Clinton should return contribution

To the editor,

Regrettably, not much publicity has been given downstate to the proposed Kinder Morgan Pipeline. I first learned about it because I have a vacation house upstate. This pipeline would carry natural gas produced in Pennsylvania (by fracking) through New York’s Southern Tier, the Catskills, the Capitol Region, across the Hudson River and east through Vermont and  New Hampshire, all the way to eastern  Massachusetts. Bernie Sanders spoke out against it at a Democratic Party State dinner in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago.

Hillary Clinton, who was at the dinner, was afterward asked her position by a reporter, but ducked the question. Some months ago, she had evaded answering on the merits by calling the pipeline only “local” matter. When I looked up Kinder Morgan’s political contributions, there were very few made to Democrats, but one name leaped out — Clinton’s. It was a very modest contribution of $1,000, in 2015, but imagine the uproar it would have created if Sanders, Martin O’Malley or Donald Trump had taken it. Even New Hampshire’s Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte has spoken out against the pipeline.

New York Democrats should demand that Clinton return this toxic donation,  get off the  fence and take a stand. Kinder Morgan is THE  New York environmental issue of the year. 

Alan Saks