Guest “I couldn’t make this schist up, if I was trying” by David Middleton
Activists Demand National Grid Halt Project To Extend A Fracked Gas Pipeline Through North Brooklyn
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
FEB. 18, 2020A coalition of North Brooklyn residents and environmental groups are fighting to stop National Grid’s plan to extend a natural gas pipeline through Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
The gas company broke ground on a seven mile pipeline, starting in Brownsville, back in 2018. But since last fall, several blocks in North Brooklyn have been ripped up to make way for the final two phases of the pipeline, which National Grid wants to extend to its Greenpoint depot.
“We don’t want this pipeline,” Kevin LaCherra, of Greenpoint, told a crowd of some 60 people rallying at National Grid’s construction site Saturday morning. “We want renewables now.”
Residents and environmental groups, including Sane Energy Project, North Brooklyn Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise NYC, Assemblymember Joe Lentol and State Senator Julia Salazar’s office, rallied in 20-degree weather Saturday morning…
[…]
“People are frustrated because it’s 2020. We need to be getting off fossil fuels and here is National Grid wanting to raise our monthly bills to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a new fracked gas pipeline,” Zieshe said. “That’s just insanity.”
In 2014, New York banned hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas by injecting liquids below ground, known to impact water and air quality near wells; lower babies’ birth weight for children who live close to fracking wells; and emit methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The fracked gas under National Grid’s plans would be sourced from Pennsylvania, where fracking is legal.
“If you know anything about this gas, they call it natural, but there’s nothing natural about it,” said Roberto Rodriguez, a Bushwick resident of the United Neighborhood Organization.
[…]
Gothamist
I honestly can’t tell who is more fracking retarded… The fractivists or the fracking idiot “journalist” who authored this article. With a 2017 NYU B.A. in Journalism & Global Public Health and Anthropology, Sydney Pereira the “journalist” is clearly qualified to report on almost nothing. Her source for the claim that frac’ing impacts water quality is a 2016 Scientific American article about an ex-EPA employee who claimed that frac’ing had polluted groundwater in Wyoming. This “study” has been repeatedly debunked.
The fractivists are just dumber than schist…
There’s no evidence at all that frac’ing affects the air, the water or anything else any more or less than conventional natural gas production. Here is a comprehensive list of all of the differences between conventional and unconventional (frac’ed) natural gas:
Despite all the blather about renewables, New Yorkers are heavily dependent on natural gas to avoid freezing in the dark…
70% of New York’s 2017 energy consumption was from fossil fuels. 72% of the state’s electricity is generated by fossil fuels and nuclear power; while only 5% comes from non-hydroelectric renewables .
Thanks to idiots like Governor Fredo, New York has the 9th highest average residential electricity rate in the nation, 7th highest among the Lower 48. At 18¢/kWh, New Yorkers pay 38% more for electricity than the national average, 28% more than Pennsylvanians and 50% than Ohioans.
Pennsylvania and Ohio were both smart enough to realize that the natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica formations actually had no value at all, if they left it in the ground.
Despite having one of the most prolific natural gas reservoirs within its state boundaries, New York isn’t on this list:
Top Five Natural Gas Producing States in 2018 (EIA)
- Texas—6.84 Tcf—22.3%
- Pennsylvania—6.12 Tcf—20.0%
- Louisiana—2.78 Tcf—9.1%
- Oklahoma—2.70 Tcf—8.8%
- Ohio—2.35 Tcf—7.7%
Tcf = Trillion cubic feet
In 2017, New York’s natural gas production amounted 11 Bcf (billion cubic feet). Texas produces nearly twice as much natural gas per day (21.5 Bcf) as New York does in a year.
Sydney Pereira and the Brooklyn fractards earn a Ron White lifetime achievement award.
David,
I know you strive to be factually correct in your posts.
“Governor Fredo” is completely incorrect. Daemonseed is the thoroughly corrupt governor. His brother, Fredo, works at CNN, making up news stories, such as his predictions for 2015 on climate change.
These people are going to meet “physics” pretty soon. And be confronted with the environmental consequences of their posturing.
Their plan at the moment is to shut down the hydrocarbon business – relatively safe, high paying jobs , by their own countrymen, and instead outsource (a fraction of) their energy needs to poorly paid miners who are creating massive environmental consequences in their extraction of lithium, cobalt etc.
In 2014, New York State banned fracking for supposed environmental concerns. That ban continues despite ever-mounting evidence of minimal effects. The real purpose of the ban was to stifle economic development in conservative rural western and central New York, which would reduce the control the City and its elites exert over the rest of the state.
It should come as no surprise that the environmental card is again being played to gain political control.
The concept of “laboratories of democracy” needs resurrection. Let CA, WA, OR, NY and other states show us the way. CA should set a date to sever connections to the electrical generation from other states, and commit to renewable sources exclusively. Prove it can be done. I know AZ benefits from the relationship, but why drag the rest of us down with this insanity. An isolated experiment of one state or a few would put the lunacy to the test. Try it, but leave the rest of us alone.
Glad I left NY!
It is perhaps time to introduce loyalty cards to fossil fuel customers.
If you want to use fossil fuels in any form you have to apply for, and agree to the terms of supply. Only those wishing to use fossil fuels will be given a card, those who wish to see it banned obviously won’t apply for the card. Anyone who has a card, but is found to be involved in subversive activities such as XR demo’s or other anarchist based anti fossil fuel activities would have their loyalty card blocked.
Under this system, only those wishing to use fossil fuels will be able to fill up their cars, turn on their central heating, cook their supper, flush their toilet, or have a warm water system in their house or apartment.
Those passionate demonstrating minority groups, will be allowed to carry on demonstrating, I suspect their numbers would quickly diminish.
Sydney rocking her plastic cup and straw.
I thought those straws choked sea turtles, or something.
Fractards is my new favorite word!
From the article: “Thanks to idiots like Governor [Cuomo] New York has the 9th highest average residential electricity rate in the nation, 7th highest among the Lower 48. At 18¢/kWh, New Yorkers pay 38% more for electricity than the national average, 28% more than Pennsylvanians and 50% than Ohioans.”
This follows a pattern: Alarmists trying to wean themselves off of fossil fuels inevitably cause energy costs to skyrocket for everyyone.
How does the average New Yorker like paying 50 percent more for their electiricy than the average Ohioan pays? I bet they don’t like it very much. Perhaps Governor Cuomo and these 60 protestors don’t speak for everyone in New York state.
You can’t fix enviro-mental.
Just to be accurate, it’s not a [natural] gas pipeline but rather a [natural] gas main. A pipeline is typically interstate and regulated by FERC, while a main is typically intrastate and regulated by the state’s public utility commission. Specifically here, National Grid is extending an existing natural gas distribution main.
Where the journalist neither knew this distinction nor presented the facts accurately (New York receives a mix of natural gas sources to include RENEWABLE natural gas from landfills and like operations), the article is meaningless as “news” and reflects a seemingly-biased policy piece (really, it’s opinion dressed up as a policy piece). A true journalist would have confirmed assertions prior to publishing.