A Pipeline Defeated: How a Small Town Saved Itself
Your weekend dose of Pitt.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35756-a-pipeline-defeated-how-a-small-town-saved-itself
In the dungeon that was the winter of 2014 here in my New Hampshire home, a pair of representatives from the natural gas pipeline company Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas arrived in the town of Rindge, just down the road. They were there to meet with the town administrator about a proposed natural gas pipeline route that would cut the town in half, along with several other towns, as it made its way to the sea....
That's how it was between Rindge and Kinder Morgan after that cold winter night in 2014. The company lied, delayed, danced, dodged and did everything they possibly could to put off the New Hampshire locals who had a few questions about the whole thing, and did so for almost two years. The town fought back, along with a coalition of other towns who would be deeply affected by the construction of this pipeline. It was a long slog, but on Wednesday the word came down: Kinder Morgan had officially "suspended further work and expenditures" on the pipeline plan....
The background in brief: Kinder Morgan (KM) wanted to build a pipeline to transport the fruits of fracking from Pennsylvania through New York and New England. It would traverse a portion of western Massachusetts and all of southern New Hampshire, terminating in the seaside town of Dracut, where the gas would be loaded onto LNG tankers for sale in Canada and overseas. Not one breath of the gas would be made available to the affected residents. In fact, the towns were expected to pay a tariff for the privilege of hosting the line.
KM initially tried to have the pipeline built along the northern border of Massachusetts, but their plan was roundly routed by residents who wanted nothing to do with it. Plan B for KM was to run the thing across southern New Hampshire to Dracut; they assumed the residents of this sleepy little state would not put up much of a fight. In that, they were badly mistaken. KM ran straight into the teeth of a very patient buzzsaw up here in the Granite State, and on Wednesday they decided it was too expensive to push the fight any longer.
