Alternative facts?
Everyone loves the Muppets. The two old grandpas in the balcony were revered for telling the truth.
Mike Hein said Dave Donaldson and I both:
• Opposed the monument to fallen soldiers. A lie. We both voted yes.
• Opposed environmental projects. A lie. We both voted yes.
• Opposed the Patriot’s Project for homeless vets. A lie. We both voted yes.
• Opposed the strive project. A lie. We both voted yes.
The fact is both Dave and I voted to approve every project he declared we did not. To call him a liar would be accurate, and appropriate. Some might say that’s harsh.
The real question should be “what is the reasoning for the lies?” The fact is Mr. Hein has a serious character flaw. Our voting records are in the legislative office and are available to any and all. What would possess him to lie? Maybe the man cannot distinguish between right and wrong?
I can only tell you that if any of my children exhibited this fantasy of perpetual embellishments when they were growing up, I would have quickly taken them for professional counseling.
What should be done when one acts in a dishonest matter? I guess right now the man should be held in public ridicule as a liar.
John R. Parete
Ulster County Legislature
Boiceville
A few points
There are a few incorrect or misleading statements in the otherwise fine article [last week] by Lynn Woods, “Standing Rock, New York” about the Kingston forum on Jan. 28 concerning the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline project. The opening paragraph mentions “[s]ome fast facts on the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline: it would stretch 178 miles from Albany to Linden N.J. and convey up to 400,000 gallons a day of crude oil from the Bakken Shield of North Dakota.” In fact, the plans call for two parallel pipelines: one carrying crude oil from Albany south to Linden, and the other carrying refined oil products from Linden back to Albany. There would thus be about 350 miles of pipelines, including lateral lines, not 178 miles as stated, and up to 8 million gallons a day of crude oil, not 400,000 gallons a day, would be conveyed. Later in the article the author sets out these facts with statements by Jeremy Cherson of Riverkeeper; however, her quoting his reference to the volume capacity of the “pipeline as being 400,000 barrels a day” should be changed by referring to ‘”the volume capacity of the twin parallel pipelines — 4000 barrels (or 16 million gallons) a day. Placing these facts at the beginning of the article would have been less ambiguous and misleading. The first sentence of the second paragraph states that “[t]he $1 billion pipeline also would not replace oil trains coming down from Albany via Lake Champlain and Chicago over the CSX tracks”; however, since there are no oil trains coming from the City of Albany, this sentence should be changed to read “[t]he $1 billion pipelines also would not replace oil trains coming from Chicago via Albany County over the CSX tracks.” The author also incorrectly refers to Bakken’s “fracked gas” and “fracked gas products” rather than ‘fracked crude oil.” Since the Hudson River would not “contain 13 miles of pipeline” this phrase should be omitted so as to read “[f]ellow panelist Andy Bicking … talked about the resources that are at risk — including the Hudson River, which is a source of drinking water for numerous communities … “ Her quotation of Bicking’s reference to “pumping stations” should be changed to “emergency shut-off valves” and these sentences amended to read “if the emergency shut-off valves were functioning,168,000 gallons of oil could be released in a spill, which would balloon to 357,000 gallons of oil if the valves weren’t working. The devastation is hard to imagine, given that one pint of crude spreads out over an acre of water.”
Apart from these inaccurate or misleading statements, however, this is an informative and comprehensive article.
Elizabeth Shafer
Saugerties
Lynn Woods’ response: In response to Elizabeth Shafer’s letter, let me state that in my article “Standing Rock, New York” I do explain, in the seventh paragraph, that the Pilgrim Pipeline actually consists of two pipelines; I believe it would have been confusing to describe the pipeline(s) as 350 miles long in the first paragraph, as Ms. Shafer suggests I should have, since I wanted to state the actual point-to-point distance. Her contentions that I misstated the facts concerning 1) the “bomb” trains’ route via Albany — she states saying Albany County would have been more accurate, assuming I was (erroneously) referring to the city 2) and my allusion to crude oil as the product of the “Bakken’s fracked gas” I would argue are overstated and rest on technicalities; given that space was limited and I was reporting on the statements of panelists, rather than a topic carefully researched by me, I stand by my general points that the route of the bomb trains passes down Lake Champlain through Albany (generally speaking) and that “fracked gas” correctly alludes to the source of the crude as hydro-fracked wells for natural gas in the Bakken shale. The panelists referred to “pumping stations,” so that is why I reported them as such.
However, I do regret the errors in reporting the volume of gas, which, in referring to my notes, notes 400,000 barrels of crude a day, not gallons, as I reported. I appreciate Ms. Shafer’s correction of the error and agree that the immense volume of crude and crude products passing through the pipeline should have been emphasized — and correctly reported — in the article.
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