Pipeline Whack-a-Mole

Didn’t I write this column already?

The one where I say, hey, it’s so awesome that New York state banned fracking, but companies are still trying to criss-cross our state with new pipelines that allow gas fracked in other places to get to market—whether that market is New England, or abroad via tankers.

The one where I explain how these companies who care for nothing but a quick buck and destroying the climate in the process are using eminent domain and federal regulations to force us to allow them to transport stuff across our state that (a) does not benefit us and (b) needs to stay in the ground for the future of humanity.

Oh right, I did.

Fracked Gas Coming Through

The land where Patricia Kernan grew up, in the foothills of the Northern Catskills, is 1,000 acres of unbroken forest, from which trees have been carefully, sustainably harvested for at least 70 years. It contains a rare pristine sphagnum moss bog that has no invasive species in it, and just outside its borders is a lake that has been similarly protected. The land is now owned by a land trust, with Kernan and her four siblings making up the five trustees. Forestry covers the property taxes and allows the land to remain protected.

Or it has so far.