The headlines say it all:

• Did Bill Clinton violate election rules in Mass.?
• Bill Clinton Appearance Blocks Super Tuesday Voters
• Clintons Show Contempt for Polling Station Laws – and they got away with it!

I was first alerted to this by a fellow RI Bernie Sanders campaign worker, Robert Malin. He shared a video by Angela Garcia (above) which clearly showed that people were irritated, annoyed and put out by Bill Clinton’s poll visit in New Bedford. I contacted Maria Tomassia, chairwoman of the Board of Canvassers of New Bedford, who confirmed that people had to walk longer to get to the polls and that lines were long because people might have wanted to meet Clinton but that there was no impact on voter access. She denied that people had to wait and denied that Bill Clinton was in violation of any election laws.

Afterward New Bedford Bill Clinton continued campaigning for his wife in three additional towns including Boston, Newton and West Roxbury, where he was inside Holy Name Parish School’s gymnasium, a polling location, with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh.

This is election 101, and illegal. In Massachusetts no campaigning is allowed within 150 feet of a polling location. Bill Clinton was caught campaigning within that margin and actually inside a polling place. When you think of all the campaigns that Bill and Hillary Clinton have been in, their decision to circumvent election laws was either ignorant or intentional. I think most people would agree that the Clintons are not ignorant.

Hillary won in Massachusetts by less than 1.5 percent, a very small margin. If Sanders had received .75 percent more the state would have been a virtual tie. Could Bill Clinton’s possibly illegal actions have skewed the vote in Hillary Clinton’s favor?

It would be hard for Bernie Sanders to actually dispute the vote count. There is no way of knowing how many votes he might have lost or how many people were swayed by Bill Clinton’s last minute and frankly desperate antics. But this is not how a campaign should be run. Dirty politics can never be accepted. The Clinton’s are once again showing their true colors.

[Lauren Niedel is the RI State Contact for Bernie 2016. To volunteer please contact her at 401-710-7600 or lniedel@gmail.com]

If FERC rejects the request, the coalition will consider taking legal action.

Suzannah Glidden, a co-founder of Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE) in New York said: “Local, state and federal elected officials and citizens along the entire AIM route have repeatedly cited the flawed FERC review. FERC’s approval is not supported by substantial evidence. The Certificate of Approval of the AIM Project should be withdrawn.”

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh today joined the West Roxbury delegation to announce that the City of Boston has also filed a request for a rehearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in regards to the West Roxbury Lateral Gas Pipeline.

After Spectra Energy submitted its application to FERC last year, groups and individuals from New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts filed to become intervenors in the FERC process. This entitles them to file a Request for Rehearing within 30 days after FERC’s issuance of a Certificate of Approval.  FERC issued this certificate for the project and failed to adequately consider dangerous health and safety impacts as the pipeline and its infrastructure invade the region.  For example, FERC approved siting of the 42-inch diameter, high pressure pipeline next to the Indian Point nuclear facility in a seismic zone in Buchanan, New York, and a new pipeline and Metering & Regulating station next to an active quarry in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Alex Beauchamp, Northeast Regional Director of Food & Water Watch, said: “In light of the serious health, safety, and environmental concerns that FERC failed to address before approving this dangerous project, the agency must grant a rehearing. Without studying the threats posed to the Indian Point nuclear facility or the human health risks from airborne contaminants, it is disgraceful that FERC has approved the AIM pipeline.”

Rickie Harvey of West Roxbury Saves Energy, Massachusetts, said: “No meaningful alternatives to a high-pressure lateral scheduled to deliver nearly 30 percent of the proposed gas via the AIM expansion were provided, despite repeated requests from citizens and politicians alike.  Because this proposed West Roxbury lateral pipeline traverses a densely settled neighborhood adjacent to an active quarry, a full rehearing is warranted.”

Spectra Energy’s AIM Project, a $1 billion venture, is the first of three projects designed to ship massive quantities of “natural” gas from the Marcellus Shale to New England and onto Canada and proposed LNG export facilities. Lisa Petrie of Fossil Free Rhode Island said: “Dividing projects to minimize their environmental impacts is considered impermissible segmentation and violates the NEPA process, as FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) argued convincingly in a recent letter to FERC.

Emily Kirkland of the Better Future Project in Boston said: “As a climate justice organization, we have been fighting the AIM Project every step of the way, both through regulatory avenues like the request for rehearing and through grassroots organizing in communities all along the pipeline route. It’s simply irresponsible to expand the Algonquin Pipeline when we know that our continued addiction to fossil fuels is exacerbating the climate crisis and putting our safety at risk. We should be transitioning as quickly as possible to clean energy, not deepening our dependence on fossil fuels.”

The coalition of residents and groups includes:  Better Future Project (MA); Capitalism v. the Climate (CT), Community Watersheds Clean Water Coalition (NY); Town of Cortlandt, NY; Food & Water Watch; Fossil Free Rhode Island; Keep Yorktown Safe; City of Peekskill, NY; Sierra Club Lower Hudson Group; Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (NY); W. Roxbury Saves Energy (WRSE) and impacted residents of W. Roxbury and Dedham, MA.