Riverkeeper, Other Pipeline Opponents in Court to Halt AIM Expansion Project

OSSINING, NY — Riverkeeper and a coalition of groups have filed a Motion for a Stay asking a federal court to stop the construction of Spectra Energy’s Algonquin Incremental Market pipeline project.

The AIM project is just the first of three expansions planned for the Algonquin pipeline (AIM, Atlantic Bridge, and Access Northeast). Together they are intended to bring fracked gas from the Mid-Atlantic region to New England and to Liquified Natural Gas terminals in Canada for shipping overseas, Riverkeeper officials said in a press release.

A lawsuit filed by Riverkeeper and a coalition of groups and individuals challenging the project’s approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

This Motion seeks to immediately stop the pipeline construction while the Court considers the appeal.

Riverkeeper said the same Court reprimanded the regulatory agency in 2014 for approving a similar segmentation of a pipeline project. In that case, the construction was already finished by the time the Court reached its decision — a result the Motion hopes to prevent for the AIM project.

“If the AIM pipeline explodes, Indian Point will go with it,” Jennifer McCave, Staff Attorney with Riverkeeper, said in the press release. “FERC has a legal responsibility to protect public safety by requiring an independent engineering analysis of the catastrophic safety risks of placing a pipeline next to a nuclear power plant.”

The coalition includes Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club Lower Hudson, Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE), the Reynolds Hills Community and other environmental and community activists.

New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have lobbied FERC to stop the project. The regulatory agency this week reiterated to the senators its position that thorough analysis of the safety and environmental issued had been done.

Spectra Energy’s plan to enlarge the pipeline includes three projects so far along the existing Algonquin Pipeline.

The AIM Project involves the construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of 37.4 miles of pipeline and related facilities in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Most of the pipeline installation will replace existing pipeline with larger diameter pipeline.
Atlantic Bridge includes replacement of another 10.9 miles of existing pipeline with new larger diameter pipe.
Access Northeast includes the expansion of approximately 125 miles of the existing Algonquin pipeline system, plus new lines and facilities, including a new Liquified Natural Gas Storage Facility in Acushnet, Massachusetts.

RELATED:

• Westchester Groups File Brief Against AIM Pipeline
• FERC Says Environmental Impacts of Pipeline Expansion Minimal
• Peaceful Resistance Training Offered to Opponents of Pipeline Expansion
• Is Algonquin Expansion Part of System Upgrade: FERC

MAP/ Algonquin Pipeline