On December 2, I was fortunate enough to serve as the Chief Justice on a panel of judges at the People’s Hearing Investigating the Abuses by FERC. Now before I get into the abuses and atrocities I heard at this hearing, let’s get a little backstory going. So if you don’t know FERC is short for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They are the United States federal agency that regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas in interstate commerce, and regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in interstate commerce. FERC is an independent regulatory agency, thus they are self funding and much of their actions are not reviewed by the President or Congress. One of their many responsibilities is to review proposals to build natural gas pipelines.
(To see more videos & testimony: https://www.youtube.com/user/DelawareRiverkeeper)
This hearing was put together by The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and several other organizations. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network works tirelessly to advocate for the rights of the common man, in fact when you join this organization as a basic member you pay nothing because the motto of this organization is that everyone deserves a voice in protecting their environmental rights. DRN believes that everyone should have the basic right to clean air, safe drinking water and a healthy planet to live on. The Delaware Riverkeeper herself, Maya van Rossum, worked day in and out for weeks on end until everything came together when we communed at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. and began the hearing. I was serving as a judge to represent the Millennial Generation as my fellow judges were expert attorney’s in their fields but were of course older. My job was to bring the younger generations perspectives into this hearing as each of the judges are writing up our thoughts and a final verdict on the testimony we heard.
Now to the atrocities. FERC has not turned down a proposal, except for one, in over 40 years. They allow pipelines to be build near homes, bisect properties, destroy land and destroy lives. I had some understanding of FERC before I walked into this hearing, but I could not imagine the atrocities I was to hear. I listened to the story of a man who had repaired an old barn and built a horse ring by hand for his wife and stepdaughter, a dream they had for years. FERC has approved a proposal to allow a pipeline to bisect his property and thus cut right through the horse ring. Another woman lost her husband to the very stress of trying to defend his land. I heard testimony of a woman who said they wanted to build a pipeline so close to her house she could hand a cup of coffee to the man in the bulldozer from her kitchen window. This is especially terrifying as pipelines have a high risk of leaking and causing a gas explosion. Another family had 300 of their sugar maple trees, which they farmed syrup from and sold for their living, torn down to make way for a pipeline that ended up never being built. I saw an image of a woman’s young daughter whose face was covered in blood from her nose profusely bleeding due to the fumes of the gas. For over 7 hours I heard story after story of families afraid to leave their homes, having property stolen and destroyed, being abused by FERC and having their basic civil rights stripped.
So what’s my verdict? FERC is a bully, a company that does not care for the rights of people. They do not care who gets hurt, how many families and homes are destroyed, people having to leave land and lifestyles that have been in their families for generations, FERC does not care. The story of FERC and these citizens is David and Goliath. FERC clearly being Goliath. They have the money, the politicians, the paperwork and the lawyers. It seems as though the odds are stacked against all of us in this environmental movement, after all we are just simple citizens and not a large organization like FERC. But David did not beat Goliath through size or strong arming. David was smaller, but David had a sling and a rock, he had tools and he sure knew how to use them. The environmental movement is David, these everyday citizens are the sling and their stories and actions they take are the rock. We have the tools and we know how to use them. We may be small but we are determined. It may take a few throws, but soon enough, Goliath will come crashing down.
For more quotes by me and articles on the hearing:
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/peoples-hearing-investigating-ferc
man running in forestPhoto by 
