Guest post by Daniela Blanchet
Director Laura Newman, a Co-Producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Gasland” who shot the infamous water on fire scenes, has been an activist for years in movements against the environmental destruction caused by the fossil fuel industry. When she learned about what some consider “the Standing Rock of NYC,” she got started on producing a film about this frighteningly unknown issue. She brought Producer Daniela Blanchet into the fold and they created a 6-minute impact film, featuring community and DAPL activists, René Pérez Joglar aka Residente (Grammy-award winning artist), Peter Yarrow (from Peter, Paul and Mary), and Josh Fox (Director of “Gasland”), about the “Algonquin” Pipeline Expansion and the fight against it. Watch the film here:
As is outlined in the film, New York residents and environmental experts are desperate to stop the construction of a gas pipeline that poses a major threat to more than 20 million people. The “Algonquin” Pipeline Expansion is a high-pressure fracked-gas pipeline being built under the Hudson River adjacent to the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant just north of New York City. If completed, Spectra Energy’s massive “Algonquin” Pipeline Expansion would run only 105 feet from the aging, troubled Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant’s safety infrastructure. Experts have warned that a rupture of the “Algonquin” line could result in a nuclear catastrophe worse than the Fukushima disaster. That is due in large part to the 40 years of highly radioactive spent fuel rods stored in overcrowded storage pools on the Indian Point site. Governor Cuomo’s recent announcement that the plant will cease operations in 2025 does little to mitigate the risks the pipeline poses to that highly radioactive spent fuel.