October, 11 2019, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lee Ziesche, lee@SaneEnergyProject.org, +1 (954) 415-6228
Lindsay Meiman, lindsay@350.org, +1 (347) 460-9082
Robert Wood, rjacksonwood@gmail.com, +1 (585) 261-2795
Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition Applauds Governor Cuomo, Public Service Commission Action Demanding an End to National Grid's Gas Moratorium
The investigation findings reaffirm no gas shortage, nor any need for the Williams pipeline.
WASHINGTON
Governor Cuomo today announced that National Grid faces millions of dollars in penalties for unlawfully refusing gas hookups to small business and residential customers during its gas moratorium, ordering the utility to immediately connect over 1,100 customers who were denied service.
The Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition issued this statement:
"New York State's investigations into National Grid's gas moratorium are revealing what we've known all along: that there is no gas shortage, and that the refusal to connect customers to gas is nothing more than a reprehensible political ploy. National Grid wants the Williams pipeline because it wants higher profits. Yet this much loathed, billion-dollar project would be devastating to our water, our climate, and is absolutely unnecessary. It's time for Governor Cuomo to stop the Williams pipeline once and for all."
The Governor's statement noted that the Williams pipeline, the rejection of which led National Grid to initiate its moratorium, wouldn't have been completed until December 2020 at the earliest, suggesting that the moratorium had nothing to do with a real need for gas.
The Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition continued:
"Now that the PSC has seen through National Grid's illegal bullying, it's time for the Governor to help those who suffered from it to move away from fracked gas entirely. We call on Cuomo and the PSC to incentivize and make affordable the switch to renewable heat sources, including efficient electrical appliances, heat pumps and induction stoves, much as they did in Westchester. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act demands it. The time to embrace our energy future is now. "
Last month, Governor Cuomo made his first-ever public statement opposing the pipeline, slated to run through New York Harbor. Responding to a question by WNYC's Brian Lehrer about National Grid's ongoing gas moratorium, the Governor noted: "We have taken a position. We're against the pipeline. That's our position."
A recent poll found that New Yorkers oppose the Williams pipeline by a margin of 5 to 1.
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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