WILLISTON — Two protesters were arrested Tuesday during an attempt to block construction of a natural gas pipeline extension.
The demonstrators sat on pipes being laid in a ditch with their necks locked together at the construction site along Redmond Road in Williston, halting construction for more than an hour. Williston police arrested the protesters after their necks were freed from a bicycle lock.
Vermont Gas Systems, a subsidiary of the Canadian natural gas distribution company, Gaz Métro, is building a 41-mile pipeline extension from Chittenden County south to Middlebury. The $121 million project is scheduled to be complete by 2015.
Raymond Micklon and David Przepioski, both of Craftsbury Common, locked their necks together in the 8-foot-deep ditch where the pipeline is being laid. The protesters said they were members of Rising Tide Vermont, a direct action environmental group that opposes the pipeline.
“I love this earth and I am defending it against corporate greed,” Przepioski said. “There are things that are more important than money.”
Two other protesters with Rising Tide hung a banner in front of a machine that said, ”Vermont Gas Lied!” The two later folded up the banner and left shortly after police arrived.
Rising Tide Vermont has staged three protests against the pipeline this summer. At Vermont Gas’ South Burlington headquarters, the group dropped an anti-gas banner from the building and blockaded the front entrance. The group later locked arms to block the entrance to a pipeline staging area in Williston.
Micklon said it is contradictory that Vermont has banned the process of hydraulic fracturing but allows fracked natural gas to run through the state. He also said customers should not have to pay for a pipeline that was estimated to cost 40 percent more after it was permitted.
About two-dozen workers with Over & Under Piping Contractors, one of the construction companies working on the pipeline, took pictures and chatted with the protesters.
“At least we’ll be on the news tomorrow morning,” one worker said.
Tim Keefe, vice president of finance and accounting at Vermont Gas, was at the scene. He said the demonstration did not have a substantial impact on the day’s work. The workers started to leave at 5 p.m., shortly before the two protesters were arrested.
Rising Tide opposes expanding fossil fuel infrastructure in Vermont. The group is fighting the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at shale-gas reserves outside of Vermont. That gas partly supplies Vermont Gas.
Pipeline proponents, including Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, say the project will save residents and commercial customers money on heating costs by switching from oil or propane to natural gas. When burned, natural gas emits less carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, than traditional heating fuels. Methane, a more potent greenhouse gas, is emitted before the gas is burned.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified a contractor that was working on the pipeline.
