About three dozen climate activists demonstrated at Vermont Gas’ headquarters in South Burlington on Tuesday to protest the company’s plan to extend a natural gas pipeline down the western side of the state. One protester was arrested and one Vermont Gas employee was slightly injured, the company said.
Rising Tide Vermont and 350.org, the groups organizing the protest, demand that Vermont Gas cancel the project schedule for construction in June. The groups say natural gas sourced from the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, emits more greenhouse gases than coal.
“Climate change is already driving heat waves, torrential rains, and flooding in the Northeast, which is only predicted to worsen in the coming years,” Rising Tide member Jonathan Shapiro said in a statement. “In this context of mounting climate crisis, building new fossil fuel infrastructure is an exercise in complete lunacy and must be stopped.”
About 20 protesters were issued trespass citations and one person was arrested, according to South Burlington Police Detective Ron Bliss.
Sara Mehalick of Plainfield locked herself to the building’s main entrance before she was arrested. She had planned to remain locked to the door until Vermont Gas canceled the project.
“Today I’m taking action because Vermont Gas is intent upon shackling our communities to fossil fuels, and condemning us to irreversible climate change,” Mehalick said before the rally Tuesday. “Today we’re here to tell Vermont Gas to cancel their construction plans, or expect to see growing resistance.”
Vermont Gas Systems plans to build a 41-mile, $86.6 million natural gas pipeline extension through Addison County to connect service in Chittenden and Franklin counties to Middlebury. The first phase of the project has received state regulatory approval and is scheduled to be completed next year.
The company said it plans to keep to the current schedule despite the protests.
Steve Wark, a Vermont Gas spokesperson, said an administrative staff employee was physically harmed when protesters were chaining Mehalick to the door. He said the woman showed “visible signs of injury” but was not hospitalized.
The employee has not filed assault charges and the company will not release her name, Wark said.
The company said in a statement it had “previously planned to allow protesters to express their view, peacefully,” but that after the employee was injured, it can no longer trust the protesters to remain nonviolent.
“It crossed the line. It’s just not OK to hurt people,” Wark said in a phone interview.
Rising Tide Vermont denied allegations that the employee was injured during the rally.
“The fossil fuel industry is desperate for profits, and they will say anything to protect their bottom line,” the group said in a statement.
Rising Tide Vermont dropped a 300-square-foot banner from the company’s roof Tuesday morning. At the peak of the rally, about three dozen protesters were present, according to group member Keith Brunner.
“This is part of a long tradition of nonviolent protest,” he said.
He said the group is also protesting Vermont Gas’ negotiations with landowners for the pipeline’s right-of-way. The company has told landowners along the pipeline route it has the right to take their land by eminent domain, a process in which state regulators decide a price for the amount of land taken.
Vermont Gas also has applied to state regulators for the second phase of the pipeline expansion, which would connect Middlebury to the International Paper mill in Ticonderoga, N.Y. The second phase of the expansion would move the utility closer to completing its final proposed extension to Rutland, the company said.
Rising Tide Vermont says it will continue protesting until the application is dropped.
