If you’re not living in Westchester, and likely even if you are, there’s a good chance you didn’t hear about the Algonquin Pipeline Agreement that was approved in March 2015. Unfortunately, whether or not you heard about it, the options available to step in were relatively non-existent.
For those who don’t know, the Algonquin Pipeline is a natural gas transportation pipeline, owned by Spectra Energy, that runs through New England. The pipeline goes through Westchester County in New York, and the company has actually held a permanent easement on the land since 1952. Due to this agreement, the company’s pipeline has a permanent legality in its presence, including within the Blue Mountain Reserve state park.
So if the pipeline has been there so long, what is this recent controversy with environmentalists and residents about? Spectra applied for an expansion of the current pipeline—26 inches in diameter—to double its size, 42 inches, back in February in 2014. In March of 2015, amid opposition, the application was approved.
Residents and environmentalists cited fears of possible of air contamination and explosion, as well as its proximity to the Indian Point nuclear power plant owned by Entergy, in opposition. Another cause for concern, the pipeline runs only a few hundred feet from an elementary school.
Contrary to popular belief, the proximity of the pipeline to the nuclear facility is of a relatively low threat to the surrounding community or the plant itself. The state, as well as Entergy who is not affiliated with Spectra, both refuted claims of there being a danger in this proximity. While the cause for concern is entirely understandable, because of the way the nuclear facility actually functions, an explosion from the pipeline would not cause reactor failure or meltdown.
Of course, there are other concerns that have not been adequately refuted. The proximity of the pipeline to schools, its maintenance, and its possibility of rupture, are all still credible fears. Residents of Westchester and environmentalists alike fought with these arguments in mind, so it may be surprising to learn that they did not have a real chance at stopping it at the local level.
In actuality, despite whatever action could have been taken by local and county governments, they did not have the legal authority to do so. Taking that disheartening lack of say further, New York State Environmental Law had no authority either. The reality is Spectra applied for permission through the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, or FERC, which granted the company eminent domain to complete the project. Eminent domain is a governmental power that allows it or whomever it grants, the ability to alter a space whether it’s public or private.
FERC, operating at the federal level, supersedes state and local governments. After the pipeline’s granted application, all protest measures were made futile by federal authority. The larger issue that comes to light here is the apparent rubber stamping that occurs within the FERC. The agency has a history fraught with environmentalist backlash in response to its near inability to reject pipeline proposals.
Despite the opposition’s levied concerns in regards to public health and safety, the Algonquin Pipeline expansion was never going to be stopped. Fighting things at the local level is typically a good way to enact greater political change over time, but we have to be aware of the larger governmental bodies and laws that can overrule local ones. Unfortunately, communities don’t have a real say when it comes to fossil fuel regulation and laws. The effort that’s been seen in opposition to pipelines like Spectra’s isn’t useless, though; it just has to be directed at those who can really make a difference. If we want to protect the environment, we need the federal government to represent that interest—we have to change FERC.
