Lobbying intensifies for and against a proposed gas pipeline

By Mark Harringtonmark.harrington@newsday.com MHarringtonNewsMay 1, 2019

With two weeks to go before New York State acts on the final permit for a proposed new gas pipeline to the region, opposing sides have turned up the heat to support or oppose the $1 billion project.

National Grid, which is contracting for the so-called Northeast Supply Enhancement project, says the pipeline is needed to meet growing demand and provide firm service to hundreds of regional development projects and even new residential service and oil-to-gas conversions. Opponents say National Grid’s claims are a “scare tactic” unsupported by any evidence of a shortage and instead are designed to force the state to commit to a bigger fossil-fuel future when renewables and conservation are the obvious path forward.

On Wednesday, Long Island building, trade union and developer groups gathered at the Massapequa Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Amityville to highlight their concern after the facility recently received a letter from National Grid saying it could not provide firm gas service for a planned commercial kitchen unless the pipeline is approved.

“I thought it was a joke,” Richard Sherman, administrator for the 320-bed nursing center, said of the National Grid rejection letter. “Here we are creating jobs for Long Island and they [regulators] are going to deny us this right.” He said if the project is rejected by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the center would turn to a combination of propane for cooking, fuel oil for heat and outside vendors to import food. Business groups say denial of the permit could ripple across the region.

“The threat to Long Island is real and occurring,” said Kyle Strober, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, a developer group. Already, he said, National Grid has issued some 250 letters similar to those Sherman received, noting denial of service if the pipeline isn’t approved. “This is a stunning step back from where we need to be,” Strober said. In addition to large and midsize projects, National Grid said upward of 7,800 new residential gas and oil-to-gas conversions would be affected by a moratorium if the pipeline isn’t approved.

“Thousands of units of [new] housing are at risk” if the pipeline’s rejected, added Mitch Pally, chief executive of the Long Island Builders Institute, a trade group. He said the developer of a planned 256-unit rental apartment complex in Farmingville has also been put on hold over the moratorium. “If it doesn’t happen [with gas], he’ll have to redesign the whole project,” Pally said.

But environmental, conservation and citizens groups have been rallying across the region in recent days to push for denial of the project. “It’s not needed at all,” said Robert Wood, organizer for Stop The Williams Pipeline, an activist group in Brooklyn. Some 500 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge last week in opposition, and hundreds more gathered in Long Beach Monday to urge Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to reject the pipeline.

Cuomo has been pushing for a renewable future for the region that includes a large influx of offshore wind, solar, battery storage and conservation efforts to displace fossil-fuel based energy, a plan that doesn’t jibe with more gas, Wood said.

“There’s no room for this pipeline in Gov. Cuomo’s Green New Deal,” Wood said. “There’s no way to meet climate and emissions goals with a new fracked pipeline. It would harm marine life,” with a 23-mile trench through “one of the most polluted areas” of New York Harbor.

Lee Ziesche, organizer for activist group the Sane Energy Project, said concerns about the pipeline include its importation of fracked gas, the potential for leaks of methane gas and the harm to marine life from trenching. “We see this as a billion dollars going in the wrong direction,” she said.