For John, BLUF: I miss County Government. Nothing to see here; just move along.
In Yesterday's "Column" in Th e[Lowell] Sun is a discussion of Wilmington's stance with regard to Kinder Morgan, which is trying to drive another pipeline through New England. We have had months of inaction in Wilmington regarding Kinder Morgan's proposal for a natural-gas pipeline through Wilmington. The Wilmington Selectmen have been pretty inactive.
At Monday night's selectmen's meeting, a small group of residents used the public comment period to call selectmen out for not taking a firm stance, or any stance, against the pipeline. Meanwhile, other towns nearby have rallied against the plan, refusing the company permission to survey town-owned lands and adopting non-binding resolutions against the pipeline. Several towns have now been re-routed out of the pipeline's path.So, there you have it. Towns united against the gas pipeline. Mostly people are for the spread of natural gas, as long as it isn't in their neighborhood. The term is NIMBY (NIM as in nimble and BE as in bee) (or Not in My Back Yard). Then there are those who would be a Samson in this world. Willing to pull the whole structure down on top of herself to make her point.
"I really feel the board has to be a little bit more aggressive about this," said resident Suzanne Sullivan, a former selectman.There you go, rest of New England. Wilmington doesn't care, or at least Ms Suzanne Sullivan doesn't care."I don't really care if there's a need (for natural gas in New England)," she added. "Why should we be the sacrificial lambs for a need?"
What happened to the Common in Commonwealth?
Regards — Cliff
The whole MA kerfuffle over Kinder Morgan may be completely mute as it would appear that they are approaching a very green light in NH to get the gas to where it needs to go....a terminus in Pelham, NH. It will follow an established power line route across the southern tier of the state.
ReplyDeleteI think most Granite-staters don't mind having the thing go through their back yard as long as they can get significantly cheaper energy. Of course, there are the dyed in the wool opposition, as in Hollis, NH. But, if you look at the demographics, much of the population of the border towns who have voiced opposition are MA transplants. They moved from MA "to the country" and want all of the amenities of suburbia without any of the costs.
Perhaps in a few years, NH can resell some gas to MA, with a handling fee of course.