Powers, Frazier Back
Constitution Pipeline
County Reps. Draft Letter To Cuomo
For Their Colleagues’ Consideration
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – The county Board of Representatives may be reentering the natural-gas fray in favor of the Constitution Pipeline project.
County Reps. Jim Powers, R-Butternuts, and Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, the board’ vice chair, this morning volunteered to draft a letter for the board’s consideration as reps began focusing information from their strategic planning process into a half-dozen first-round priorities.
One of the “key initiatives” in the plan is: “Support the Constitution Pipeline and Leatherstocking Pipeline in appropriate locations in the county.”
When the opinion was offered that the matter is now out of the county’s plans – the state DEC declined to issue water-quality permits needed for the pipeline – the senior rep from the Butternut Valley demurred. The fate of the pipeline is now in the courts.
Cheap natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation is being shipped around the world, said Powers. “Here we are 60 miles from there, and we can’t get the cheapest energy around,” he said.
He offered to write a letter to the governor, and Frazier chimed in, “I’ll help you.” The Village of Unadilla, which he represents, has a contract with the Constitution builders to tap into the line locally.
The board’s next chance to approve such a letter would come at its October meeting, on the 5th.
Despite opposition by Sustainable Otsego, Schoharie-based Stop the Pipeline and other local environmental groups, the county board has always been supportive of the Constitution, aimed at transporting natural gas from Northeast Pennsylvania to the Eastern Seaboard.
In 2012, the county board passed a resolution supporting “Alternate M,” a route through southern Otsego County, which not only would have made the cheap gas available locally, but would have generated $13 million annual in town, village and school property taxes.