October 10, 2013
by Wayne Madsen
Wayne Madsen Report dot com
WMR’s sources in the New York legal and financial community report that a scandal has erupted on the granting of easements for underground natural gas pipelines in New York City and northern New Jersey. The pipelines are designed to transport natural gas extracted from the hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserve in Pennsylvania to New Jersey and New York City. The scandal reportedly involves kickbacks to political figures in return for the granting of easements on public property. The granting of easements to natural gas companies comes at a much lower price than easements on private property.
The most controversial aspect of the granting of public property for a network of natural gas pipelines involves the New York subway system and the installing of natural pipelines along underground subway tunnels. The combination of the high voltage electricity that powers the subway trains and highly flammable natural gas has many New Yorkers alarmed that the pipelines could become a giant “flame thrower” in the event of a pipeline leak or other catastrophe involving a train derailment that punctures a pipeline and adds a single spark resulting in a conflagration.
Bridge rights-of-way have also been granted for gas pipelines, including, according to our sources, an easement on the Kosciuszko Bridge spanning the Newtown Creel between Brooklyn and Queens. An accident involving trucks carrying flammable material could also have drastic consequences for public safety.
WMR has learned that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and New York Assembly President Sheldon Silver used their influence and cronies within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York City Transit Authority to bring about a quick approval for the use of subway tunnel easements, including the new Second Avenue subway line, for gas pipelines.
In addition to the New York subway tunnels, all the aforementioned politicians, along with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, ensured quick approval for the use of New York-New Jersey Port Authority-owned tunnels linking New Jersey and Manhattan under the Hudson River for fracked natural gas pipelines. In the case of Christie, his current campaign for re-election as New Jersey Governor reportedly saw a huge influx of campaign cash from the companies involved in fracking natural gas and building the pipelines from Pennsylvania to not only New York City via north Jersey but to the ports of Linden, Jersey City, and Perth Amboy for shipment overseas.
New York and New Jersey politicians stuffing their pockets from fracked natural gas pipeline easement deals.
It is the provision of Marcellus Shale gas to foreign markets that have some environmentalists concerned that there will be a demand for an increase in fracking not only in Pennsylvania but also in western New York state and north Jersey. Environmentalists also point out that waivers have been granted to pipeline companies that exempt them from wildlife protection laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Pipelines will traverse environmentally-sensitive wetlands and park land in New Jersey and New York.
Fracked gas pipelines have negative impact on rural [Pennsylvania, left] and urban [NYC Subway, right] areas alike.
WMR has also learned that organized crime is heavily involved in the natural gas pipeline projects and has used its leverage over the politicians involved in pushing quick approval for the pipeline projects and public property easement deals.
All of the Pennsylvania to New Jersey-New York pipeline projects were cleared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The influential Con Edison also employed its powerful lobbyists in New York City, Albany, Trenton, and Washington, DC to approve the granting of public easements for the pipelines.
The safety dangers of natural gas pipelines on public easement property have received scant attention from the corporate media, most notably Bloomberg News, whose owner, the New York mayor, and his business cronies, have already profited handsomely from the lease of easements in his city.
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Wayne Madsen is author of “Manufacturing of a President: The CIA’s Insertion of Barack H. Obama Jr. Into the White House” as well as several other books on the NSA and the Patreaus Affair. He is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers and blogs. Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen has taken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows. He has been invited to testifty as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation. Madsen is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Intelligence Officers …
Other Madsen Reports –
Manufacturing of a President: The CIA’s Insertion of Barack H. Obama, Jr. , Into the White House ~ http://www.lulu.com/shop/wayne-madsen/the-manufacturing-of-a-president/paperback/product-21034700.html;jsessionid=F89753E229E50555B92CDDA948213592?showPreview=true
Grandma “Toot’s” Hawaiian banking intrigue ~ http://www.t-room.us/2013/09/grandma-toots-hawaiian-banking-intrigue/
Fascists of the ‘Left’ ~ http://www.t-room.us/2013/05/fascists-of-the-left/
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Press TV: Madsen’s Bombshell Report – “All in the Company”