I can’t believe it has come to this.

I am writing to a comedian for help with a problem that impacts short term and long term health of millions of people.  I’m writing to you, Mr. Oliver, because the elected officials who are supposed to represent us have gone through the motions and act like they’ve done all they could. And quite frankly, the system is completely rigged so that local, state and federal officials cannot take any meaningful action. Pardon my French, but this is a clusterf*ck of major proportions. Perfect fodder for your show, Last Week Tonight 

In December 2014, NY Governor Cuomo banned fracking in NY state. Those of us who care about clean water, air and climate change were overjoyed. Many of us stopped doing our happy dance once we realized that even though fracking was banned, that did not include the fracked gas infrastructure that is infesting our state.

All that fracked gas from Pennsylvania and Ohio has to find a way out of those states and into a market to be sold. We, the citizens, are being sold a bill of goods as the gas companies and pipeline companies are telling us that this “clean, safe” natural gas will be going to heat homes in the cold states of the Northeast. Fracked gas pipelines and infrastructure are infecting New York state like a bad case of herpes, once here, it will never go away.

The big plan is to build offshore LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) terminals and sell this stuff overseas to the highest bidder. But that is just one facet of the clusterf*ck.

Closer to home, pollution from this infrastructure is an environmental justice issue.  Along the pipeline routes, pigging stations and compressor stations routinely release a large number of hazardous volatile organic compounds that pollute our already polluted air. This will increase rates of cancer, birth defects and asthma, among other things.  Westchester air quality has already gone from a “D” to an “F” rating from the American Lung Association.  But Spectra Energy (the pipeline company) will be able to use “clean air credits” from another part of the country to further pollute the air here.

Fracked gas is extremely flammable. Exploding gas pipelines can be visually impressive. Instead of watching cat videos, I personally have taken a keen interest in exploding gas pipelines on You Tube. Here’s one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Sjl_x3fs0

San Bruno gas pipeline explosion

One notable  gas pipeline explosion happened in 2010 in San Bruno California. It killed 7 and took out 37 houses, shooting flames 1000 feet into the air for hours. The San Bruno pipeline was only 24” in diameter, Spectra’s Algonquin pipeline will be a whopping 42”!  San Bruno continues to be a clusterf*ck of a disaster in it’s own right. Your interns can do a little research to discover that money that was supposed to be for pipeline safety went instead to executive pay and the CA regulator allowed PSE&G to investigate itself after the blast. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Regulator-let-PG-E-investigate-itself-after-San-6094375.php

The proposed Spectra Algonquin pipeline expansion is slated to be located just a few hundred feet from the aging Indian Point nuke plant. There are 40 years worth of spent fuel rods on site, not to mention 2 nuclear reactors (currently operating without a license).

Paul Blanch, a nuclear engineer, says that if this 42” high pressure gas pipeline were to blow, the blast zone would likely be close to 4000 feet.  If this sucker explodes or catches fire, face it: all of you in NYC are toast!

The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) says it is A-OK to have a potentially explosive gas pipeline so close to a nuke plant.  They had Entergy, the corporation that owns Indian Point, do a study. Wow. Talk about foxes overseeing the henhouse!  I think NRC stands for Nobody Really Cares.

FERC is a rubber stamp machine!

After much pleading and public encouragement, our state leaders and senators have sent letters to ask FERC  (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to deny pipeline approval, FERC replied with a lame form letter or two. FERC is supposed to be an independent agency, but it is a lapdog of the gas industry, basically a rubber stamp machine that gives approval to more than 90% of all pipeline proposals. FERC collects permit fees from the projects, truly a positive feedback loop if there ever was one.  FERC got increased authority back in 2005 when the Energy Policy Act was approved.   If I could use that Hot Tub Time Machine, I would go back to 2005 and put a stop to Dick Cheney and all of his evil Halliburton fracking loopholes…..but I digress.

Spectra’s Algonquin Pipeline hasn’t broken ground yet. But that isn’t stopping Spectra Energy from introducing yet another jumbo pipeline project into our region.  The new Atlantic Bridge pipeline is just starting. And that means Open Houses in the region! http://www.spectraenergy.com/Operations/New-Projects-and-Our-Process/New-Projects-in-US/Atlantic-Bridge/Project-Calendar/

Freebies at Spectra Energy’s Open House: plastic spatulas, markers and salad spoons.

These open houses are opportunities for the community to meet and greet Spectra employees ask questions and learn about how fabulous these pipelines are. Attendees leave with a wide variety of free giveaways. Not just pens with Spectra on them, oh no! Lucky attendees go home with Spectra tape measures, spatulas, basting brushes, chapsticks and highlighters. Spectra Energy must think that those free gifts create good will in the community and make up for all the damage they do in the future.

Frustrated activists like me are planning on attending the next round of Spectra Open Houses with free giveaways of our own. Burn cream, some BarBQ sauce, toast, marshmallows and maybe even a nebulizer or two.

It has come down to this. Bringing BarBQ sauce and burnt toast to an open house given by a gas pipeline company.  We feel like we are toast! We powerless in the face of this huge corporation, we have no viable recourse.

Government leaders are unwilling and unable to stop this insanity. The system is rigged for more and more fracked gas pipelines to infest the Northeast.  Kids with asthma have no choice but to breathe in the polluted air that will get even worse with each pipeline and compressor station.

And when it comes to climate change, scientists know that Methane, CH4, is 84 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Fracked gas leaks into the atmosphere at every step of the way with fracked gas: the well head, the pipelines, the compressor and pigging stations.  This “fugitive methane” makes gas as damaging to the environment as coal. Yet “climate champions” like Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) support gas pipelines, saying they are a bridge fuel to the future. Nothing could be further from the truth: we are hammering  more nails in our coffin with each fracked gas project.

Mr Oliver, I am begging you to shine a bright light on the hypocrisy and insanity of fracked gas infrastructure projects. Especially those within spitting distance of nuke plants.  Give me something to laugh about, please!

Feel free to contact me for more info.

Susan Rubin  (914) 844 3776

PS: Here is a short, incomplete list of groups who are working on fracked gas infrastructure issues on the East coast.

SAPE- Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion  www.sape2016.org

FANG- Fighting Against Natural Gas  http://www.fangtogether.org

BXE – Beyond Extreme Energy http://beyondextremeenergy.org

Sane Energy Project: http://saneenergyproject.org

RI Future- http://www.rifuture.org/fighting-fracked-gas-uri-professor-arrested-at-sheldons-office.html

And some front line groups:

We are Seneca Lake  http://www.wearesenecalake.com

We are Cove Point  http://www.wearecovepoint.org