The legal system should protect private property

From an Article by Rick Miller, Olean NY Times Herald, November 15, 2018

A state appellate court ruled Friday that National Fuel Gas Corp. could not use eminent domain proceedings to cross a Clarksville couple’s property for the Northern Access Pipeline from McKean County, Pa. to Western New York.

The Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department overturned an earlier State Supreme Court ruling granting eminent domain powers to National Fuel Gas in order to cross the 200-acre parcel owned by Joseph and Theresa Schueckler. The property lay in the path of the proposed 97-mile $455 million Northern Access pipeline.

While National Fuel officials are still hopeful about the project’s future, the Schueckler’s attorney Gary Abraham thinks differently. “The pipeline is dead,” he said.

Dozens of streams and creeks are also in the pipeline’s path, which require DEC permission to cross. The DEC asked National Fuel Gas to use horizontal drilling to minimize stream disruptions. The company said it was unnecessary in most streams.

The 12-page ruling acknowledges the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied a Water Quality Certificate under the federal Clean Water Act, which National Fuel Gas has challenged in the Second Circuit U.S. Federal Court in New York City.

National Fuel Gas claimed DEC took longer than the one year allowed to review the company’s application for a Water Quality Certificate. The DEC said both parties had agreed to extend the deadline.

Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which controls interstate transmission of natural gas, agreed with a National Fuel Gas request to approve the project with conditions.

One of the conditions is that National Fuel Gas obtain a Water Quality Certificate from DEC. National Fuel Gas sued FERC in Federal Court in the District of Columbia to remove the conditions. The ruling states that “It is indisputable, however, that if the Water Quality Certificate denial is ultimately upheld, the pipeline cannot be built.”

The appellate ruling will apply to others still fighting eminent domain proceedings by National Fuel Gas.

Abraham, of Great Valley, noted another portion of the appellate decision stated: “Only a viable public project can force respondents to surrender their rights in their land.” He said there will be no eminent domain “unless and until National Fuel Gas can prevail against DEC” in the Second Circuit or against the FERC conditions in the D.C. Circuit.

“They don’t have authorization from FERC to begin construction,” Abraham said. He cited one portion of the decision, which said: “given the State’s WQC denial, there simply is no viable public project. Consequently, petitioner [National Fuel] has no right to force respondents [the Schuecklers] to sell something that is not for sale.”

National Fuel Gas spokesman Karen Merkel said Wednesday, “The litigation surrounding the Northern Access Project has been significant over the last two years involving federal, state and local jurisdictions. Interstate pipeline projects are regulated by FERC under the federal Natural Gas Act.”

In an email Merkel said, “The federal approval received from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and FERC’s Aug. 6 Order that the NY DEC waived the ability to issue or deny a Clean Water Action Section 401 permit for the Northern Access project remain in force.

“National Fuel remains committed to this project and is pleased that we have secured agreements more than 500 property owners along the 97-mile proposed pipeline route. At this point we are considering our appellate options based on this ruling,” Merkel said.

National Fuel Gas President and CEO Ron Tanski said during a Nov. 2, earnings conference call: “Our Northern Access project received a boost by way of a favorable determination by FERC that the NY DEC exceeded their allowed time to either approve or deny a water quality certification.

“While we are still a couple of years and likely a few legal challenges away from constructing this project, it’s a giant step in the right direction. We anticipate that this will likely be a 2022 project,” Tanski said.

The project would employ about 1,700 workers during construction, generate $11.8 million in annual sales taxes and a one-time $8 million sales tax impact.

The pipeline would move natural gas from the Marcellus shale fields of Pennsylvania into Western New York for residential and commercial supplies as well as the export market.

Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen is naturally beautiful

From an Article by Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice.org, July 27, 2018

“Do you still have that bottle of champagne? Well, get ready to put it on ice!”

After almost a decade of fighting a dangerous proposal to fill two underground salt caverns with explosive liquid petroleum gas (propane and butane) in upstate New York, Joseph Campbell and Yvonne Taylor knew it was time to celebrate when they first heard those words from Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg earlier this month.

Goldberg went on to explain that the state Department of Environmental Conservation had denied a permit for the gas storage project. The agency cited concerns about cavern stability and risks to community character and the agriculture-based, tourism economy of the Finger Lakes region.

Campbell and Taylor were overjoyed — and stunned. After all, when they first took on this battle against a multi-billion dollar company in 2010, they were told they couldn’t stop plans to build a dirty energy behemoth in their backyard. But Campbell and Taylor went for it anyway, spending almost every day, including most holidays, weekends and birthdays, organizing their neighbors against the proposal.

The surprise victory is just the latest bright spot in a series of efforts led by activists in the region to keep dirty fossil fuel projects out of New York State. Finger Lakes advocates were at the core of the campaign for local fracking bans, which set the stage for the state’s historic decision to ban fracking in 2014. The permit denial is also a huge win for the coalition of residents, local elected officials, and business owners who have long fought to protect the iconic Finger Lakes region.

Each year, millions of tourists flock to the Finger Lakes to enjoy the region’s bounty of vineyards, wineries and bed and breakfasts, among other things.

It’s a world-class tourist destination. But it’s also home for people like Campbell and Taylor — partners in life and in protest. They both grew up near Seneca Lake, one of the 11 lakes left behind by glaciers that traveled through the region millions of years ago. Today, they live together in their “dream home” on property near the lake that’s been in Taylor’s family for generations.

“Seneca Lake is in my blood and bones. I drink it. I have swam, water skied, kayaked, motor boated and sailed on this lake my entire life,” says Taylor. “When I’m home, I’m always looking out the window at this gorgeous lake. It’s been the only constant I have ever had.”

In 2008, that stability was shattered after the two learned an out-of-state gas storage company planned to store millions of gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — also called “propane” — in abandoned salt caverns under the shores of Seneca Lake. They started organizing opposition to the proposal. Soon after, Gas Free Seneca was born.

“After a lot of soul searching, we decided we weren’t gonna let this slip,” says Campbell, adding that the first public forum they held on the issue packed the auditorium with more than 800 people.

But Taylor and Campbell knew that a “bunch of rag-tag environmental activists” weren’t going to stop this project alone. They needed to get local business owners on their side. At first, that wasn’t easy.

“But once they realized this gas proposal was a threat to their livelihood, they started getting involved,” says Campbell. Photo in Article: Yvonne Taylor (left) and Joseph Campbell (right) of Gas Free Seneca.

The couple also knew that they couldn’t win without a top-notch legal team. They contacted Earthjustice with a list of concerns about the proposal that ran about as deep as the lake itself.

For starters, the unlined salt caverns along Seneca Lake were never engineered for storage once their salt was mined, yet the gas company proposed storing up to 40 million barrels of explosive propane in a manner that has caused injuries and deaths, large fires, evacuations and major property loss in other places. A 2004 analysis found that between 1974 and 2004, there were ten catastrophic accidents involving underground storage sites for gas, all of them occurring in salt caverns.

Even if no major accidents occurred, the company’s proposal to build an industrialized storage facility in a rural area threatened to permanently alter the region’s bucolic character. That may sound like an innocuous side effect — until you ask yourself whether anyone wants to sip a pricey glass of Finger Lakes bubbly within view of LPG pumps and other ugly equipment. Finger Lakes’ tourism industry currently brings 60,000 jobs to the region. Crestwood’s offer for permanent jobs? Three to five.

In May 2013, Earthjustice sent a letter to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on behalf of Gas Free Seneca, demanding that state officials scrutinize the combined environmental and community impacts of the LPG project and the then-proposed expansion of a gas storage facility. At the same time, Earthjustice worked alongside Gas Free Seneca to ensure that the issue received the national attention that it deserved. After all, projects like these threaten to lock the U.S. into continued extraction and use of dirty fossil fuels and discourage the growth of renewable energy.

“From the very beginning, we knew they weren’t your average environmental attorneys,” says Taylor. “Not only did they give tremendous legal advice, Deborah [Goldberg] and Moneen [Nasmith] gave us guidance on messaging that was critical in convincing the public and eventually state leaders to speak out against the proposal.”

“They were a force to be reckoned with,” she adds. In the end, more than 450 Seneca Lake property owners, 500 local and regional businesses on the Gas Free Seneca and Finger Lakes Wine Business coalitions, hundreds of local wineries and vineyard owners, and 32 municipalities representing 1.2 million New Yorkers opposed the proposal.

Now, with the state regulators’ decision to deny the permit, the project cannot go forward. “Undaunted by an out-of-state energy company, the people of the Finger Lakes stood up to protect everything they hold dear,” says Goldberg. “Today, they won.”

But local fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell aren’t stopping yet. Building on this latest victory, as well as another victory in 2016 to stop a coal and gas plant repowering proposal, fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell are now pivoting toward fighting a waste-to-energy trash incinerator in the region. These local fights and victories are critical in maintaining momentum for clean energy and against fossil fuels at a time when the Trump administration is doubling down on dirty energy. (Earthjustice attorneys are active on the health, climate, and environmental justice aspects of the incinerator project.)

“Talk about a bad idea for the climate,” says Taylor of the incinerator proposal, adding that it would emit a million tons of carbon dioxide per year. “It’s not gas industry infrastructure, but it’s equally as damaging to the environment and to our way of life in the Finger Lakes.”

So stay tuned. With their track record, that could very well be their

Over 5 years of protests and legal activities were involved

How much will fracking increase radon levels

The New York Primary Will Be a Big Fracking Deal

From an Article by Ari Phillips, Fusion and Mother Jones, April 8, 2016

On April 19, when New Yorkers get their turn to vote on the country’s next leader, the future of natural gas—specifically gas that comes from hydraulic fracturing—will be on many people’s minds.

Clean energy and climate activists are hoping to build on the attention that a highly public skirmish between Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about the role of fossil fuel money in campaigns has already brought to the New York race. At the same time, illustrating the success of the multi-year, multi-pronged anti-fracking movement in the state, which has now evolved into “fractivism 2.0″—a broader endeavor pushing for change across the energy and climate platforms—could give a boost of momentum to these issues at the national level.

In one example of this on Tuesday, April 5, several hundred activists rallied in Albany, the state’s capital, to ask the Democratic candidates (as well as Republicans Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich, if they can be bothered) to take a stand against natural gas pipelines that are slated to crisscross the state. One of these pipelines, the Constitution Pipeline, or the “unConstitution Pipeline” as it’s referred to by the Stop the Pipeline organization, is in the final stages of the approval process. Activists are hoping New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will use the state’s authority under the Clean Water Act to deny the pipeline a necessary water quality permit.

While Cuomo has yet to take a stance on pipelines and other natural gas infrastructure that processes fuel from places like the gas-rich Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, his administration banned hydraulic fracturing in the state in 2014 in response to concerns about health risks. New York remains the only state in the nation with proven gas reserves to have such a ban in place.

Alex Beauchamp, the Northeast region director at Food & Water Watch, told me that he thinks the next logical step for the movement after the statewide fracking ban was to try and stop reliance on fracked gas from other states—gas that enters the state though “a maze of pipelines, storage facilities, and compression stations.”

“By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue.”

Beauchamp said that even though New York has outlawed fracking, the state is using even more natural gas than it was just a few years ago due to imports from out-of-state supplies. He also said many of the people involved in the push to eliminate fracking and natural gas expansions are pushing for a “real plan” to get the state on track to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

“We need enforceable benchmarks along the way,” he said. “There is no real actual plan to get us there.”

In a testament to this, the 100% Renewable NY campaign and the Fossil Free state divestment campaign are organizing a Climate Change Lobby Day on Monday, April 11, at the state capitol. Bills promoting 100 percent clean energy by 2030, divestment from fossil fuels, and other climate- and clean-energy-friendly policies, such as offshore wind production, will be discussed.

With a high-profile New York primary fast approaching, Clinton—a two-term senator for New York—is meeting face to face with her home state’s anti-fracking movement, which is gathering force around Sanders, who recently said in a debate that he does not support fracking.

Clinton’s answer to the question in the March 6 debate was less straightforward. She told moderator Anderson Cooper that she supports fracking only in very specific circumstances: when local governments approve, when companies are forthcoming about the chemicals they’re using, and when they can prove they aren’t polluting nearby water or land.

“By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue,” Clinton said. Expect at least one fossil fuel-related question to come up at the Democratic debate in Brooklyn on April 14.

As Ben Adler at Grist recently pointed out, Clinton and climate activists appear to butt heads on several key issues, including fossil fuel production on public lands and the value of natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to smooth the transition to renewables.

“Clinton’s platform on fossil fuels has been moving steadily leftward since she entered the race, as she has come out against Arctic and Atlantic offshore drilling, called for stricter fracking regulation, and endorsed leasing reform,” wrote Adler. “But climate activists won’t be satisfied until she fully embraces the principle that the government shouldn’t help produce fossil fuels at all—not even natural gas as a supposed lesser evil than coal.”

Clinton’s history of supporting natural gas during her stint as US secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 is also worrisome to some, even though at the time it was really just part of the Obama administration’s overall support of the industry.

The administration has changed its tune somewhat in recent years, and the EPA recently said tackling methane emissions is one of its top issues in 2016. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas and leaks from natural gas infrastructure—such as the devastating leak from a dated well outside Los Angeles earlier this year—are major contributors to the problem. The Obama administration recently set a goal of slashing methane emissions by up to 45 percent from 2012 levels over the next decade.

Beauchamp said he still considers there to be a lack of leadership on natural gas production and fracking at a national level, saying “there’s really a lag from what we’re seeing at a state level.”

Even so, compared with eight years ago when fracking really wasn’t even an issue in the presidential election, the overall shift in discussion is dramatic. Beauchamp thinks it could even play a role in fracking-friendly Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 26.

“I there there’s a shift in Pennsylvania as well,” he said. “The myth is that where’s there’s fracking they love it and where there isn’t they oppose it. What we see in polling is that as people become more familiar with what it is, they tend to dislike it more.”

A recent Gallup poll found that since last March there has been an 11 percentage point increase in those opposing the practice. Perhaps most surprisingly, the percentage of Republicans in support of fracking declined 11 percentage points. This polling coincides with polls showing that more than two-thirds of Americans are now “worried” about global warming—an eight-year high.

“What we see in polling is that as people become more familiar with what it is, they tend to dislike it more.”

Deborah Goldberg, the managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Northeast regional office, told me that many of the upstate New Yorkers who helped lead the charge against fracking in the state were not “traditional left-leaning, tree-hugging types of people,” but they were still galvanized by the destruction that oil and gas development was wreaking on other places. She said she thinks the success of the New York movement gave “people hope that where they are able to really organize and educate each other, they can make a difference.”

Since the Cuomo administration made the determination to prohibit fracking, Goldberg said people who were engaged in that fight have become involved in a “wide array of efforts to address infrastructure that facilitates the transportation and storage or processing of natural gas and oil,” such as the Constitution Pipeline, which is “emblematic of what they’re fighting for.” She said this is a much more diffuse movement because it can’t be fought with just one rule or regulatory process, but requires lots of different angles.

She also said a lot of people are working on the positive side to try to develop clean energy at the state, county, and local levels. She said they refer to all these efforts together as “fractivism 2.0.” “They’re trying to prevent the country and the planet from digging their own graves by committing ourselves to another 50 or 100 years of burning fossil fuels,” she said.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Methane Geyser Capped  — Flammable gas had spewed from gas well  10 days

Santa, Mrs. Claus and 7 Elves arrested at Seneca Lake in NY State

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, December 24, 2014

Sardis, OH — After 10 days of being displaced, people living near Magnum Hunter’s Stalder well pad can spend Christmas at home as workers capped the huge well that had been spouting methane into the air since December 13th.

Now, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency will work with the company to determine the cause of the blowout at the Triad Hunter Stalder well, which led an undetermined amount of methane to escape into the atmosphere. Triad Hunter is the local operating subsidiary of Houston, Texas-based Magnum Hunter.

“ODNR will do a full investigation to determine the cause and ensure proper mechanical integrity of the well before the company can move forward with operations,” Bethany McCorkle, spokeswoman for the natural resources department, said.

Magnum Hunter officials said Tuesday they do not believe the well blowout caused environmental damage because 97 percent of the gas released was methane. They also indicate the company plans to have all wells on the Stalder pad sending natural gas to market next month.

Monroe County Emergency Management Director Phillip Keevert said during the first several days of the ordeal, the damaged wellhead led the escaping gas to remain close to the ground, which he said created a more dangerous situation. Once Wild Well Control employees removed the old wellhead, the methane shot directly upward, similar to hot water spewing from a geyser. Keevert said this was not as dangerous to the residents, so he reduced the evacuation area to three-quarters of a mile Saturday.

As those affected can now celebrate the holidays at home and emergency responders can finally get a break, environmental regulators and company officials must determine what went wrong with the well that has a vertical shaft about two miles deep and a horizontal leg about one mile long.

According to Magnum, company and contract employees had to excavate the area around the wellhead while continuously spraying fresh water on the escaping gas to reduce the risk of ignition. After arriving from Texas, workers with Wild Well Control began the relatively slow process of replacing the entire wellhead assembly.

Magnum officials also said they maintain “customary control of well insurance coverage,” which they believe will cover all losses.

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Let me begin by wishing you all Happy Holidays from Western Penna. !

Many of you have been following the ongoing story of EQT’s fracking on Trax Farms (now being called ‘Frax Farms’) and the serious issues being faced by neighbors living close by. It’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day but this is no comedy for them or their families.

Last night’s supervisor’s meeting brought about the latest update to their story, with discussions about excessive fracking noise, township decibel limits, rotten egg odors, and vibrations. Two policemen were posted at the full house meeting.

Apparently someone complained from a past meeting of whether someone is allowed to record a public meeting or not. As you will see in this video, it is the chairman’s impression after consulting legal counsel that someone openly recording for all to see is A-OK, but it is illegal for someone to record a meeting without announcing they are doing so first. The solicitor later comments that he did not know of any restrictions on recording a public meeting.

You will also get to hear from the individuals living on Cardox Road and beyond, including Gary Baumgardner whose family was supported by the recent petition for EQT to stop fracking on Christmas Day so his grandbaby could visit for dinner. One lady, who lives several miles away, commented that she can hear the noise with her windows closed.

The township is now ready to take more serious action, as they discuss further here:

http://youtu.be/XKxvmHOFi8E

Bob Donnan, Peters Township (McMurray), Washington County, PA

Protest of Plans for Unsafe Storage of Natural Gas under Seneca Lake

Some 10 Arrested as Human Blockade Continues Protesting Methane Gas Storage Facility on Seneca Lake in NY State

From an Article by Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch.com, October 29, 2014

UPDATE: Ten people were arrested on October 29th blockading the two gates at Crestwood, on Seneca Lake. Seven were arrested at the north gate, blockading a truck, and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing. Three were arrested at the south gate and charged with trespassing. All have been released and have a November 5th court date.

After blockading the gates of Texas-based Crestwood methane gas storage facility on the shore of New York’s Seneca Lake for two days last week, including a rally with more than 200 people, the human blockade continues.

For the second morning in a row this week, the “We Are Seneca Lake” protesters are blocking the Crestwood gate with protesters expanding the blockade to include a second driveway. With last Friday marking the day that the construction project on this huge gas storage facility was authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin, community members, after pursuing every other avenue to stop this project, are participating in ongoing nonviolent civil disobedience as a last resort.

“We are not going away,” said renowned biologist and author Sandra Steingraber, PhD. “The campaign against dangerous gas storage in abandoned salt caverns near our beloved lake will continue with political pressure on our elected officials—who should be protecting our drinking water, our health and our wine, and tourism-based economy—and nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.”

These community protestors are not the only ones against this project. Last week, the Tompkins County legislature approved a resolution that opposes gas storage on the lakeshore, while the Yates County legislature passed a similar resolution the prior week. These counties now join the Board of Supervisors of both Ontario and Seneca counties, which previously passed motions opposing gas storage, along with the Geneva City Council and the Watkins Glen Village Board that oppose this project.

“As a registered nurse, I know that we need clean drinking water, and it’s important to protect people from all of the insidious byproducts of petrochemical companies,” said Coby Schultz a resident of Springwater in Livingston County. “This area is too precious and water is too valuable of resource to exploit so recklessly.”

On Monday, Steingraber joined Thom Hartmann on The Big Picture sharing her reasons why this project must be stopped. Watch here:

Barbara Schiessher of Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association agrees with Steingraber: “The expansion of the Crestwood facility will affect everyone who lives, works or plays on the lake, or consumes agricultural products from the region, including its award winning wines. It will affect the 100,000 residents who get drinking water from the Lake. It increases the likelihood of contamination of our air, soil and water, plus the always present risk of gas leakage, unpredictable explosions and sink holes such as have occurred in a number of salt cavern storage facilities of natural gas and LPG.”

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Some 64 Arrested at Vermont Governor’s Office Demanding End to Gas Pipeline

Source: Rising Tide Vermont, Will Bennington, October 28, 2014

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Sixty-four people were arrested last night, after occupying Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin’s office for over six hours, demanding a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure and that the governor stop supporting a fracked gas pipeline in the western part of the state.

Half the group occupied the governor’s office, while the other half stayed in the main lobby of the building. 500 people attended a rally outside of the building, supporting the sit-in.

“We are fed up with a broken, unaccountable, and biased process that is ignoring the clear and present danger of expanding fossil fuel infrastructure so that Gaz Metro and International Paper can increase their profit margins,” said Jane Palmer, a landowner in Monkton along the Phase 1 pipeline route. “The Shumlin administration is ignoring the thousands of Vermonters, including impacted landowners and over 500 ratepayers, who know we can’t afford this project.”

Demonstrators from across the state are concerned that the Shumlin administration, including the Public Service Department, are promoting dirty fracked gas as a climate solution, despite the well known climate impacts of extracting and burning fracked gas.

Dr. Maeve McBride, coordinator of 350 Vermont, said, “Today, hundreds of grassroots Vermonters are sitting in to call for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, including Vermont Gas/Gaz-Metro’s proposed fracked gas pipeline, and to demand energy and climate solutions that are transparent, accountable to our communities and put people and the planet first. As the Governor said himself, these solutions need to come from the grassroots, not from the top down.” McBride was among those arrested.

Supporting arguments made before the Public Service Board over the past two years, the demonstration focused on how, despite industry rhetoric, fracked gas may actually be worse for the climate than other fossil fuels.

“The science is clear – whether the goal is avoiding CO2 emissions or sparking a transition to an emissions-free energy system, the fracked gas boom and this pipeline are no substitute for ambitious energy and climate policies, weatherization, efficiency and decreased consumption,” said Dr. Rachel Smolker, a Hinesburg resident. “Once the gas bubble pops, ratepayers are going to be stuck with higher bills, paying the cost of this pipeline for years to come and still struggling to heat their homes.”

After police issued a final dispersal order, sixty-four people stayed in the building. All were removed from the building by Vermont State Police, and cited with criminal trespassing.

The coalition planning the event is also calling for a blockade at the Vermont Gas Pipeyard in Williston, Vt., this coming Saturday at 9 am.