Charges Won’t Be Dropped for 84 Crestwood Protesters

Protesters in front of the Crestwood gas storage facility/Photo courtesy of We Are Seneca Lake

Schuyler DA Joseph Fazzary said to rescind his support for dismissal of trespassing charges

By Ray Finger, Star Gazette

The Schuyler County district attorney has decided not to dismiss trespass charges against 84 protestors arrested at the gates of Crestwood Midstream Partners, We Are Seneca Lake said Thursday.

Those protesters were part of a civil disobedience campaign organized by We Are Seneca Lake in opposition to plans by Crestwood to expand natural gas storage and add liquefied petroleum gas storage on the lake’s western shore.

Judge Tosses Charges for 42 Protestors in Seneca Lake Gas Fight

By Jeff Stein, The Ithaca Voice

A judge in the town of Reading dismissed charges Wednesday night for 42 people arrested during ongoing acts of civil disobedience at the gates of a proposed natural gas expansion in Schuyler County.

Twelve of of the protesters who saw their charges dropped are from Tompkins County.

Biologist Tells Head of FERC: Your Agency’s Approach Is “Dysfunctional and Downright Treacherous”

Since the We Are Seneca Lake campaign began on Oct. 23, 2104, there have been 216 arrests. The campaign is working to protect Seneca Lake and the surrounding Finger Lakes region from the gas storage expansion project by Texas-based energy company, Crestwood Midstream. Crestwood’s intention is to repurpose the crumbling salt mines underneath Seneca Lake’s hillside into massive gas tanks for highly-pressurized products from fracking: methane, propane and butane. Photo credit: We Are Seneca Lake

By Sandra Steingraber, EcoWatch

Author’s note: On Wednesday, I was part of a citizen delegation that met with the chief commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner (FERC), Cheryl LeFleur, and eight of her staff. Led by Ted Glick of Beyond Extreme Energy, who had requested the meeting, our group included Tracey Eno from We Are Cove Point and Jocelyn D’Ambrosio of Earthjustice. I represented We Are Seneca Lake. Sadly, my flight from upstate New York was delayed for hours by bad weather. Hence, I ended up delivering my remarks to Commissioner LeFleur by speakerphone, while standing just outside the baggage claim area of Dulles International Airport.

Democracy Will Not Be Won Without Guts and Solidarity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance

Henry David Thoreau became a tax rebel to oppose slavery. Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Thoreau while he was imprisoned for this act of civil disobedience. Emerson asked, “Henry, what are you doing in there?” Thoreau replied, “Waldo, the question is what are you doing out there?”

Most of the Popular Resistance team is in Cove Point, MD right now. Almost all are very likely to go to jail for several weeks after Monday’s hearing for our efforts to stop the Dominion fracked gas export terminal at Cove Point. You can donate to the campaign here. Stopping this terminal is the key to stopping fracking on the east coast.

Attorneys for NY Regulatory Agency a Little Too Cozy with Crestwood?

Photo courtesy of Gas Free Seneca

Photo: From left, New York DEC attorneys Jennifer Maglienti and Larry Weintraub; Crestwood attorney Robert Alessi on right.

Via Gas Free Seneca:

On February 12th and 13th, an Issues Conference was held in front of an Adjudicatory Law Judge regarding the storage of gas in unlined depleted salt caverns along Seneca Lake. Jennifer Maglienti, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Program Counsel to the Division of Mineral Resources, not only aggressively sided with Industry on every issue, she and other DEC counsel collaborated with Crestwood attorneys throughout the entire proceedings. They were observed whispering, passing notes back and forth during oral arguments, and communicating with each other for the duration of the Issues Conference.

Seneca Lake Uprising Continues

By Sandra Steingraber, EcoWatch

[Editor’s note: Since the We Are Seneca Lake campaign began on Oct. 23, 2104, there have been 216 arrests, with six of those arrests yesterday. The campaign is working to protect Seneca Lake and the surrounding Finger Lakes region from the gas storage expansion project by Texas-based energy company, Crestwood Midstream. Crestwood’s intention is to repurpose the crumbling salt mines underneath Seneca Lake’s hillside into massive gas tanks for highly-pressurized products from fracking: methane, propane and butane.]

I told the guy at the wilderness outfitter store that I needed footwear appropriate for standing motionless in frigid temperatures with occasional bouts of below-zero wind chill. For possibly long periods of time.

He asked if I was going ice fishing.

There are no guidebooks for how to carry out a sustained civil disobedience campaign during winter—let alone one that involves human blockades that intercept trucks attempting to enter a compressor station site on a steeply sloping lakeshore with 18 inches of snowpack.

Pressure Mounts to Halt Storage Permit Near Seneca Lake

A march in downtown Geneva Saturday called for a halt to a proposal seeking to permit liquid propane gas storage in former salt mines along Seneca Lake. Courtesy of We Are Seneca Lake Too.

By Julie Sherwood, Irondequoit

As the state moves into what could be the final stage in permitting liquid propane gas storage in former salt mines along Seneca Lake, those against the plan are stepping up efforts to stop it.

Next week the state Department of Environmental Conservation holds an “issues conference,” which determines if the DEC will pursue further investigation of citizens’ concerns on the proposal’s environment effects.

“This is the endgame,” said Doug Couchon, a key organizer of the “We Are Seneca Lake” group opposed to the plan. Couchon, who lives in Elmira, was a speaker at a rally Saturday in Geneva dubbed We Are Seneca Lake, Too.