“Reckless and Irresponsible”
We oppose National Grid’s fracked gas expansions for the following reasons:
It is not about modernizing.
It will not update our system for heating and cooking. This is about raising rates and growing profits for National Grid’s shareholders.
It will not service the affected community.
This is only a transmission pipeline and will in fact stress trucking routes for local businesses.
It holds us back on our renewable energy goals.
We should be mandating any gas pipelines be replaced with shared geothermal loops, and energy efficiency measures in our buildings.
Gas pipelines and LNG facilities are not safe.
Filed in the United State Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Materials Administration (PHMSA) from 2016-2018, there were an average of 639 pipeline incidents per year resulting in 15 fatalities, 72 injuries, and a nearly $600 million cost to the public.
Fracking exacerbates climate change.
Methane, the main component of fracked gas, is 86-101 times worse for atmospheric warming than carbon dioxide.
There is no such thing as “Natural Gas.”
The industry coined the term to create the sense that it is clean, but the extraction, transport, and burning of this gas destroys the health of our water, land, and air. Additionally, there are potentially high levels of radon in this fracked gas from PA, and is detrimental to asthma patients, children, pets.
It is not needed.
A report authored by Suzanne Mattei, former DEC Regional Director, notes National Grid does not have gas constraints. This is a manufactured crisis to keep business-as-usual.
National Grid disguises its projects as local upgrades.
It is actually a much larger project leading to an LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) depot in Greenpoint.
Fracked gas infrastructure isn’t sustainable.
Gas pipelines are expected to last for only 50 years and demand for gas in general is predicted to plummet by 2050, due in part to the increased electrification of NYC buildings mandated by the Climate Mobilization Act.
It moves us backward, not forwards.
On June 20, 2019, Governor Cuomo signed into law the most ambitious climate legislation in the country: the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which mandates 100% net zero emissions by 2050. How do we expect to reach that goal while pushing new and expanded fossil fuel projects?
National Grid has Extorted Thousands of Customers
On November 25, 2019, Governor Cuomo ordered the utility to lift the illegal moratorium on new gas hookups it had imposed on thousands of customers throughout the summer, calling it extortion and ordering the company to pay a $36 million fine. National Grid had imposed the moratorium as a ploy to gain approval for the financially lucrative Williams pipeline, claiming a gas shortage despite proof that no shortage exists.
(At least four separate agencies have shown gas demand in the region to be flat to negative; National Grid’s own largest customer in the region, the Long Island Power Authority, reduced its gas demand by 65% over the last decade; and National Grid’s own filings show that, in 2017, it used 35% less gas than expected despite its customer base growing beyond expectations).
The Fight for Publicly Owned Utilities
The fight against National Grid is happening against a dramatic rise in support for publicly owned utilities. This is in response to growing public awareness that corporate utilities—with their moratoriums, blackouts, wildfires, and regressive rate increases—will never put people before profits. Three bills that would expand the reach of the New York Power Authority and authored by Assemblyman Bobby Carroll are currently in committee in the Senate and Assembly.
The ultimate goals are to:
1) decommodify Energy so that it is treated as an essential good, not a vehicle for capital
2) democratize the Energy and Infrastructure decision making process to increase accountability
3) decarbonize the Energy sector and move to 100% renewable energy as quickly and justly as possible
Further Reading
March 9, 2020 Energy Futures Group released a new whitepaper that starkly calls into question the findings of National Grid’s Natural Gas Long-Term Capacity Report.
March 2019 False Demand: The Case Against the Williams Fracked Gas Pipeline