Letter to the Editor A Call for Legislators to Oppose Constitution Pipeline

Senator Seward & Assemblyman Lopez:

Residents of your respective districts are facing: the seizure of their private property through eminent domain, the anxiety of living near natural gas pipelines constructed and managed by companies with unacceptable safety records, potential devaluation of their homes, increased insurance costs, noise and air pollution from compressor stations and the possibility of additional infrastructure build-outs, including compressed natural gas (CNG) facilities and other industrial uses which are incompatible with the character of their rural communities.

Despite the above, you have both been silent on the issue of the proposed Constitution and Kinder-Morgan (NED) pipelines except for your early support of Constitution Pipeline’s “I-88 Alternative Route.” Now that both Constitution and Kinder-Morgan have unequivocally rejected the use of the I-88 right-of-way as a route for their respective pipelines, citing cost, the inability to utilize eminent domain to gain access to land along interstate highways, and the lack of environmental advantage, it is critical that you break your silence and begin to advocate in a meaningful way for the safety, quality of life and property rights of your constituents and the environmental integrity of the wetlands, forest and farmlands that will be negatively impacted by gas infrastructure development.

The Center for Sustainable Rural Communities urges you to actively and assertively oppose the Constitution and Kinder-Morgan Pipelines and the industrialization of rural communities through the build-out of infrastructure designed to store, process and transmit natural gas obtained through the dangerous practice of hydraulic fracturing particularly given that this development will have little or no benefit for the majority your constituents.

Respectfully,

Robert Nied

Board of Directors

Center for Sustainable Rural Communities