Pipline Demonstrators Shut Down State Street (rough cut)

This afternoon, demonstrations from 350 VT and Rising Tide Vermont gathered in Montpelier for a long brewing confrontation with the Public Service Board over the ongoing struggle against the Vermont Gas Pipeline slated to snake its way through Addison County.

After a short parade around downtown Montpelier, demonstrators gathered on State Street in front of the Public Service Building and erected a faux fracking derrick on the center line of State Street. "We're going to hold this space until the State stops making backroom deals with utility companies and until this fracked gas pipeline is shut down" said Rising Tide one organizer to the gathered crowd as a fellow protest climbed the thirty foot derrick to laughably impersonate Public Service Board Commissioner Chris Recchia in a precarious puppet show from atop the derrick.

Vowing to stay until the pipeline project is shut down, the occupation of State Street appears ready to continue until the upcoming Public Service Board meeting on Monday.

Click images to enlarge

 

 

Monkton Homeowners Rebuke Threats of Eminent Domain from Pipeline

Gathering in a small kitchen before a battery of cameras, four Monkton homeowners are raising their voices in ardent resistance to the natural gas pipeline that is proposed to slither its way through Addison County. Recently receiving letters of eminent domain, homeowners Claire Broughton; Louise Peyser; Nancy Menard; and Maren Vasatka held a press conference on Wednesday morning to address the escalating tactics and threats of the Vermont Gas Company.

On January 17^th, each of them received a letter from Vermont Gas stating “With the issuance of the CPG [Certificate of Public Good] we have reached a critical milestone in the Project's schedule. We'd like to revisit our proposal with you one more time before Vermont Gas must begin the legal process of eminent domain to acquire the easement rights necessary to construct the Project.” Vasatka, whose home lays along the pipeline's proposed route, spoke candidly of her experience resisting the pipeline and the Canadian owned energy corporation that has set its sights on her home:

“We have tried several avenues for help. We have written to the Public Service Board, we have not received a response. We have reached out to our legislators who tell us they do not have jurisdiction over the Public Service Board. We have reached out to the department of Public Service, whose position is that they represent the rate-payers; and because the rate-payers' funds are being used to buy these easements, the Department cannot assist us, the landowners, to get fair market value for our property for fear of raising the costs to the rate-payers.”

From left: Claire Broughton, Louise Peyser, Nancy Menard, and Maren Vasatka

Continuing through a heated question and answer session; Louise Peyser, who also received a letter threatening eminent domain, chastised Vermont State officials for failing to represent her as a citizen. “The truth is, I don't want a pipeline, I'm faced with it because of the Public Service Board. Why should I give somebody the right to take my happiness, my enjoyment of my home away?” said Peyser. “And it is not in my opinion a public good. I am also a citizen and I've been failed by my Governor, my Board of Selectmen, I've been failed by everybody! There's just no-one who stands up for a single person.” When asked about her refusal so far to agree to an easement with Vermont Gas, Claire Broughton summed up her firm response to VTG Right of Way Agent Stephen Taylor, “I'm not signing this because you have not answered my questions.”

When asked if they felt that the pipeline fit with the broader energy and sustainability goals of the Green Mountain State, the Monkton four responded unanimously: “absolutely not.” Elaborating on already existing systems of renewable energy across her community, Vasatka fears that such an enticing pipeline would become a distraction. “Addison County could have been a poster-child for renewable energy without this,” she said. “We already have the evils of fossil fuel. Why are we adding another evil?”

With the slow thawing of snow in the North Country, it appears that the stage is set for the summer of 2014 to become a watershed moment for popular resistance to the domestic expansion of fossil fuels and the infrastructure that supports them. As businesses, neighbors, communities, and homes are put under increasing pressure and threat by corporations like Vermont Gas and Gaz Metro, we will arrive at a crossroads leading to separate and distinct futures.

If communities recognize their broader goals for resistance and downright survival, Vermonters will be once again positioned to lead the nation in chartering a radically sustainable relationship to their home landscape. On the other hand, if the propaganda, fear-mongering, and political treachery of Vermont Gas proves successful; we will join the rest of the planet in a lemming's march over the cliff of the coming decades. The climate will change further, shortages and extreme weather will become the new normal, toxic spills and dangerous explosions be innumerable, and we will be party to the worst economic and ecological plundering of any time in our collective history.

Standing of knife's edge of history, Vermont's next footfall may prove to be our most important step yet.

 

For more work by Dylan Kelley like his Facebook page, visit his website, and follow him on Twitter via @LiveFromGround.

Rising Tide Joins Residents in Pipeline Opposition

As Public Service Board proceedings move forward in Montpelier the climate justice organization Rising Tide Vermont is joing residents across Addison County in their opposition the proposed VT Gas pipeline. Taking part in a working Barbecue in Monkton over the weekend, organizers with Rising Tide conducted a "pipeline walk" with landowners through the soon to be affected areas; including sugarbushes, archeological sites, and numerous wetlands.

Stay tuned for further coverage.

Tense Community Hearing in Shoreham

Part of an ongoing project about the VT Gas pipeline through Addison County, VT; this series of pictures comes from an especially tense community meeting in the tiny town of Shoreham, Vermont. Wary of the ecological and economic costs of constructing a natural gas pipeline through their community for the sake of a single business, Shoreham residents ask tough questions of community leadership and management of International Paper's Ticonderoga Mill.

For more work by Dylan Kelley visit his website, Vermont Commons blog, Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter via @LiveFromGround.

Here Be Dragons!

While working on a continuing project about the proposed VT Gas pipeline through Addison County, Vermont; I managed to find myself photographing a growling "pipeline dragon" in Bristol, VT's 4th of July parade (click to enlarge).  Fun times!