‘Sex and the City’ Star Blasts Pipeline in Local Campaign Visit
Gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon visited Peekskill on Friday stressing the dangers associated with the controversial Spectra/Enbridge AIM pipeline that runs adjacent to Indian Point and declaring the pipeline be shut down.
Following the release of the long-awaited risk assessment of the pipeline, local activists called on Nixon to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to shut down the 42-inch Algonquin pipeline project, which is located within 105 feet of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan. The report, which was released last month more than 18 months after it was due, confirmed that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not sufficiently consider the risks and other concerns before allowing the expansion of the pipeline near the power plant.
During Friday’s press conference at the Riverfront Green in Peekskill, Nixon, the former “Sex and the City” star, blasted Cuomo for putting the lives of nearly 20 million people in jeopardy be endorsing the build out of the massive high-pressure pipeline. With the results of the risk assessment released, she said Cuomo has an obligation to ensure public safety immediately.
“(The risk assessment) said exactly what the experts and the people in this community have been saying all along; it is unsafe, it is unjust, and it is just plain wrong,” Nixon said. “It shouldn’t have taken four state agencies, $250,000 and two years to know that it’s dangerous to put a high pressure fracked gas pipeline under a nuclear plant 35-miles north of Manhattan.”
Nixon added that the pipeline needs to be shut down until public safety is assured and any outstanding questions and concerns are answered to the satisfaction of the surrounding community.
Peekskill councilman Colin Smith agreed, stating that elected officials need warrant the safety of the community and the environment. In March, the Peekskill Common Council passed a resolution calling on Cuomo to release the risk assessment and citing concerns about potential dangers of having the pipeline near the nuclear power plant.
Smith said the risk assessment has provided the necessary information to make more informed decisions on how to better protect the community when the plant closes in 2021 and undergoes decommissioning.
A spokesperson for Cuomo released a statement to News 12 saying, “It was Gov. Cuomo who delivered an independent risk assessment on the Algonquin Pipeline and accomplished what others have only talked about for decades – shutting down the dangerous Indian Point nuclear plant. The existing interstate pipeline is federally controlled, and it’s embarrassing that a candidate running for the highest office in the state wouldn’t know that.”
Following the press conference, community members led Nixon on a tour of the pipeline’s path outlining its proximity to the power plant, schools, homes and other venues where residents frequent. Nixon later held a roundtable discussion at the BeanRunner Café in downtown Peekskill where impacted residents shared their concerns.
“We need leadership in Albany that appreciates that we are in a time of crisis and Governor Cuomo has failed us,” said Courtney Williams, a Peekskill resident and cancer researcher who has battled Spectra Energy for several years. “He has allowed this project to be built, he’s ordered his agencies to rubber stamp it and we are here today to say that’s unacceptable and we need a person in Albany who will stop the flow of gas and the build out of fracked gas infrastructure.”
Croton-on-Hudson resident Gary Shaw said that Indian Point has released toxins, oils and noxious gasses into the air and water for several years. He stressed the importance of the New York State Legislature to enact a Citizens Oversight Board to oversee the Indian Point decommissioning process.
“We need our Governor to promote and pass this legislation,” Shaw said. “Indian Point is a real threat and we need somebody who can understand that this is about public, health and safety and not about money.”
If elected, Nixon said she would create and empower a Community Oversight Board to ensure the community, its resources and its potential are protected. Nixon added plans to halt all fossil fuel expansion and transfer the state to 100% renewable energy.
“When I am elected Governor in November, I will address this problem head on,” Nixon said. “We cannot allow communities in New York to be conduits or dumping sites for dangerous fracked gas.”
