Mountainkeeper is deeply involved in a coalition effort to fight Pilgrim Pipeline LLC’s proposal to construct two 178 mile-long parallel oil pipelines: one to transport Bakken shale oil from Albany to refineries in Linden, NJ, and one to bring the refined products back to Albany, although these pipelines could be used in any way that the industry deems necessary, including for one-way transportation of oil either to or from Albany.
If approved, this $1 billion project would be the first-ever oil pipelines to carry crude oil in New York State, and greatly augment the petroleum industry’s ability to move more crude oil through our state.
The Pilgrim Pipelines would transport their volatile and dangerous cargo through the New York State Thruway corridor and beyond, and across environmentally fragile areas and critical water sources in the Hudson River Valley and New Jersey Highlands.
The pipelines would pass through the Catskill Park and many New York communities including Albany, Rensselaer, Kingston, Newburgh (Town + City), Coxsackie, Catskill, Athens, Saugerties, Marlborough, Plattekill, Cornwall, New Windsor, Bethlehem, E. Greenbush, Coeymans, New Baltimore, Ulster, Esopus, Rosendale, Lloyd, New Paltz (Town + Village), Tuxedo, Ramapo, and Woodbury.
The public will have a chance to weigh in about the destructive impacts that these pipelines will have on climate, clean water, and public safety when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA) start their environmental regulatory review. The first step will be the scoping process, which will create the list of topics that Pilgrim Pipelines, LLC must address in the company’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). It can be thought of as the “Table of Contents” for the report that Pilgrim will need to submit.
The scoping process has not yet started, but when it does begin, Mountainkeeper will work to educate people about the many reasons why the Pilgrim Pipelines should not be built, and support the public in issuing comments to the NYSDEC and NYSTA as part of the process.
The proposed Pilgrim Pipelines—along with other dirty and dangerous oil and gas infrastructure like bomb trains, compressor stations, barges, and anchorages—endanger the health of our families and communities, and threaten the integrity of our air, water, and other natural resources. That is why we must redouble our investments in safe and sustainable renewable energy sources to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and build a clean and prosperous renewable energy future.
