KY's Fucked-By-Fracking Future: Bevin Appoints Oil-and-Gas Motherfucker to Staff

Earthquakes by the hundreds per day, like in Oklahoma.  Groundwater poisoned by toxic fracking fluid, like in Pennsylvania. Farmland permanently ruined by fracking operations and waste disposal, like in North Dakota.

Not to mention the libertarian paradise economy of Haiti.

Tom Loftus at the Courier:

Gov.-elect Matt Bevin on Wednesday announced two appointments to positions in the new Governor's Office: Andrew V. McNeill as a senior advisor, and Adam M. Meier as deputy chief of staff for policy.

"Andrew McNeill has decades of experience in the public and private sector. He will be a key advisor..." Bevin said in a news release. "Adam Meier has been an invaluable resource in shaping our policy agenda and will add a steady hand to the process in the Governor's Office."

 

McNeill, 42, of Louisville, has been executive director for the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association since December of 2012. He worked in the administration of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher as legislative director for the Governor's Office, chief of staff to the secretary of commerce, and executive director for the Office of Energy Policy. He also has worked for ConnectKentucky.

And how very convenient that the new Attorney General, who alone has the power to put a stop to this shit, is himself a mouthpiece for the fracking industry.

Bend over and grab your ankles, Kentucky: the ass-raping hasn't even started yet.

True Story of the Bluegrass Pipeline Premiering at the Kentucky This Thursday

I saw the preview and it is wonderful. If you are not moved after watching it to take action for justice yourself, at the very least you will learn why it is a bad idea to get on the wrong side of nuns.

​

Please spread the word!

You can invite your friends on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/1640998036148861/

DVDs will be available at the screening, and can be ordered online at www.selluswilder.com/dvd.

See the Movie: How a Small Group of Determined Kentuckians Defied Big Fracking and Won

This Saturday at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.  Email sellus.wilder@gmail.com for reservations.  It's a true story, a Kentucky story, a story to infuriate and inspire for all the battles to come.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

Filmmaker Sellus Wilder hopes audiences will take to heart the message of his new documentary about citizen opposition to the Bluegrass Pipeline in 2013-14.

"Grassroots movements can win fights against multi-billion-dollar corporations," Wilder said. "The people can win the seemingly unwinnable fight."

The 90-minute film, The End of the Line, premieres Saturday at an invitation-only screening at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.

Through interviews and footage from public meetings, the movie tells how ordinary people protested plans to build a natural gas liquids pipeline through 13 Kentucky counties. Eventually, in April 2014, the two companies that partnered to build the line halted the project because they didn't have the necessary customer commitments to move forward.

But Wilder and others believe organized opposition and a key court decision on the taking of private property played a decisive role in scuttling the project.

Pipeline representatives were "really caught off guard by the level of resistance they encountered across the state," he said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/05/25/3869142_frankfort-filmmaker-tells-the.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Not to mention failing to notice that right smack in the middle of the pipeline's path was a community of nuns, with whom you must never, ever mess.  Because they always win. 

Kentucky Landowners Deal MotherFrackers a Setback

Do you like your backyard?  Do you prefer it not have a giant, ready-to-explode high-pressure pipeline full of toxic waste running through it? Then thank Kentuckians United to Restrain Eminent Domain (KURED), who just won a victory over the Bluegrass Pipeline terrorists.

Today, the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the Franklin Circuit Court ruling from last year that purveyors of fracking waste, oil, gas or anything else that is not a public utility cannot use eminent domain to force their way onto your land.

Renowned environmental attorney Tom Fitzgerald, representing KURED and Franklin County landowner Penny Greathouse, sued to stop the Bluegrass Pipeline from using the threat of eminent domain to terrify landowners from Pendleton County to Marion County into signing over their land for a toxic-waste pipeline.

Although the initial ruling by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd applied only to Franklin County, today's Court of Appeals decision applies throughout the Commonwealth.

That means that Kinder Morgan, which is trying to get federal approval to re-purpose a pipeline through east-central Kentucky to carry fracking waste, also cannot use eminent domain powers to force easements from landowners.

Bluegrass Partners, whose Bluegrass Pipeline project has been suspended for the last year, may still appeal to the state Supreme Court.

But meanwhile, this is a victory for genuine grassroots organizing and determination.  KURED members are not out-of-state groups or politicians or celebrities; they are the people whose land Bluegrass Partners threaten: retired people, farmers, women religious, young couples who started asking their neighbors about these strangers with the lying faces and the papers to sign.  They got together, educated themselves, found landowners threatened in other counties, stood together and shouted NO!

And won.

The Pipeline MotherFrackers Are Back. Help Stop Them Again.

You know why you haven't heard anything about the Bluegrass Pipeline toxic chemical death funnel through the heart of Central Kentucky's bourbon and horse industries?

First, because local resident stood against the mother frackers and got a court to make the companies stop terrorizing elderly landowners with illegal threats to take their land by eminent domain.

It was the most effective purely grassroots effort seen in the Commonwealth since Daniel Boone led a bunch of crazy people over the mountains to the clean water and fertile soil of the Bluegrass.

But the Stop the Pipeline folks aren't done yet.  Because the motherfrackers are at it again.  Help us stop them. Again.

From Kentuckians for the Commonwealth: 

Take Action
to protect Kentucky communities
from hazardous liquids pipeline

Kinder Morgan wants to transport highly dangerous hazardous liquids through Kentucky. The company plans to re-purpose the decades-old existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline to carry massive volumes of natural gas liquids from the fracking fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania to processing and export facilities along the Gulf Coast.

The pipeline runs through 18 Kentucky counties, near many homes, through popular business districts, across busy roadways, across waters that supply public drinking water systems, and even within view of schools. A study by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration concluded that the “blast zone” for a pipeline of the size and volume proposed by Kinder Morgan is nearly one mile.

Kentuckians have a better view of our commonwealth and don’t want a pipeline that puts our water, land and safety needlessly at risk.

Kinder Morgan has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to abandon natural gas service, the current use for the pipeline, in order to re-purpose it for hazardous natural gas liquids. Would you take action with KFTC and residents all along the route of the pipeline by co-signing our letter to FERC asking that it protect the safety of communities along the pipeline’s path?

A year ago, Kentuckians stopped the proposed Bluegrass Hazardous Liquids Pipeline. Let's do the same for this proposal.

Thanks for your support!

Reject Them Both

Via Down With Tyranny

Don't Miss It Nov. 8: "Pipelines, Fracking and Kentucky's Future Beyond Fossil Fuels"

From the pure grassroots activists who threw a giant wrench into the planned Bluegrass Pipeline, the launch of a new effort to protect all Kentuckians from the last fracking gasp of fossil fuels. It's free to all and even provides lunch. How can you resist?

Pipelines, Fracking, and Kentucky's Future
Beyond Fossil Fuels

November 8, 2014
Locust Trace AgriScience Farm
Lexington, Kentucky

Landowners and others affected by the proposed Bluegrass Hazardous Liquids Pipelines announce a summit to educate Kentuckians about the issues of natural gas liquids(NGLs), fracking, landowner rights, and local options for communities seeking a sustainable future. 

Dr. Jim O'Reilly of University of Cincinnati will give the keynote address.  An expert on law and public health, Dr. O'Reilly is currently writing a book on gas fracking for Thomson-Rueters-West Publishers.  Andy McDonald of the Kentucky Conservation Committee will speak about the transformative possibilities of renewable energy for Kentucky.  Other speakers and panelists will discuss fracking in Kentucky, repurposed NGL lines, legislative priorities, and choices for ensuring that land is protected and communities remain vibrant for future generations.  See below for a working agenda for the day.

Thanks to many sponsors and supporters, this will be a free event.  You are encouraged to preregister, however, so we can have a count for lunch.  Chef Susie Quick of Honest Farm in Midway will be making roast turkey, lamb moussaka, and vegetarian pasta.  Attendees are invited to bring a side dish or dessert to contribute or to make a donation towards the meal at the event.  You can preregister at www.stopbluegrasspipeline.us or www.nobluegrasspipeline.com.

This event was inspired by the successful grassroots opposition to the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline in 2013-2014.  While Williams and Boardwalk companies have suspended their operations in Kentucky for the moment, they hold many easements along the swath of the pipeline and can exercise their option on those easements for up to three years.  Fracking continues to boom northeast of the Commonwealth and we remain in "pipeline alley" between the production to the north and the processing facilities to the south of us.  In addition, Kinder Morgan and Mark West companies continue progress on repurposing the Tennessee pipeline through Kentucky from natural gas to natural gas liquids.  This decades-old pipeline is slated to begin transporting hazardous liquids late in 2016.  Affected counties include Greenup, Carter, Lewis, Rowan, Bath, Montgomery, Clark, Madison, Garrard, Boyle, Marion, Taylor, Greene, Hart, Metcalf, Barren, Allen, Simpson and possibly Lincoln and Casey.

We hope that this summit will serve Kentuckians by supplying much needed information about this significant issue.   Additionally, we hope that the summit will clearly articulate safe, renewable, and economically viable energy alternatives to fossil fuels.

Sponsors of the summit include Kentucky Resources Council, Food and Water Watch, Kentucky Conservation Committee, Envision Franklin County, New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future, Dominican Sisters of Peace, Kentucky Heartwood,  Sisters of Loretto, Earth Tools, Inc., Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, The Sisters of Mercy South Central Community, The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, and Kentucky Waterways Alliance. 

We welcome additional sponsors! 

Sponsorships are $25 and up, with $100 recommended.  Sponsors are invited to table at the event.  Sponsorships can be sent to No Bluegrass Pipeline Fund, P.O. Box 4573, Frankfort KY 40604.

See below for our working agenda for the day.

 Registration  8:30am-9am
Opening Session 9am - noon
Welcome -- Chris Schimmoeller -- 5 minutes
Overview:  Perspectives from New York -- Susan Classen -- 10 minutes
Keynote -- Dr. James O'Reilly :  " If You Break It You Own It:  Dealing Today with Tomorrow's Fracking Cleanup Costs"
                 45 minutes, then 15 min Q & A
10 min break
Panel:  Pipelines and Fracking in Kentucky -- 40 minutes of presentations, then 20 min Q & A
            Presenters: 
    NGL pipelines -- Bob Pekny
    Geology/Karst -- Ralph Ewers
    Repurposed lines -- Dick Watkins
    Fracking in KY -- Tim Joice

Speaker Andy McDonald -- "Beyond Fossil Fuels" --  30 minutes
   
       Lunch -- 1.5 hours

Afternoon Session 1:30-5:30pm

Breakout workshops from 1:30-3pm and 3:15-4:45pm with a 15 minute break in between with the same topics offered at each session so participants can attend at least two of what's offered.
Proposed Topics:
 Local Protections for Communities --    with Gwen Lachelt, other TBA

 Easements and Landowner Rights --   with Tom FitzGerald and Matt Demarcus, Terry Geoghagan

 Restoring Democracy and Working Effectively for Legislative and Political Change     with Jerry Hardt, Tom FitzGerald, Kentucky Conservation Committee, members of legislature

 Renewable Energy -- with Andy McDonald, other TBA

 Fracking, NGLs, and Repurposed Pipelines --  with Tim Joice, Dick Watkins, Ralph Ewers, and Bob Pekny

5-5:30pm  Closing Speech, Sister Claire McGowan

Volunteers Needed!

Volunteers are needed to seek additional sponsorships, promote the event, and help the day of the event. 
If you are interested please contact Chris Schimmoeller at c.schimmoeller@gmail.com or 502-226-5751x1.

Here is the list of KY legislators whoring for Bluegrass Pipeline

All 100 members of the Kentucky House of Representatives and half of the Kentucky State Senate are up for re-election in November. 

Nineteen of them, plus Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Senate Democratic Caucus and the House Republican Caucus Campaign Committee all took money from the parent company of the people trying ram a toxic waste pipeline through the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass.

The list is below.  Keep it in mind when you vote this November.

Bluegrass Pipeline Companies Pretend to Quit

UPDATE, April 29, 7:50 a.m.:  Company says "Bluegrass Pipeline is not dead."

While it is true that Wall Street's skepticism has prevented the pipeline companies from getting commitments for the billions of gallons of toxic fracking waste they need to make the proposed pipeline profitable, it's also true that growing and successful grassroots opposition has made the project radioactive in Kentucky right now.

The pipeline companies need to fool the opposition into thinking they've won and dropping efforts to stop the pipeline for good.

Not to mention that the fracking industry lies for a living.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

Two companies are halting the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline, a project that drew vocal opposition because it would have put a natural gas liquids pipeline through 13 Kentucky counties. 

 Williams Co. and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners announced Monday that they have suspended investment in the project because it has not received the necessary customer commitments to move forward. The companies said they will continue to have discussions with potential customers to determine their needs.

Yeah, sounds like it's time for opponents to double down on their opposition and triple their vigilance. The pipeline motherfuckers will be back, more desperate and determined than ever.

Judge: "Bluegrass cannot invoke the sovereign power of eminent domain to threaten or intimidate"

The pipeline company will appeal, of course, and corrupt state officials still have many ways to smooth the pipeline's path, but for the moment, individual rights trump corporate demands.

Jim Warren and Karla Ward at the Herald:

Bluegrass Pipeline Co. cannot use eminent domain to take private property for construction of a natural gas liquids pipeline through Kentucky, a Franklin Circuit judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Phillip Shepherd held that the power of eminent domain is "an essential attribute of a sovereign government" that cannot be delegated to a private company such as Bluegrass Pipeline "without a clear legislative mandate that such a delegation is in the public interest."

"There has been no such clear and explicit delegation of this power to Bluegrass for its proposed ... pipeline," Shepherd wrote.

The ruling was a victory for Kentuckians United to Restrain Eminent Domain, or KURE, a citizens group that asked the court last year to clarify whether Bluegrass Pipeline had the power to use eminent domain.

Bluegrass Pipeline developers want to build a line to carry natural gas liquids across 13 Kentucky counties, but many citizens have opposed the project, saying it poses environmental and safety concerns. The flammable liquids are byproducts from natural gas refining processes that are used to make consumer products such as plastics and carpet.

Tom Droege, spokesman for the Bluegrass Pipeline project, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that pipeline developers "disagree" with Shepherd's opinion and will "immediately appeal the decision."

The company has not attempted to use eminent domain to condemn property for the pipeline but has argued that it has the right to do so under Kentucky law.

Shepherd, however, rejected that claim.

"Bluegrass remains free to build its pipeline by acquiring easements from willing property owners," he wrote. "However, Bluegrass cannot invoke the sovereign power of eminent domain to threaten or intimidate, or even suggest to landowners who have no desire to sell, that Bluegrass has the right to take their property without their consent."

Shepherd added that "landowners who do not wish to sell, but who may be unable to finance a legal challenge, are entitled to know that the law does not support Bluegrass's assertion of the power of eminent domain."

Like the vote in the state house to restrict eminent domain, this decision is as pure a grassroots victory as you'll find today.   KURE was formed by landowners in Franklin County and elsewhere in the path of the proposed pipeline as well as neighboring residents and concerned citizens. KURE members and the broader opposition to the pipeline grew from an authentic grassroots movement in which so many Kentuckians have worked together to oppose the pipeline - without billionaire backing or celebrity spokespeople or top-down leadership.

Take Action to Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline

Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline:

New Call to Action - Call Today!

Today House Bill 31 will be assigned to a committee.

Please Call 1-800-372-7181:

• Ask that HB31 be sent to the Judiciary Committee. 
• Ask Sen. Whitney Westerfield to hear HB 31 in his committee. 
• Ask Senate leadership to get the bill sent to the Judiciary committee and to support the bill.

We need to support the bill as it is or we won't be able to get a bill passed. This bill is better than the present law because it excludes NGLs from being classified with oil/gas. 

Eminent domain for gathering lines will have to be a fight for another day.

The Farm Bureau helped get the bill passed in the House. We need their help to get the bill into the Judiciary Committee and to get it passed in the Senate.  If you have Farm Bureau contacts, please share this information with them.

We need to generate as many green message sheets to the senators below as we can today!

You can either call or email:

Legislative Message Line--1-800-372-7181   

Direct Links to Senators' email addresses and contact pages (where available) appear below:

1.  Sen Whitney Westerfield--Judiciary Chair   
whitney.westerfield@lrc.ky.gov  
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S003.aspx

2.  Katie Stine--Vice Chair Judiciary and President Pro Tem 
katie.stine@lrc.ky.gov 
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S024.aspx

3.  Robert Stivers-Senate President     
Robert.Stivers@lrc.ky.gov
 

4.  Damon Thayer
damon.thayer@lrc.ky.gov        
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S017.aspx 

5.  R.J. Palmer     
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S028.aspx 

6.  Dan Seum       
dan.seum@lrc.ky.gov
 

8.  Johnny Ray Turner    
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S029.aspx 

9.  Brandon Smith    
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S030.aspx 

10.  Jerry P. Rhoads      
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Messages/S006.aspx

Political Movements Led from the Top Never Succeed

The opposition to the Bluegrass Pipeline has succeeded so far in large part because it has no single "leader."

The pipeline opposition arose among individuals who recognized early on the threat the pipeline posed to their land. They researched natural gas liquids, pipelines, and the company. They educated themselves, talked to their neighbors, wrote letters to the editor and sought support from elected officials.

Among the thousands of Kentuckians who oppose the Bluegrass Pipeline, there are a few dozen who are most active, but no one person who speaks for all. No politician making promises in return for votes. No billionaire buying television commercials.

The pipeline opposition is a pure grassroots movement. And it's the only kind that really succeeds. 

Steve M. at No More Mister Niceblog:

Instead of one Bernie Sanders (running for president) in 2016, why aren't there a couple dozen Bernies in seemingly hopeless state and local races this year? I'm not sure if Sanders is right about the potential for winning over the tea party:

One of the goals that I would have, politically, as a candidate for president of the United States is to reach out to the working-class element of the Tea Party and explain to them exactly who is funding their organization -- and explain to them that, on virtually every issue, the Koch brothers and the other funders of the Tea Party are way out of step with what ordinary people want and need.

But I wish a few people were trying to beta-test the notion this year in congressional races. Go out there in some district where a Republican expects not to even have to campaign, possibly a district where no Democrat is even bothering to run, and talk about raising the minimum wage and dialing back tax preferences for the wealthy and putting people to work by building infrastructure. Just try it -- there's really no downside risk, no chance of electing Scott Walker as president. Maybe twenty people would run and a few would put scares into their opponents; maybe one or two would make it a race, or even win.

That's how I'd like to see a movement built. Or bypass electoral politics and fight issue campaigns instead -- that's what the civil rights movement did, and that's what the gay rights movement is doing now.

Bluegrass Pipeline Loses in KY House; Fight Moves to Senate

This one was about as pure a grassroots victory as you'll see in this day and age.  Landowners and neighbors threatened by the pipeline lobbied their representatives day after day for the past two months, packing hearing rooms, making the case in private meetings, making hundreds of phone calls, spreading the word and never, never giving up.

And now they have to do it all over again for the state senate.

John Cheves at the Herald:

A bill that would prevent the controversial Bluegrass Pipeline from crossing private property against landowners' wishes was approved Friday by the state House by a 75-to-16 vote.

House Bill 31, which proceeds to the Senate, would specify that the owners of pipelines carrying natural gas liquids do not enjoy the same right to condemn land through the use of eminent domain as do the owners of public utilities and oil and natural gas pipelines.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, said he understood that the Bluegrass Pipeline's backers so far have secured 70 percent of the necessary Kentucky land through easement negotiations without having to invoke eminent domain, and the same is true for the entire Ohio segment of the pipeline, he said.

"House Bill 31 does not stop the Bluegrass Pipeline," said Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, a co-sponsor of the bill. "It will still be built. They would just have to deal with the landowners from an equal position."

Floyd has to say that because the only argument that's going to work in the repug senate is "this bill isn't anti-pipeline, it's pro-private-property-rights."

The facts are:

• Even assuming that the company is telling the truth about having 70 percent of the easements it needs - and the company has been caught in multiple lies already - that last 30 percent includes the Bluegrass Blockade. In Anderson County and Franklin County, anti-pipeline landowners along the route have formed blockades of continguous property where they have rejected easements.  
• Without that blockade land, the company must change the route and seek easements from landowners who are now well-informed about the pipeline's dangers and the company's mendacity.
• Without the power of eminent domain to steal property from blockading landowners, the company is highly unlikely to get any more easements. 
• Williams Company and Bluegrass Partners are struggling to garner financial support from Wall Street, which is extremely skeptical about the project.

The Bluegrass Pipeline is not going to be built - unless the repug senate kills the eminent domain bill.

Call the legislative message line 1-800-372-7181 to tell the senate leadership and your state senator to support House Bill 31 to protect private property rights in Kentucky.

Bluegrass Pipeline Eminent Domain Vote This Week - Call Now to Save the Bluegrass

House Bill 31, the bill to prevent fracking waste pipeline promoters from using eminent domain to steal land from Central Kentuckians, is coming up for a vote in the General Assembly this week, possibly as early as today.

From pipeline opponents:

The (legislative) message center has been slammed with calls (last week) from people from all over the state supporting Keystone XL and Bluegrass Pipeline and the jobs it will bring.  They have been told that the Bluegrass Pipeline is part of Keystone XL.  Apparently the telemarketers generating these calls are also telling people that Obama has approved Keystone.  This is getting so ridiculously off base that it’s wasting state time and money:  I had to try to call four times today for my call to go through.

House Bill 31 is scheduled to be voted on by the full House this (week).  Everyone needs to call 1-800-372-7181 and 564-8100 and ask that all House members receive a message that House Bill 31 should be supported without any floor amendments (unless supported by the sponsor) and that this bill is about protecting landowners from the exercise of eminent domain by private companies and is NOT about jobs!

First Battle Won on Eminent Domain; Get Ready for the Next

It's still got to pass the full House, then the Senate, then the governor, and even then it just prevents the company from stealing land from people who oppose the pipeline.

But it's a real victory, and one we've got to build on.
 
Greg Kocher at the Herald:

In an 11-1 vote Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a committee substitute for House Bill 31 that prevents natural gas liquids pipelines such as the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline from invoking eminent domain.

The bill clarifies state law so that natural gas liquids — which Bluegrass Pipeline would carry through 13 Kentucky counties — would not be oil or gas products, so private land could not be seized through eminent domain to build its infrastructure. The bill's primary sponsor, Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

One lawmaker who spoke in support of the bill said it wouldn't block the pipeline.

"Any legislation we consider today is not going to kill Bluegrass Pipeline," said Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown. "They just won't be able to use eminent domain to condemn property from people who don't want it to be done."

Tom FitzGerald, a lawyer for the Kentucky Resources Council, said the bill sends a message that Bluegrass Pipeline must treat private landowners fairly.

"This is an issue that resonates all across the political spectrum," FitzGerald said. "People don't like to be pushed around. They don't like somebody saying, 'I want to voluntarily enter into partnership with you, but if you don't grant me what I want, I can take you to court and make you spend thousands of dollars you'll never see again just to vindicate your right to be left alone.'"

Asked about the bill's chances for passage in the full House and Senate, FitzGerald said it's easier to kill a bill than to pass one.

But he added: "We have felt across the board that legislators are keenly aware and keenly concerned that landowners need to be dealt with in a fair manner without this cloud of eminent domain hanging over their heads."

 Lots of work still ahead, so keep calling the Legislative Message Line1-800-372-7181 to tell your legislators and the leadership of both chambers to support House Bill 31 and Senate Bill 14. Call every day, and get your family, your friends, your coworkers and your neighbors to call, too. The company is pouring millions of dollars into its campaign of lies and intimidation; all we have is ourselves.  Call!

Call Now to Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline

From the Bluegrass Blockade:

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW! This is a crucial time in the battle against the proposed Bluegrass hazardous liquids Pipeline that is being planned for Kentucky. We are the ones who have to stop it! It can not be constructed safely in Kentucky, especially in light of the recent Corvette Museum cave-in and explosion in Adair County. The entire state is a network of sinkholes, caves and underground streams-- it should be clear what would happen if a sinkhole opened under a hazardous liquids pipeline.  Further, there is no existing technology that can detect all leaks.  If and when this pipeline leaks, the Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi rivers will become contaminated.  Millions of people will be affected.

All that stands between the Bluegrass and this pipeline are the landowners who've refused easements thru their property. Bluegrass Pipeline developers say they have eminent domain rights to put the pipeline through and legislation is now being considered by Kentucky's state legislators that would clarify eminent domain law with respect to the Bluegrass Pipeline. The property rights of Kentuckians are at stake: eminent domain should only be invoked for public utilities or a project that is clearly for the public benefit. This project will not benefit Kentuckians. The Bluegrass Pipeline is not a utility and will carry natural gas liquids to the Gulf Coast for processing and export.

PLEASE HELP STOP THE PIPELINE by:

Calling the legislative hotline at 1-800-372-7181 and leaving a message for all state representatives and senators.

PLEASE CALL TODAY! Please ask for their support of House Bill 31 and Senate Bill 14. We need votes from every legislator in the state to pass the eminent domain bill.

Bluegrass Pipeline Down, But Not Out

Between explosions/sinkholes, Wall Street doubts and determined local opposition, the Bluegrass Pipeline has been badly battered this month.

But we're a long way from victory.  Especially if the eminent domain bills fail in the Kentucky General Assembly, the pipeline motherfuckers will be back, sneaking onto property and intimidating landowners under the radar after all the publicity dies down.

WKYT:

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT/AP) - As landowners fight against a pipeline to pump natural gas liquids through Kentucky, the company behind the project announced it is being delayed.

In a 2013 earnings report released Wednesday, energy company Williams Partners LP said the controversial project's completion would be a year later than originally planned.

"In our NGL & Petchem Services business, we are moving the target in-service timing of the joint-venture Bluegrass Pipeline project to mid-to-late 2016 to better align with the needs of producers," said Alan Armstrong, Williams' president and chief executive officer. "We continue to engage in ongoing discussions with potential customers regarding commitments to this large-scale, integrated solution that connects Marcellus-Utica natural gas liquids to diverse domestic markets, fractionation, storage and export facilities in the Gulf Coast."

The announcement came the same say a bill that would protect landowners from having their land seized for a pipeline to pump natural gas liquids has received its first committee hearing at the state capitol.

There was no vote in that committee hearing, and legislative comments overheard by attendees implied that  the strategy of pro-pipeline legislators is to delay the vote until late in the session when Governor Beshear can veto the bill too late for an override. However, Governor Beshear announced that he supports the legislation.

See the video of the committee hearing here.

 

Herald coverage here.

If you like the sinkhole and explosion in Kentucky this week, you'll love the catastrophic Bluegrass Pipeline

Every news outlet in Central Kentucky was chasing this story yesterday, because the consequences pipeline opponents have been warning about for almost a year suddenly came to life in front of all our eyes.

And the company pushing to build the toxic fracking waste Bluegrass Pipeline is refusing to comment. When they won't even bother to deny the facts, you know it's bad.

Erica Peterson at WFPL:

A natural gas pipeline explosion in southern Kentucky this morning, paired with a spontaneous sinkhole at Bowling Green’s Corvette Museum yesterday, is providing fodder for the opposition to a proposed natural gas liquids pipeline.

SNIP

Pekny’s chief concerns about the Bluegrass Pipeline are the risk of explosion and the potential for widespread water contamination—and both concerns are illustrated by this week’s events in Bowling Green and Adair County.

First, it’s important to point out that the pipeline explosion earlier today was a natural gas transmission line: a 30 inch diameter pipe that carries natural gas across Kentucky. The proposed Bluegrass Pipeline—as well as conversion project by Mark West and Kinder Morgan of the Tennessee Gas Pipeline—would carry natural gas liquids. These are different products and are regulated under different federal laws, but both are flammable materials.

But safety is a concern. So, are concerns about and comparisons between these two pipelines valid?

A spokesman for Bluegrass Pipeline company Williams didn’t return a request for comment, but the Bluegrass Pipeline website tells concerned citizens that the pipeline will be periodically inspected “including leak surveys and valve and safety device inspections.” The company will also constantly monitor the pipeline remotely. Those are the same safety measures Columbia Gulf Transmission (the company whose pipeline exploded in Adair County yesterday) touts on its website.

SNIP

But if a leak happened in the Bluegrass Pipeline, it would likely behave differently than last night’s natural gas explosion.

Natural gas is lighter than air. So during a rupture and explosion like that in Adair County, the gas (and subsequent fire) rises. When natural gas liquids leak, some remain liquids, and some are vaporized. Those that become gas are heavier than air, which means they hug the ground. And they can detonate on their own, which means a potential leak and explosion could be even more catastrophic.

Now, the sinkhole. The Bluegrass Pipeline will cross about 120 miles of karst terrain in Kentucky, where the underlying limestone makes caves and sinkholes common. Karst hydrogeologist (and former professor) Ralph Ewers says the prevalence of sinkholes in the areas is problematic for pipeline integrity.

“Crossing such areas subjects the pipeline to great stress,” he says. “Unusual stress. And stress, of course, leads to corrosion and to leaks.”

SNIP

“What concerns me most is not the catastrophic rupture, though those are quite spectacular and they do cause considerable problems, it’s the more subtle ones I’m concerned about,” he says. “And a small leak would have consequences at distances of a mile away, ten miles away, before you understood that there was a leak at all.”

 The Bluegrass Pipeline and others like it - and there will be others, trust me, regardless of whether Williams Co. pulls off this first attempt - are a clear, present and imminent danger to the human safety, the water supply, the agriculture, the economy and the very future of the entire Bluegrass Region.

As others are now saying about the multiple corporate poisonings of water supplies in West Virginia and North Carolina since the first of the year, if the perpetrators were terrorists, the sources would be shut down and every resource mobilized to capture and prosecute the criminals responsible.

 But because the criminals are corporate executives, they walk.

And their victims - us - are left to suffer and die.

One of Those Safe Pipelines Explodes in Kentucky, Destroying Homes

In the reality-based world, this would be the end of the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline. But we're living in fossil-fuel-worshipping, corporate-cocksucking, who-cares-about-a-buncha-hillbillies world.

Mark Boxley at the Courier:

Two homes were destroyed, 20 residences were evacuated and two people received non-life threatening injuries early Thursday in Adair County after a natural gas transportation line exploded, leaving a 60-foot crater near Highway 76 in Knifley.

The first call came in at about 1:04 a.m. CST when residents heard and felt rumbling under their feet, said Adair County Emergency Management Agency director Greg Thomas. Then came the explosion and a ball of fire, he said.

Three homes, two barns and as many as six vehicles caught fire after the blast, he said. Two of the three homes were completely destroyed.The 30-inch natural gas line was about 100 feet from Highway 76 buried 30 feet down in the side of the hill. When it blew, the result was catastrophic, Thomas said.

“There is now a crater 60 feet deep and it blew rocks out, and I don’t mean pebbles ... big rocks,” he said, adding a 20- to 30-foot section of pipe was thrown more than 300 feet.

After the explosion 20 homes in the area were evacuated and residents will not be able to return home until the state fire marshal says it is safe to do so, Thomas said.

Republican state senators who have been lobbied by constituents to oppose the Bluegrass Pipeline of toxic fracking waste have been skirting the issue by opposing eminent domain for private corporations that are not utilities, but emphasizing that they do not oppose pipelines per se.

Really, assholes? Guess there aren't enough voters in Knifley to worry about.

Gasoline Spill Poisoning Pulaski County Caves A Hint of What the Bluegrass Pipeline Could Do

Emergency management officials are scrambling to mop up the gasoline from a tanker accident that is contaminating a popular cave system and surrounding homes.

Some of the fuel entered an intermittent stream that feeds a local cave system, which complicates matters. It is not expected to have widespread effects, but the department is taking precautionary measures to ensure protection of human health and the environment, Scott said. That means dams and recovery points have been constructed in the stream to help remove the fuel and the department is teaming with local cave experts and a consultant with the company responsible for the spill to monitor the air inside the caves and make sure fuel has not entered the main part of the cave.

Information has been posted at cave entrances, warning of potential hazardous conditions from fuel vapors. Also, area residents who might be affected by gasoline vapors in the caves have been alerted and advised to monitor their basements for gasoline odors, Scott said.

But there won't be any way to mop up the toxic fracking waste that will poison the entire Central Kentucky watershed when - not if - the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline leaks, ruptures or explodes.

Central Kentucky, like Pulaski County, is riddled with limestone caves and karst rock that quickly absorb contaminants and rapidly spread them throughout the interconnected groundwater system and eventually into the Kentucky and Ohio River and other drinking water sources.

The proposed Bluegrass Pipeline is a clear and present danger to health and safety of hundreds of thousands of Central Kentuckians, not to mention the survival of the Commonwealth's signature industries - horses, agriculture, bourbon - and its economic lifeblood.

The handful of temporary construction jobs and the pocket change in property taxes it might provide - other communities polluted by the company learned otherwise the hard way - cannot compensate for the risk the pipeline poses.

Find out more here, and join the effort to stop the Bluegrass Pipeline.