and uses nature sustainably to heal and inspire minds and souls,” stated Great Mountain Forest Executive Director Michael Zafros. Retreat registration closes on July 30.
Suspension of the NED project will not, it appears, have any effect on Tennessee Gas’ Connecticut Expansion Project, a pipeline storage loop that requires a slice of Massachusetts-owned and protected land in Sandisfield, Massachusetts.
If Kinder Morgan had taken a close look at the Commonwealth before launching NED, the company would have seen that Massachusetts has cut energy demand so dramatically that it has little need for more natural gas.
“I am troubled by Kinder Morgan’s attempts to circumvent federal and state requirements and demand hasty approval of tree clearing and other potentially activities.”
-- Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a letter to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Regional Director Wendi Weber
The situation in Sandisfield is fast becoming a precedent-setting testing ground for the power and teeth of Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution that preserves state-protected land. That’s why the Attorney General is now involved.
Mass Audubon also argued that “the proposed pipeline would permanently degrade and fragment” Spectacle Pond Farm, an integral component of the Otis State Forest.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is now requiring, among other things, clarification “that Tennessee would not fell trees in areas where it has not obtained an easement or purchase of property…including lands protected under Article 97 of the Massachusetts State Constitution.”
“This is very exciting news. While very few people see the need for this gas line, all that we have ever asked of Kinder Morgan and FERC is to follow the process, be open and be fair to this beautiful community of 800 residents."
-- State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli
“This is a case of a forest of clean air machines being literally traded for the transmission of fossil fuels. Not a step in the right direction.”
-- Arborist Tom Ingersoll, on the Kinder Morgan proposal to cut a swathe through protected old-growth forests in Sandisfield to build a natural gas pipeline extension to Connecticut
"The purchase of this spectacular property [Otis State Forest] ensures its lasting protection and is an example of our prudent investment in the Commonwealth’s rare and irreplaceable natural resources.”
--- Gov. Deval Patrick, in 2007
“We’ve been FERC’ed!”
-- Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, upon learning that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had approved a Tennessee Gas Pipeline route through the protected lands of Otis State Forest in March of 2016
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has extended the deadline for commenting and for intervening as a party to the proceedings to January 15 at 5 p.m. Intervener status allows full participation in hearings on Northeast Direct (NED), including cross-examination and the submission of briefs.
The clean energy think-tank, Acadia Center, released a three-part report in June concluding that New England is not facing an energy crisis. And the Maine PUC is investigating whether a publicly-funded interstate pipeline, such as the Kinder Morgan pipeline, is legal.
The general public has not been included in the development of energy projects, and in the words of the Conservation Law Foundation, “formulation of and negotiations around [energy] proposals have been conducted almost completely behind closed doors.”
The reason why natural gas costs so much more in New England than it does in Pennsylvania is that other states have made a commitment to building pipelines.
The proposed pipeline route travels through an estimated 20 state-protected wildlife management areas and state forests, municipal watershed protection areas, the reservations and sanctuaries of The Trustees and Mass Audubon, and the Appalachian Trail.
