Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Inergy preps U.S. Salt site for natural gas storage

TOWNSHIP OF READING, New York - The drill rigs can be seen from all the way across Seneca Lake. It's seems clear that Inergy Midstream - the Kansas City, Missouri mega-company that bought U.S. Salt - is most likely getting ready to store natural gas in the salt caverns below the lake - not just propane.

Right now Inergy is trying to get the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to approve a plan to store a massive amount of propane in nearby caverns as well as build a rail-car terminal and construct huge brine ponds. That project has been held up by persistent local protests over the inherent dangers posed by the storage. People also are concerned it will negatively affect the tourist and wine industries.

Inergy's Moler
But in various documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Inergy has also referenced that it plans on storing natural gas on the same site.

So much for assurances from Inergy Midstream's president, Bill Moler of Kansas City, that his company has nothing to do with hydrofracking for natural gas.

In the video below, Moler speaks at an April 2011, Inergy-orchestrated community meeting in Watkins Glen, trying to sell the audience on the propane storage project. But there's not a peep about natural gas being stored on site, too. In fact, Moler denies that Inergy has anything do to with hydrofracking for natural gas. Technically, that might be true. Inergy doesn't frack. But it will store the natural gas, some of which is likely destined to be shipped to overseas markets via LNG ocean-going tankers.

Below the video is photo taken of the U.S. Salt site, just north of Watkins Glen, where a drill rig is boring down into a salt cavern.


Not exactly pretty like a winery...

3 comments:

  1. We need Sustainable and Renewable ENERGY. Extracting and processing and transporting and storing and BURNING Fossil Fuels is BACKWARD thinking. It just makes us DEPENDENT on MORE Fossil Fuels. It does not make us free nor does it make economic sense. We could save so MUCH MONEY as a society, our government, our military if we moved away from FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE and moved more toward sustainable and renewable ENERGY. That is a NO brainer!

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  2. We still ned Gas Free Seneca in every way that we can and Inrgy has to get out of state and stay out of state once in for all. Natural Gas is not welcome here and never will be. Jane Davison

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  3. I come to Watkins glen several times a year for vacation and have thought about moving there. I would hate to see this type of nonsense going on in such a pristine place. It's even more troubling to me that the majority of the people do not want this there and yet its ignored by officials. This is happening all over the country and something drastic needs to be done. We need to stand up and fight.

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