Funds over Facts

It’s amazing how the thought of money seems to cloud a person’s hearing. In fact, it seems to ave effected the hearing of the entire New England States Committee on Energy (NESCOE.) Despite information sent to them by the Conservation Law Foundation, recent information from several studies linking fracking and pipelines with illnesses, seismic disruption and animal deaths. It also seems to be ignoring a recent study done by the energy industry stating the need for natural gas is not rising, and that many fracking sites and drilling operations have been shut down because they aren’t cost effective. But NESCOE recently responded to CLF’s attorneys, ignoring their comments and re-asserting the need for additional natural gas.

Why? Because for two weeks in the past winter there has been a shortage of natural gas to heat homes. This amount of energy could be created through several different mechanisms without burying hundreds of miles of pipeline. A simple request to conserve, as is frequently done during heat waves, water shortages and other temporary lulls, is the easiest way. In addition, increasing the amount of energy created by solar power, wind power, or a long term look at the myriads of micro-hydropower sources that dot New England’s countryside, are much more feasible, renewable and sustainable methods of creating that power.
The story of the pipeline has started to get more publicity, through a recent article in the Boston Globe, and one on the Associated Press wire, but we need people to understand the underlying issue. This is not about providing energy to poor, deprived residents. This is about bringing money into the pockets of people like Kinder Morgan. These corporations are destroying farm land, and families, by their hydro-fracking, and want to bring that produce through the pristine lands of Northern Massachusetts. They say it will bring jobs, but only short term jobs, which will most likely be filled by their own, already employed, workers. They say it will lower our electric rates, but since we’ll be paying for the pipeline’s construction out of a tariff on our power, our rates will actually rise.

And why are the energy companies pulling back on exploration and drilling in some parts of the country? Because the gas leaks are so substantial the fields are “playing out,” sooner than they expected. The Marcellus Shale, the reservoir that Kinder Morgan will be piping through New England, is expected to be past profitability status by 2020. The pipeline won’t even be completed until 2018, if it goes through on schedule. After that time, what will come through? Probably oil, or the pipelines could just sit there, venting the Marcellus gas throughout New England, and they have no obligation to clean it up.
How does it come to happen that a government agency can so ignore the facts, and the wishes of its constituents in favor of the Texan voices? Because they don’t hear the voices of the people loud enough. Ms. Berwick’s husband is running for Massachusetts Governor, and his platform states that he is for” renewable energy and environment goals,” (from his campaign’s website.) He says he wants Massachusetts to be the first Carbon Neutral state, yet his wife is still a proponent of this pipeline that is not renewable, nor environmentally sound.

We need people to voice their opinions about the importance of the environment, alongside the need for required energy sources. The two are not at odds with each other, IF we think of the environment as we assess our needs. Air, water, food and security are not any less required than heat or power. We can change the way our country grows, but not if we keep looking to the same set of tools to build with.
If our country and our planet are going to be sustainable, we need to use our personal energy, and voices to add to the power sources that push us to more sustainable energy and choices. We can’t let the rustle of money and the comfiness of safety override the true need for sustainable energy, responsiveness to the voters and continuation of our planet and our lives .