The Ohio-Pennsylvania Landowners Association (OPLA) has calledon the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to commissiona General Accounting Office (GAO) study of the need for thecontroversial Independence Pipeline project.

Association President Gordon Bury said letters were sent toSens. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) and Don Nickles (R-OK), bothlong-time members of the committee, and to the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission, which is expected to discuss – but not voteon – Independence and other pipe projects at today’s meeting.

“That sort of determination falls within the purview andjurisdiction of FERC [rather than the Senate Energy Committee], andwill be decided as part of the on-going FERC process,” saidIndependence spokesman Joe Martucci.

In the OPLA’s letter to the Commission, the group asked federalregulators to “immediately dismiss” the application forIndependence, citing “repeated incidents of trespassing” – oftenleading to violent confrontations between surveyors and landowners- and the lack of “actual need and necessity” for the project asits reasons.

The growing level of landowner resistance to Independence wasunderscored in a letter by Pennsylvania Rep. Frank LaGrotta to FERClast week. “I feel it is my duty to make you aware of the level ofopposition – sometimes violent opposition – that has accompaniedthe preliminary surveying that the companies have attempted toperform,” he wrote, adding the situation will “only worsen” if theCommission awards Independence a preliminary determination (PD). Hesaid he has urged his constituents to “avoid confrontations,” butat the same time he has alerted the state police to the”possibility of increased activity along the path of the line.”

Given that the project is “strongly opposed by citizens, staterepresentatives and other government officials from Ohio to NewJersey,” a PD for Independence would “mean that the entire processis little more than a sham; a lengthy, cumbersome dog-and-pony showdesigned only to test the strength of a company’s determination asit endeavors to disrupt the lives and devalue the property ofthousands of residents…,” LaGrotta told FERC.

Independence’s Martucci contends the degree of confrontationbetween landowners and surveyors has been blown out of proportion.There were “a couple of isolated incidents” – one in Ohio and onein Pennsylvania. In both cases, the contract surveyors weren’ttrespassing on landowners’ property, but rather were working in thepublic road right-of-way, he said.

Still, the incidents concerned ANR Pipeline, one of the sponsorsof Independence, enough to seek a preliminary injunction in WayneCounty, OH, to protect its surveyors against threats fromlandowners along the project’s route. But the court denied ANR’srequest last Thursday, saying that the company had other legalremedies – such as initiating criminal action – at its disposal tostop the alleged harassment.

The 400-mile Independence project would extend from Defiance,OH, to the Leidy, PA, hub, traversing the northern part of WayneCounty. At Leidy, it would intersect with up to six differentpipelines delivering gas along the entire Eastern Seaboard. The 1Bcf/d pipeline would give gas producers in Canada, the RockyMountain and Midcontinent regions a link to markets in the East andMid-Atlantic, according to the project’s partners. They includeANR, Williams’ Transcontinental Pipeline and National Fuel GasSupply.

The controversial project also has captured the attention of theOhio House of Representatives. Rep. John Mairer of Canton hasproposed a resolution in opposition to Independence. Theresolution, which reportedly has bi-partisan support, is beingreviewed at the committee level.

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