Letter to the Editor Fasos Role in Pipeline Questioned

John Faso was a failed candidate for NY State Comptroller. He later lost the election for governor by the largest margin of any Republican candidate in the state’s history. As a member of the State Assembly his voting record was criticized from both sides of the aisle. He was called “out of touch” by members of his own party. Mr. Faso now works for a law firm and serves as pitch man for Constitution Pipeline, a company that is threatening to seize the private property of landowners across Schoharie County.

Despite Mr. Faso’s rather dubious credentials he feels compelled to tell Schoharie County what it should do. In a recent letter to editor of the Times-Journal Mr. Faso spoke against a draft resolution before the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors that would oppose any further natural gas pipelines through the County. He also engaged in some rather transparent double talk, first reminding the readers that interstate pipelines like the proposed Constitution do not provide natural gas to local resident and then inferring that Constitution would increase the likelihood that local residents could reduce their energy costs by using natural gas.

Mr. Faso knows that the proposed pipeline is intended only to exploit Schoharie County residents not help them. He also knows that his client has repeatedly stated that they are not in the business of providing gas to Schoharie County and he also knows that the likelihood that a developer will invest millions in a distribution network for rural Schoharie County residents is so remote as to be a non-issue.

Mr. Faso suggests that Schoharie County residents should happily surrender their property rights in order to help A Delaware county company reduce its heating costs. Mr. Faso doesn’t mention that the Delaware county firm, for which Governor Cuomo proposed $20 million in taxpayer funded grants and reduced electricity costs, threatened to pull 1,000 jobs out of the area if those opposed to the pipeline are successful in stopping it. If Mr. Faso is troubled by this distasteful brand of economic blackmail he doesn’t show it.

Mr. Faso knows that the proposed pipeline will reduce property values, create a threat to the safety and security of area residents, and reduce their quality of life and their ability to use their land as they intended. He also knows the pipeline will encourage the build out of related infrastructure such as the compressed natural gas (CNG) facility now being fought by the residents of the residential/agricultural area in the Town of Duanesburg, just over the Schoharie County line. Mr. Faso doesn’t care about any of that. He cares about the profits of the company he represents and you can be sure he will be compensated very handsomely by Constitution if he convinces Schoharie County to buy what he is selling.

Bob Nied

Center for Sustainable Rural Communities