To the Editor:

I assume most readers are familiar with the oil trains that pass through the Capital Region each day and the dangers they present.  Unfortunately another fossil fuel danger lurks.

Kinder Morgan is proposing to construct a 30-inch diameter pipe through the Albany County towns of Knox, Berne, New Scotland, and Bethlehem that would be part of a 400-mile pipe transporting more than one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The gas would originate from hydrofracking in Pennsylvania, cross New York into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and back into Massachusetts.  None of the gas would be used in New York, only transported across it.

Many people believe the gas will be exported to Europe where prices are considerably higher than in the United States.

The pipeline would require federal and state government approvals.  The gas would be highly pressurized at between 1,400 and 1,600 pounds per square inch.    Pipelines wear out, leak, and crack; rubber seals shrink with age.

The pipelines pose explosive and fire risks; a break or burst could have many casualties. Shut-off valves would be located every 10 miles in rural areas.

Thus, if there were a pipe breach, explosion, and fire, the considerable quantity of gas in the pipe between the two nearest shut-offs would burn.

Natural gas includes methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and any leakage of natural gas will put methane into the atmosphere.

The piped gas would contain the hundreds of chemicals used in hydrofracking, some of which are carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and disrupt the endocrine system. The pipeline would be abandoned after it is no longer in use; thus, property owners would be stuck with an unused pipe.

Seeing as New York State has banned hydrofracking, it makes sense for the state to also ban the transport of fracked gas within the state. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation should refuse to issue any water-quality permits. The state should enact a comprehensive fracking ban.

If the pipeline is built, the fossil fuel industry will use it, probably for decades, slowing the state's transition to safe, clean, renewable energy, while intensifying onrushing climate change. There are many ways of generating and conserving energy that are safer, do not contribute to climate change, create more and better jobs, and can be quickly developed.

Tom Ellis

Albany