Photos by C.B. Hall/for VTDigger
[T]hree people were arrested Monday morning at the building housing the Department of Public Service and Public Service Board on Montpelier’s State Street, as part of a weekend-long protest against plans to build a natural-gas pipeline from Colchester to Middlebury.
Montpelier police booked Johann Kulsic of Burlington, Crystal Zevon of Barnet and Peter Przepioski of Craftsbury on charges of disorderly conduct. All were released and are due in court Dec. 3.
Kulsic said he was willing to be arrested because he is “terrified” by climate change.
As about 20 police officials from several jurisdictions gathered at the scene, Kulsic chained himself to a rear entrance of the building, which also houses People’s United Bank. Zevon and Przepioski blocked an entrance to the state offices at the bank’s ATM kiosk facing State Street.
“There were folks inside the building before the individual chained himself to the door,” DPS Deputy Commissioner Jon Copans said in a phone interview. “I had staff who did not feel safe. We welcome a lively debate about this and other energy projects, but would hope that all sides uphold Vermont’s tradition of a civil dialogue.”
About 30 demonstrators held banners and sang songs at both entrances to the building in support of the three people who were arrested. Shortly after the arrests, they moved aside without incident, and regrouped themselves along State Street. By mid-morning they had begun to dismantle their demonstration and disperse.
Some of the protesters spent the night camped out along State Street parking places, after the group, organized by 350 Vermont and Rising Tide Vermont, dismantled a demonstration that had blocked the thoroughfare Saturday and Sunday.
Security personnel at the scene said they had not received advance notification of the civil disobedience, but “had some idea that something was going to happen,” Peter Danles, director of state security programs, said at the scene.
Reached by telephone, Beth Parent, a spokeswoman for Vermont Gas Systems, which is building the pipeline, said the company is helping its customers use cleaner-burning fuel.
“We share the same goals of a cleaner environment,” Parent said. “Natural gas is cleaner than heating oil, and we’re helping people who make the switch reduce their emissions. And we’re also participating in nationally recognized efficiency programs that are helping to reduce the carbon footprint.”
According to Pittman, the VGS pipeline would carry natural gas extracted through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations on indigenous, or First Nations, land in Alberta, Pittman said. Parent said “it would be impossible to trace what percentage, if any, may or may not be from hydraulic fracturing.”
Protesters emphasized the climate-changing effects of reliance on carbon-based fuels, as well as what they perceive as collusion between VGS and state authorities in advancing the pipeline project. Of particular concern is a memorandum of understanding between the state and Vermont Gas that set a cap on ratepayer contributions to the project. Lawyers for opponents of the pipeline say the MOU guarantees that ratepayers will pay $134 million in construction costs for the pipeline.
A Sunday night press release from Rising Tide quoted spokeswoman Avery Pittman as promising “to continue to obstruct DPS and the PSB until . . . they ban the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure.” However, responding to a VTDigger question as the Monday morning action progressed, she said she didn’t know if either body had the legal right to enact such a ban.
“No, we [the Department] certainly can’t,” Copans said to that question, adding that the PSB, for its part, only “considers individual applications [for approval to proceed]. A decision of that magnitude would certainly be made at the Legislature.”
Opponents said the public process for approving utility matters hinders participation.
“These processes aren’t at all designed for people’s participation,” Pittman said. “It’s clear to us that the state administration wants to make it easier to destroy our future rather than representing the people.”
