Comments are due to FERC Aug 15, 2015.
As always, www.nofrackedgasinmass.org has a wealth of detailed information about the pipeline fight.
link to FERC permit info
link to FERC Scoping announcement
Example FERC comment from Rachel Branch:
July 14, 2015, 11:00 a.m.
Docket No. PF14-22-000
COMMENT ON SCOPING MEETINGS
I am Rachel I. Branch, a Citizen of the United States of America, a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and therefore claim standing to oppose the issuance of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permit for the Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, L.L.C., and its Northeast Energy Direct Project.
Prior to my questions for the Scoping meetings, I expressly and respectfully request that these meetings be postponed until all the Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas resource information is supplied to FERC. It is essential for postponement so that those of us opposing this project have all the information available to pursue specific, fact-based, pertinent questions for the Scoping meetings. I further strongly respectfully request that these meetings be held in the cities and towns directly impacted by the proposed pipeline and compressor stations.
Questions:
1. Will Kinder Morgan/Tennessee Gas (KM/TG) assure FERC and all Americans, with no equivocation, that public health and public safety will be paramount and protected BEFORE pursuing this project?
2. Will KM/TG be required to supply all environmental studies and those entities that performed these studies to FERC for the public’s perusal?
3. Will KM/TG be required to supply the amounts paid, and to whom, for those studies?
4. Will KM/TG be required to provide all public health and public safety assurances, backed up by factual specificity, BEFORE any proposed pipeline construction is begun?
5. Will KM/TG be required to provide all public health and public safety assurances, backed up by factual specificity, BEFORE any proposed compressor station construction is begun?
6. Will KM/TG be required to prove the necessity of this proposed pipeline with studies verifying the actual need, and, once again, supply information pertinent to how much was paid and who compiled such studies or information?
7. Will KM/TG be required to provide answers to all questions without being allowed to respond with “TBD,” as its use allows omission of information FERC and the public need?
8. Will KM/TG be required to state, unequivocally, the actual cost of the proposed pipeline and be specific in regard to environmental protections for human beings, the ecosystem, the air, the water, the soil, the wetlands, the extraordinary biodiversity that sustains the beings that cannot speak for themselves in our woods, our hills, our mountains, our lakes, ponds and streams, and the extraordinary biodiversity that sustains life and our earth?
This matter before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is so crucially vital that every avenue available to the Commission must be given the highest priority for the good of the American people, your sworn obligation to protect the public health and public safety, and the understanding that the Commission’s integrity must not be compromised and is sacrosanct and inviolate. Anything other than thorough transparency is not acceptable, unconscionable, and does not protect our Constitutional right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Respectfully submitted,
Rachel I. Branch
999 Massachusetts Avenue
North Adams, MA 01247-2231
Telephone: 413-664-0134
