Letter: Readers Deserve the Facts on Kinder Morgan
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To the Editor:
I don't understand the editorial decision of having two articles a day apart about the Kinder Morgan open house on Feb. 10.
It would have been better to combine "Kinder Morgan Open House Addresses Natural Gas Pipeline Concerns" with "Some Berkshire Residents Unimpressed by Pipeline Answers" into one article. The first article was not up to iBerkshires' usual standards. It read like a press release from Kinder Morgan. It is totally unbalanced. The second article adheres to higher journalistic standards.
I attended the Open House and spoke with many Kinder Morgan employees and many residents of the Berkshires. Of course, all of the Kinder Morgan employees were in favor of the pipeline but the majority of the Berkshire residents were not. Kinder Morgan's answers to my concerns were not at all reassuring.
Alan Fore, vice president of public affairs for Kinder Morgan, claims that this pipeline will help residents of New England save money because natural gas rates might be lower. This assertion is dubious. Particularly since the taxpayers of New England will be required to pay for the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
Keep in mind that Richard Kinder is CEO and chairman of the board. He was the former President and COO of Enron. He is the richest man in Houston and has a net worth of $9 billion. He owns approximately 24 percent of Kinder Morgan. He states that Kinder Morgan is a company run by shareholders for shareholders. For Kinder Morgan to pretend that they are interested in saving money for residents of the Berkshires is disingenuous. The pipeline is not being built with Kinder Morgan money. It will be paid for by the people of New England who get all the risk and none of the profits.
Some of the residents' concerns that Kinder Morgan chooses to ignore include the following: The increased probability of fires and explosions due to leaks in the natural gas infrastructure. The risk of sabotage and terrorism. Clearing additional swatch of land 95 feet wide for miles, increased storm water runoff adding significant pollution to the Housatonic River, lower property values, increased levels of Carbon Dioxide and Methane, noise and gas pollution from compressor stations, loss of farmland, blasting rocky terrain near a water supply, and the permanent impact to wildlife and the environment.
Kinder Morgan dismisses the risks and high costs to residents of the Berkshires. One person at the Open House correctly described the situation as "Kinder Morgan is selling snake oil."
Edward Holub
Dalton, Mass.
Readers can find more articles related to the gas pipeline by clicking the "gas pipeline" tag at the end of each article. They can also be found here.
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