Thursday, January 28, 2016

Winchester Pipeline Awareness - Sat Jan 30th Winchester Deliberative Session

Deliberative Session - 9am this Saturday - Town Hall - Support Warrant Article 9 

    WARRANT ARTICLE 9 INFORMATION

-Winchester is a member of New Hampshire Municipal Pipeline Coalition (NHMPC), which opposes the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline.
-If Winchester were to hire our own legal counsel to fight the pipeline, the Town could expect to pay at least $285,876.00 (18 towns x $15,882.00 is what NHMPC will pay).
-Working together with 17 other affected towns, we can exert more legal clout.
The Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline is a 30 inch diameter high pressure natural gas pipeline to be owned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan. It starts in Pennsylvania at the Marcellus Shales and ends in Dracut, Massachusetts.
Kinder Morgan promises to
Provide tax revenue to Winchester
• History of taking towns to court to abate taxes and actual tax payments at a fraction of promised amounts (verified by our Selectmen)
• Winchester would incur legal costs related to this practice.
Kinder Morgan promises
Commitment to community
• In rural areas like ours, the thinnest walled pipe under the highest pressure is allowed.
• Blasting and digging can disrupt our aquifer, damaging water supply to local wells.
• Kinder Morgan has pushed Winchester and other NH towns to rush to submit mitigation plans, when the actual DES deadline for submission is months away.
• Compressor stations emit toxic chemicals & noise, heat, and light pollution – proven to cause harm to humans and animals.
• Private property easements can be taken by eminent domain. Owners will still pay taxes on the property, homeowners insurance may be invalidated, and property values will decrease.
• Regulations allow the pipeline to be within 25 feet of homes.
• Shut-off valves can be 10 miles apart. In the event of an explosion, local emergency responders are advised to evacuate the area, and must wait for the valves to be closed remotely (from Texas) and allow the gas to burn off.
Kinder Morgan promises to
Lower the price of electricity in New England
• At the Dracut hub, NED connects to a 
eline that runs to Canadian Maritimes ports with liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals where LNG can be easily exported to Europe and sold at 4 to 5 times the US price. Natural gas prices will increase for us, which will increase electricity costs.
Kinder Morgan promises to
Supply gas for the few days in winter when we need extra capacity (14 - 40 days)
• NED pipeline capacity is much larger than is needed to cover that deficit, and is an impractical solution for that problem; as pipeline capacity is sold in 20 year-365 days a year increments. It wouldn’t make financial sense for an electricity generator to buy all that capacity when the extra fuel is needed only a few weeks each year.
Kinder Morgan promises
Thousands of jobs
• Majority of pipeline workers from out of state. Three to five permanent jobs in NH.
Kinder Morgan promises
Clean Energy
• Natural Gas obtained by hydrofracturing (fracking) extracts a high toll on the environment, and when considered as a whole is dirtier than coal.
Kinder Morgan promises
Commitment to safety (60 year safety record in NH)
• The Wall Street Journal questions Kinder Morgan’s commitment to safety - providing dividends to stockholders over ensuring the safe operation of its pipelines.
• Kinder Morgan has been cited by the U.S. government in 24 incidents which led to five federal enforcement actions from 2006 to 2014.
• Kinder Morgan was founded in 1997 – impossible to have a 60 year safety record!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you read the Keene Sentinel it seems the pipeline is going ahead as planned, there is to much money at stake to let a few whinnies stop them. So go ahead an appropriate our tax dollars for such foolishness we have real problems of people working three job to keep their homes and pay taxes. The pipeline will be a windfall for us tax payers.

Anonymous said...

Don't know where you get your information friend, but FERC has made no decision on the pipeline and there is plenty of opposition from several states, Massachusetts and New York as well as many towns and organizations here in New Hampshire. You talk about foolishness, look at all of the ridiculous wasteful spending occurring, from unneeded firetrucks ( cab can seat 6, WHY?, we have volunteers that drive their own vehicles ) to new vehicles for town depts. that don't really need them to more raises for town employees and high insurance costs for them.Why aren't you squawking about paying a part timer $39,000 for a position that isn't needed if the current COE gets off her arse and does her job Oh that's right, hubby isn't working and needs to be put on the dole .. Go away

Anonymous said...

Phineas Taylor P. T." Barnum, quoted to his circus people, "spread out to make the show look bigger and your BS about Ma & NY are organized in opposition. That's just what the anti-pipeline followers are trying to show a perceptions that is larger than it really is. I bet this clown show is all paid for by big oil. You anti-pipeline people are being used for suckers. P. T. Barnam said also, "They're suckers born everyday. There are millions of miles of pipeline in the Midwest states who enjoy natural gas while we stupid people in the frozen north burn high priced oil. You do not read about them blowing up. We are all being potty trained to think dirt oil is our only salvation from harming the environment. Do a fact check please.

Yes I have done my share of squawking about th small group of people in town that rules the spending of your tax dollars foolishly.