By Michael Brooks
WASHINGTON — Protesters interrupting FERC’s monthly open meetings over the commission’s approval of natural gas pipelines has become a regular occurrence, but it’s not every day they include an Academy Award-nominated actor.
James Cromwell — known for his roles in films such as “Babe,” “Star Trek: First Contact” and “L.A. Confidential,” among many others — was one of three protesters who interrupted the commission’s open meeting Thursday. The 77-year-old actor stood after two other protesters had interrupted FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee as he began to give his closing remarks. He lambasted the commissioners for destroying the environment as he was led out of the meeting room, and could be heard chanting “FERC doesn’t work” as he was led out of the building.
Cromwell, of Warwick, N.Y., later told reporters he had traveled to D.C. with fellow Orange County resident Pramilla Malick to protest the commission’s approval of the Valley Lateral Project, a 7.8-mile extension of the Millennium Pipeline through the county. The lateral would serve the 680-MW Valley Energy Center being built in Wawayanda by Competitive Power Ventures.
FERC’s approval was especially controversial because it ruled that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation had waived its authority to issue or deny a water quality certification by failing to act under the one-year time frame required by the Clean Water Act. (See Environmentalists Denounce Millennium Pipeline Ruling.) Construction of the lateral project has been stayed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pending a Dec. 5 hearing by a three-judge panel to review New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s petition to overturn FERC’s decision.
Malick, who was also removed from the meeting for interrupting, was among the petitioners whose request for rehearing of the decision was denied by FERC on Thursday (CP16-17).
She was joined by several other Orange County landowners who argued that the extension is unneeded, in part because the power plant is unlikely to be finished. Malick cited the federal corruption and bribery accusations against a CPV executive and state officials in connection with the state’s approval of the plant. (See CPV Lobbyist, Former Cuomo Aides Named in Bribery Indictment.)
FERC, however, was unpersuaded. “None of the materials relating to the investigation submitted by Ms. Malick indicate that state approval of the Valley Energy Center is subject to the outcome of any investigation,” the commission said. It noted that the facility was 85% complete and on schedule to begin operations by February 2018.
“The whole process has been corrupted,” Cromwell told reporters outside FERC headquarters after the meeting. “It should be grounds for stopping the project and having an investigation into how” it was approved.
Malick had argued that FERC violated the National Environmental Policy Act in its environmental assessment by improperly segmenting the pipeline project from Millennium Pipeline Co.’s compressor station in Minisink.
In its Thursday decision, FERC said, “There is no evidence that the Minisink Compressor Station included any facilities to accommodate the future Valley Lateral Project.” It pointed out that the station went into service in June 2013, and Millennium first applied for the lateral in November 2015, demonstrating that they weren’t connected actions under NEPA.
Cromwell’s ejection from FERC is only the latest in a long list of acts of civil disobedience. He made headlines this summer for serving prison time after he refused to pay a fine for a 2015 sit-in at the CPV plant construction site. Days after he got out, he was arrested at SeaWorld San Diego for interrupting a show.
“I’ve been thrown out of a number of meetings,” Cromwell said. “It doesn’t matter where it is; it’s the same process. They don’t listen.”
