U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren told hundreds of people in Springfield Monday that the federal government needs to pay closer attention to opponents of a proposed pipeline.
In a brief speech in the lobby of a federal building on Main Street, Warren hit several big ticket items, including the need for a cost of living increase for Social Security recipients, and her goal to lower the cost of higher education and student loan interest. And then she mentioned the topic so many had turned out to hear her discuss.
“I want to say a word about the importance of the federal government being a good partner,” Warren said. “And in no place is that distinction clearer than with the pipeline,” referring to the proposed Kinder Morgan natural gas pipeline, now under federal review.
The route of the pipeline has been revised since Warren first opposed it, in a 2014 Op-Ed. Back then she wrote, “Conservation commissions in towns along the intended route and citizen groups dedicated to protecting our state’s environment have also raised concerns that this proposed natural gas pipeline would needlessly disrupt environmentally sensitive conservation land. Because I share many of these concerns, I do not support the current proposal.”
On Monday, Warren told the Springfield crowd, made up of many who live in those communities in Franklin County, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) needs to work harder for the American people.
Someone in the audience shouted out, “Investigate FERC!”
Warren immediately replied, “I hear ya!”
After Warren spoke, Rosemary Wessel, who lives in Cummington, Mass., and runs the group No Fracked Gas in Mass, said the senator’s statement was a watershed moment in the move to stop the pipeline.
“Up until now [Warren] voiced opposition to the … pipeline as proposed,” Wessel said. “That’s far different from [today when she said ], ‘We need reform at FERC. We need FERC to work for us.'”