Natural Gas: Massachusetts Ground Zero for Northeast's Pipeline Fight

"Foes say the proposed 180-mile pipeline would harm Massachusetts' pristine forests and scarce farmlands. Proponents say the natural gas would replace dirtier fuels and stabilize winter heating costs."

"BOSTON — Tom Clark, whose family has battled bugs, hungry deer, and early frosts for nearly a century in their peach and apple orchards in the rural western Massachusetts town of Deerfield, now faces a new foe in this area: the natural gas industry.

The Clarkdale Farm sits on terraced hillsides on the route of a proposed 180-mile pipeline to be constructed as early as 2018, running from eastern New York to a transmission hub in the Bay State’s northeastern corner. The pipeline, which will carry fracked gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Fields across the seam of northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, is drawing intense fire from local landowners, environmental activists, and concerned citizens across the region."

Gram Slattery reports for the Christian Science Monitor August 4, 2014.