The clash between environmental concerns and energy demands came to Kingston's Common Council Tuesday night when opponents of a proposed expansion of the Iroquois Pipeline rallied in support of a resolution to stop the project.

Rally organizers Food and Water Watch and Democratic Socialists of America-adjacent For the Many said the expansion threatens the health and safety of New Yorkers and locks us into continued fossil fuel reliance despite the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

Running 414 miles across New York State from the Canadian border to New York City, the pipeline, owned by a consortium of U.S. and Canadian energy companies, has been in operation since 1992 and is a major supplier of natural gas to the city.

It was late 2019 when the pipeline's owners went public with the Iroquois Enhancement by Compression Project (ExC Project), which would add 12,000 horsepower of new compression at company facilities in Dover Plains in Dutchess County and Athens in Greene County, double that currently existing in Athens, a two-thirds boost at Dover. Athens is an officially designated disadvantaged community (DAC). Dover adjoins a DAC, so both qualify for enhanced official scrutiny.

Pipeline advocates claim the expansion is necessary to meet increasing demand and to assure reliable service, especially in cases like 2022's Winter Storm Elliot, when millions of customers across the country only narrowly escaped gas outages when household heat was most needed. Such storms have been increasing in frequency — though, cutting both ways in the current dispute, environmentalists will point to fossil fuels and climate change as a root cause of such catastrophes.

An especially thorough statement of the case against expansion, a point-by-point rebuttal, has been published by the Sierra Club. Its summary paragraph:

“ExC intends to ship more methane (doubling the pressure in the line) through an aging pipeline to Long Island and New York City by building out compressor stations in Athens and Dover, N.Y. The dangers and health burdens to the already disadvantaged communities at Dover and Athens that this project would impose are many, along with all the terrible consequences of deepening the climate crisis due to methane leaks and fossil fuel burning this project would allow.”

Kingston Wire has reached out to the pipeline company for comment but has received no reply as of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Alderperson Michele Hirsch (D-Ward 9) authored last night's Common Council Resolution 157, calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to deny certification of the expansion. The council adopted it by a vote of 8-0. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a certificate of need for the proposal and the state Department of Public Service has signed off on it but, for over a year, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been considering the expansion's impact on air quality and has come to no decision.

Last night's resolution, like a similar measure passed by the New Paltz Town Board last month, has no binding force. But as Hirsch told Kingston Wire, “I think that local resolutions are important in support so that the public gets educated. It's like you didn't even know what expansion really means, and it should be understood. It's not a new pipeline but it could be a potentially dangerous situation.”