Are your dancing shoes ready?



Tonight is the big Contradance Benefit in Cummington, MA to support our legal work - all the details here. We are grateful to the group of pipeline fighters in Western Mass who are organizing this event. 

It's a busy time, with the Connecticut Expansion Project in the midst of developments on multiple fronts. On Tuesday we were in federal court at the First Circuit Court of Appeals, for the first of two hearings scheduled in our multiple proceedings on the 401 water quality certification appeal. Our DEP hearing is next week. Coming up on February 6th (at 2pm) is the Berkshire Superior Court hearing on the Commonwealth's settlement with Kinder Morgan, which includes a compensation package and waives all rights to appeal the underlying eminent domain/federal preemption decision. 

Also this past week, the Nolumbeka Project, whose mission is to promote a better understanding of the Native Americans of what is now called New England and protect their sacred and historically valuable sites, filed a letter with FERC supporting the Narragansett Tribe's letter, urging that imperiled ceremonial stone landscape features in Otis State Forest not be bulldozed by Kinder Morgan.

Individuals are starting to follow suit, responding to the Narragansetts' call for support by filing letters on FERC Docket No. CP14-529. The "section 106" Tribal consultations, required under the National Historic Preservation Act, must adequately address tribal concerns before they can conclude.  Here are instructions on how to eComment if you choose to file your own letter. We recommend that you also email a copy to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation rnelson@achp.gov and the Army Corps cori.m.rose@usace.army.mil after commenting to FERC.

Also still pending at FERC -- going on ten months now -- is the request for a rehearing filed by the Sandisfield Taxpayers Opposing the Pipeline (S.T.O.P.). Among other things, S.T.O.P. is seeking to challenge the fundamental finding of need, based on confidential information that they obtained. FERC issued one of its infamous "tolling orders," rather than acting on the merits of S.T.O.P.'s request -- preventing the group from filing a court appeal of FERC's decision. (Something else to complain to FERC about!)

Thank you for all of you ongoing efforts and support!