Environmental advocates rally for a cleaner Queens ahead of Williams pipeline decision

Climate leaders like Comptroller Scott Stringer, Bill Mckibben (pictured) and Cynthia Nixon joined activist groups and hundreds of others in a virtual rally against the proposed Williams Pipeline. Image via Bora Chung/Flickr

By Rachel Vick

Local leaders and environmental activists from across the country demonstrated Monday against a controversial pipeline project set to course through the waters surrounding Queens — unless the state puts a stop to it. 

More than 200 people attended a virtual rally to stop the Williams Pipeline, which would deliver fracked gas via an underwater tube near the Rockaways. They called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to definitively rule against the pipeline and cement New York’s place as a climate leader.

Assemblymember Robert Carroll said the controversial pipeline is “tech of past” and called on Cuomo to reject the project.

“We’re gonna meet the goals of CLCPA [but] we need to double down on sources of renewable energy, and a whole host of things we need to start working on today to get up and running to meet those goals in time,” Carroll said.

Leading environmental activist Bill McKibben discussed the power of people to force change through sustained pressure on local governments, investors and the fossil fuel industry.

“None of it should take this long — we should operate on logic and reason to go where we need to go,” McKibben said. “I think we’re going to get another win, but it takes a long time because we're up against the biggest industry on earth and their ability to push things forward.”

“That’s why we have to do this work,” he added. “In 2020, renewable energy has become the cheapest way to generate power on planet Earth.”

Event participants included Food and Water Watch, New York Communities for Change, Rockaway Beach Civic Association, Surfrider Foundation NYC, 350.org and the National Resource Defense Council. Organizers opened the floor for participants to record statements to Cuomo and urged persistent online action.

Williams reapplied for permits to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline on May 17, 2019, just two days after the New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied their second application. 

The Raritan Bay loop would increase fracked gas delivered from Pennsylvania to National Grid customers in New York, and would cut through 17.4 miles of New York water. 

The DEC will make its decision this week.

“It’s been three years we’ve been fighting this Williams Pipeline,” said Cynthia Nixon, an actress and former candidate for governor.  “These oil and gas companies are very persistent or desperate, perhaps, but the good news is that whatever they are we — you — are more persistent, more determined.”

“We need a New York for all of us, not just the few,” Nixon added. “The Williams Pipeline is the antithesis of that.”