Gas Free Seneca Co-Founders Jeff Dembowski and Joseph Campbell talk about the latest developments in Watkins Glen. They were interviewed just moments after the decision to ban fracking in New York was announced on December 17th:
http://video.wcny.org/program/insight/
Dennis Fagan, Schuyler County Legislature Chair, was also contacted for a telephone interview. He states that the “protestors are from Hector, which is close to Ithaca”. He also states that he has unanimous support from his constituents when he talks to them about the gas storage project, and that he has neither ties to the firm Fagan Engineering, nor the gas industry.
DC Bureau investigative journalist Peter Mantius suggests otherwise: “The company he had founded, Fagan Engineers, has done extensive work with companies involved in oil and gas production and pipelines. Fagan recently sold his firm to his brother and other partners, but he said he continues to receive payments from them as part of the sales agreement. Fagan Engineers is currently building a facility 15 miles south of Watkins Glen for Access Midstream, a joint venture partner with Crestwood in a Wyoming project valued at well over $100 million.
Fagan has long touted Crestwood’s planned storage hub. In an October 2011 letter of support to the DEC, he predicted that the LPG project would expand Schuyler County’s tax base by $20-30 million. Two years later, he announced that the property Crestwood plans to use for its methane gas storage would have its assessed value reduced from $29 million to $22 million by 2015, despite plans for extensive development.”