Beyond this single rally, we need to unite residents along the Eastern seaboard (and countrywide) to pool our knowledge and experience in dealing with FERC. To that end, we have published a blog post by a Pennsylvania fracktivist laying out the true nature of an agency some might mistakenly think is intended to protect American citizens. "Citizen Sane" (a name we wish we'd come up with!) is the nom de plume (or perhaps nom de guerre is more accurate) of a Pennsylvania activist who penned this post about his experience fighting pipelines.
Citizen writes, "You may or may not be aware that FERC is NOT really a government agency, anymore than say, the Federal Reserve Bank is. Just because they have the word “Federal” in their name does not mean they’re the government. Where I grew up in Philadelphia, there is a soft pretzel maker called, “The Federal Baking Company,” and they weren’t a government agency either."
"The truth is, FERC is a private entity largely funded by the API and ANGA, and chaired in part by former oil and gas representatives, that is licensed by the US Department of Energy to issue permits. Their job is to see that every application meets the minimum criteria to justify approval."
Read the entire story here.
