Yoko Ono calls on New York Governor to reject pipeline

www.capitalnewyork.com
Yoko Ono calls on Cuomo to reject pipeline
By Scott Waldman 
Jul. 10, 2015


Yoko Ono. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

ALBANY—Yoko Ono took out a full-page ad in the New York Times on Friday calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reject state permits for a pipeline that would transport gas fracked in Pennsylvania into New York's Southern Tier.

The ad, paid for by the anti-fracking activist, artist and widow of John Lennon, called on Cuomo and President Barack Obama to reject the Constitution pipeline.

“We must stop fracking, which means we must not transport fracked gas across our state where it is headed for foreign export markets,” she wrote. “The danger to our homes is also the danger to the rest of the world, as we continue to harm the climate, the world is watching us.”

In the ad, Ono called the pipeline a “scar that never heals” and said it had an Orwellian name.



Plans call for the Constitution pipeline to become part of a network that will transport natural gas to New England, where governors have called for more capacity amid dramatic price spikes. Federal regulators have already largely signed off on necessary approvals for the pipeline. Some residents who have fought the pipeline running through their land have been taken to court by the developers.

The oversight of pipelines is generally the purview of federal regulators. However, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has authority over water permits the project needs before construction can begin.

Developers of the Constitution pipeline have already transported the pieces of the pipeline into the state and expected to have begun construction by now. State officials have not publicly said when they will issue the final permits for the project.