Goats and Gas, Kind Of

I learned today about a new blog, NPR’s “Goats and Soda,” which gives details about growing health emergencies in emerging countries. I love the name, partly because I raise goats. But also, I love the image that it conjures in my head – choices. Goats symbolize existence – able to find food where others can’t; able to carry a load, or give a kiss when it’s needed; willing to share their milk so a friend can survive, and able to provide food to a human friend if that is what it costs. That is a truly noble animal.

Then there’s soda. I must confess here that I was basically raised on soda. It was, and still is, my preferred drink, only because I am so addicted to the caffeine. Even my doctor has said “Just try to cut back, the headache isn’t worth the benefits.” But I know that’s frivolous. I hate that Coca-Cola owns more water in Africa than any public water district there. I know that the sugar or other sweeteners are disguises for the acids, preservatives and other evil things in that potion. I know that the Coke that I used to love to drink I once used to remove rust from an old tricycle.

How does this relate to our Blasted Towns? Because so many of our neighbor are focused on the “coke,” of energy – the pipeline that promises jobs, like those sodas that lace their preservatives with a little juice. Those people who think ‘new’ is better than ‘tried and true.’ Because people will believe the advertising tripe about “bridge fuels,” and “cleaner,” over the basic truth. That truth is that calories count, whether they are sugar or mega=calories from megawatts. We have it in our power to live comfortably with existing technology, reasonable conservation methods and corporate responsibility.

Keeping warm is crucial to survival, but so is breathing, drinking safe water, and having healthy food to eat. Local farms, like those with goats, are cleaner sources for food from a carbon efficiency standpoint. In New England, they are less likely to be heavily treated with industrial chemicals because the scale of our farms is much smaller than in other parts of the country. More of our farms are sustainable, much like the goat, which yields tastier, safer, accessible food that will disappear if we have this pipeline come through our towns. Isn’t it better to have the source of our energy/food nearby, like the sun, wind, wood, local farms than to have to rely on someone to process it, transport it, and then pump it right past us on the way to another country? That’s like being passed up by the waitress while you wait at the bar for that soda.

Really? No one is perfect, and each of us has our vices. But those vices should only affect us individually, not our neighbors, or our descendants. My habit hopefully is counteracted by the good that I try to do with my goats, my work, this blog. If we are going to stop this pipeline we have to show people that they lose choices, personal power, quality of life, as well as potential water and food quality, if they allow this pipeline to come through. Is it really “for the greater good,” to give someone else the power to alter our survival resources? How is it for the “greater good,” if we receive none of the benefits, but lose many of our inherent rights to a healthy environment by allowing this pipeline to come through?

“Goats and Soda,” is a great dichotomy to make people think about survival. “Safety or Gas,” isn’t as catchy, but it comes down to the similar issues. We need to fight for our own water, food, air, and communities, and illustrate to those who only care about their ‘cheap energy,’ that it isn’t cheap, it won’t be “theirs,” and they will suffer the consequences in other ways. We can be the “herd queen,” that leads the herd to safety, or we can be the “bellwether,” that tells the predators where the sacrificial kids are. Which do you want to be?

Making Our Case

Things have been rolling along in the Citizens vs. TPG Pipeline Public Case. For weeks now, young people from all over America have been riding the proposed pipeline routes, giving the Earth a voice through their presence and words.

People all over the Commonwealth, as you can see from the awesome posts from my co-authors, have been speaking for their communities and the resources beneath their feet. Even Boston heard about the pipeline when WGBH actually let Roberta Flashman ask Governor Patrick a question about the pipeline. I didn’t know if they would let a non-Bostonian speak, let alone a person who was going to put the Governor in the corner. But they did! And now, Mr. Governor, if you’d like a reminder of the document you signed, we can make it available to you. Those of us who are working against the Pipeline have really been doing their research, much more than me, I’m afraid.

So now comes the Tyngsboro/Dracut Rally in the Lowell/Dracut State Forest! Thanks to Better Future Project, the folks that brought us the Climate Summer Riders (Thank you! One and All!) there will be a great presence speaking for those towns, and the remainder of “We Blasted Towns.” It looks like solar power really wants to show its stuff, too, as the weather is calling for a glorious days for raised voices and heightened awareness!

Then, next week, scores of people will be at Boston Common for the Big Rally! Let’s make it hundreds, even thousands, on July 30 from 11-1 in front of State House. Let’s remind the government, both state and federal, that they work for voters, not for Kinder Morgan or any other corporation! Those corporations think with their wallets, and they don’t breathe air or drink water. They don’t care about our environment – they don’t live here, or really anywhere!

But the Rally can’t be the end of things. The TPG/Kinder Morgan pipeline project will be a spectre over this region until the time comes when energy comes from sun, wind and water. They will be waiting for people to get complacent, and maybe a little cold, and then they’ll raise those ugly heads of theirs. We need to be vigilant, active and involved!
Natural gas is a “bridge fuel to nowhere.” Like an oil-bearing train, it brings short term gain with long term costs, and a track full of danger along with it. It’s time to Change things up, and make sure that the future is considered, not just tomorrow, but for next year, and beyond.

Contribution by Julia Blyth

Someone suggested that we build a Rolling March-specific email list (perhaps through Mailchimp). We can make buttons to join the list on Facebook and your two websites, and then we'd send out daily updates--- a few pictures from events that just happened, and details of the next few days' marches.
I'm for it (and will deal with it until it make sense for someone in the east to take it on) what do you think? Is it just one more thing to sign up for, or will it be useful?

Also, I'm nearly ready to post the march as one big facebook event on Stop TGP Northeast Expansion! I'll keep updating as we get feedback, but the west is pretty well filled out.

Also, I suppose we should come up with a hashtag... suggestions? I guess short is good.
#StopPipelineMarch
#RollingMarchToStopTGP
#MarchToBoston
#MarchAgainstThePipeline
#PipelineRelay



I like Pipeline Relay, but how about #WalkAwayfromGas? Other ideas?


Thanks Julia, Katy and Rose for all your work, and to everyone else who's working so hard!

Pat

Change in the Pipeline

I look around and see corporate sponsorships everywhere I look. The Xfinity Center in MA. A local farmer’s market now carries the corporate logo of their sponsor. The news is full of corporations getting this new opportunity for marketing, and that new promotional deal. I’m kind of tired of it myself.
To me farmer’s markets are about the local community, the work done by individuals, not by groups with tons of money. Americans have been taught that it is the power of corporations that make things happen, and that they can’t be fought. Here in MA we’re trying to stop a major energy company from destroying our landscape, our water supply, our home values, and our air quality. Many people, including those in the state have said “This is a done deal. Just let it go through.” I can’t believe that. I can’t believe that a company in Texas will reap the wealth of the energy prices, while we in rural Massachusetts and New York, suffer as those in Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Midwest, and the South have done. Not because we’re special, but because we have the benefit of learning from their efforts. Our nation has given over its control of our resources to the highest bidder, leaving us to deal with the after effects.
We know the after effects now; polluted waters, diminished property values, higher energy bills, higher mortgage and insurance rates, and the loss of access to land that homeowners pay taxes, but cannot use for production. Some of the owners may have large checks in their hands, but they will have to use that money to pay for trucked in water, replacement livestock, and the chances they can resell the land is minimal.
We, as individuals, as citizens, have to speak up for ourselves. We need to work together to be heard. We need to work as a community, as a region, to make things possible for our residents. As someone who grew up outside of Detroit I have seen personally how loyal corporations are to their home towns. GM was really loyal when it moved out of Flint, Pontiac, Detroit. Chrysler was really loyal when it moved overseas. They were followed by the High Tech Industry in the 1980’s as Wang, Texas Instruments, Digital all expanded west, until their bottom fell out, leaving in its wake thousands of employees with no way to move to follow the jobs.
But if we protect our communities, our neighbors, our land, with the energy of the people who love and live there, we can change things. That is why NCSC is sponsoring ¢hange Day on July 5, 2014. This the beginning of a National Movement to bring back citizen involvement, self-reliance, community connections. If we can provide energy locally, through solar, wind and hydro, we don’t need to rely on “Big Gas/Oil” to bring it to us. We don’t need corporations to help us survive. We need each other. Start a ¢hange Day event in our area. We’re having a Puppet Parade, and collecting coins to go toward our Sustainability Hub. What’s the need in your area? Have a ¢hange Day to collect funds to fight the Pipeline, or Fracking, or Hunger, or plain Listlessness. Support the National Movement with a $10 or $25 license to use the 2014 Logo. We’ll put your event on our website, and your neighbors can support ¢hange In your area. We’ll be helping each other Change things for the better.

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 .

What are we fussing about?

Those of in the Blasted Towns want to make sure you realize that our problem with the TPG pipeline is not because it’s in our backyard. It’s because it’s in ANYONE’s backyard.

I’m going to break this down into several parts because it is not a simple issue. I’ll just take one area here. This area of the Commonwealth, like the areas in New York State, is the headwaters of water supplies for good sized cities. In my town alone, we are in the watershed headwaters for the Souhegan River, a river that serves southern New Hampshire leading up to Milford, NH, and on to the Merrimack, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean. We also have the Millers River, which flows west to the Pioneer Valley, providing water to Massachusetts’ richest growing soil, and winds up in the Connecticut River. We also have the beginnings of the Nashua River, which flows through Fitchburg and eventually winds up in Nashua, joining with the Merrimack River. The Merrimack is the water source for Nashua, NH, Lowell, Lawrence and many other Massachusetts cities. So damaging the quality of the clean water up here will effect both the quality of the water that reaches these cities, and possibly the amounts.
Kinder Morgan states that they plan to bury the pipeline up to 30’ down, and intend to go UNDER the Connecticut River, which at one place is listed as being 99 feet deep. The problem with this idea – bedrock. The Northern Tier of Massachusetts is granite, as any farmer can tell you, or any contractor who tried to build a house. “The biggest crop in Mass is rocks,” is often heard in agricultural sectors. When you want to get down more than a foot in these areas you often meet resistance, as in ledge. The only answer for this level of resistance is blasting, across more than 100 miles of rocky ledge Massachusetts.

What happens when pipelines cross through wetlands and areas that hold ground water? According to the National Institutes of Health in their 2010 report on pipeline construction in China:
“Moreover, pipeline crossing construction is shown to not only compromise with the integrity of the physical and chemical nature of fish habitat, but also to affect biological habitat and fish behavior and physiology (Lévesque and Dubé 2007), which will result in the avoidance movement of fish, altered distribution of populations (Newcombe and Jensen 1996) and reduce population size and species. Acipenser schrencki, Huso dauricus andBrachymystax lenok are national key protected animals (level II), which are facing extinction. They distribute in Huma River National Protection Reserve, which is the only high latitude and cold temperate zone provincial nature reserve of aquatic wildlife in China. B. lenok and Lota lota are main protection objectives of Pangu River Nature Reserve, which is the national fish genetic resources reserve in the high latitude cold zone. The disturbance or damage of pipeline construction or operation on these fish species are significant loss of geography and ichthyology. Moreover, Huma River is an important breeding site of Oncorhynchus keta, which is the endemic species of Amur-Heilong River basin. The altered water quality may cause the reduced yield of O. keta. Although the disturbances of pipeline construction are not long-term, the altered fish population distribution and movement cannot be recovered in short-term.” (Effects of Pipeline Construction on Wetland Ecosystems: Russia–China Oil Pipeline Project (Mohe-Daqing Section; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357716/)
Yes, this is in China, but it’s the same planet. This is an area dotted with trout streams, as well as clean water. Our rocks harbor not only precious drinking water, but also reservoirs of arsenic and radon, which can be released into the water, or the air, as those deposits are disturbed.

The proposed route for the TPG Northeast Expansion, or as it’s called now, the Northeast Energy Direct program, goes under and through numerous bodies of water. It also will cross through many miles of granite and other ledge which protect aquifers, reservoirs and existing wells. While the issue of need will be discussed later, please remember that of all the water in the WORLD, only 1% is drinkable, fresh water. With the rate we’re using water for carbonated beverages, fracking, cooling and other unnecessary projects, how long will our water hold out? Where will you get your water when the rivers that feed the reservoirs starts to contain contaminants such as we protect up here in These Blasted Towns.