Protesters Disrupt Pipeline Event in Carmel

Protesters disrupted the second local open house being held by Spectra Energy to present the third of its projects to upgrade and expand its Algonquin Pipeline in stages from New Jersey to New England.

“What Spectra is doing in Putnam is wrong,” said Putnam native Courtney Williams, who now lives in Cortlandt. “The County passed a resolution opposing AIM back in 2014 and now Spectra is back for a third project against our will. This gas isn’t for us, it’s for export. We get all the health and safety risks and they get all the profits.”

None of the events was in Westchester. One was in Rockland County, one was in Putnam County; the rest are in New England.

Access Northeast is Spectra’s third project working on the same pipeline; the first two are Algonquin Incremental Market and Atlantic Bridge. Each replaces certain small unconnected sections of current pipeline with larger pipeline and upgrades some of the natural gas monitoring, pressurizing and venting facilities along the route.

Access Northeast – being developed by Eversource Energy, National Grid and Spectra Energy – is designed to maximize direct pipeline interconnects to up to 60 percent of ISO-NE’s power plants, according to its website:

“Access Northeast is independent from Spectra Energy’s previously announced Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) and Atlantic Bridge projects. AIM and Atlantic Bridge are separate and independent projects. Spectra Energy’s AIM expansion project will begin to de-bottleneck the pipeline system by winter of 2016, helping to enhance reliability and reduce natural gas price volatility in New England. AIM is underpinned by long-term commitments from gas utility companies across southern New England. Atlantic Bridge’s proposed in-service date is November 2017, and it will be similarly supported by gas utilities.”

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Here’s their statement:

Twenty protestors staged a die-in at Spectra Energy’s open house for their “Access Northeast” project to draw attention to the dangers of the proposed gas pipeline. Many of the protestors were from the Westchester area, and object to the Access Northeast project in part because it would necessitate pipeline construction within 105 feet of critical Indian Point nuclear facilities – well within the potential blast radius if something should go wrong. No one was arrested but 20 protesters were escorted out of the hall by security.

Carmel native Courtney Williams attended the Open House with her parents, husband, and two young children. She participated in the die-in because “What Spectra is doing in Putnam is wrong. The County passed a resolution opposing AIM back in 2014 and now Spectra is back for a third project against our will. This gas isn’t for us, it’s for export. We get all the health and safety risks and they get all the profits.” Her husband Erik Lindberg added, “They’ve already taken people’s land by eminent domain in Westchester. What will they do here?”

Spectra Energy’s Access Northeast project and accompanying Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) project would involve building a high-pressure 42-inch diameter pipeline within 105 feet of critical structures of Indian Point and would expose local communities to toxic emissions from compressor stations along the pipeline path. The pipeline is being built against the wishes of the community and local elected officials, and Spectra Energy has used eminent domain to seize property for construction contrary to the will of landowners and homeowners. This has outraged residents and environmental and public safety advocates who point to Spectra’s abysmal safety record as proof that the company cannot be trusted to construct a pipeline safely.

Years of trying to stop the project through standard regulatory channels has shown that the regulatory agencies involved - the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) - are unwilling to consider the full impacts of this project. On twitter, Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker has claimed that “federal agencies have failed to protect WC residents,” while State Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Brad Hoylman have both called upon FERC to halt its plans to move forward with the pipeline.

This is only the beginning. For more information, please go to www.resistaim.wordpress.com