[T]he sole remaining holdout in Vermont Gas System’s quest to purchase easements for a 41-mile natural gas pipeline, has agreed not to contest eminent domain proceedings next week.
Hinesburg select board members Thursday evening voted 3 to 2 to accept $250,000 in exchange for allowing Vermont Gas to obtain an easement through the town’s Geprags Park. The negotiations were held in executive session.
Jim Dumont, a Bristol-based attorney whose clients are party to the eminent domain proceedings, says the deal is illegal.
Opponents are engaged in other legal wrangling, and an activist group is stepping up protests.
Dumont has asked a Public Service Board member who is hearing the case to recuse herself for the Hinesburg eminent domain hearings on Aug. 4 because he says she has a conflict of interest.
By Aug. 5, Vermont Gas must explain to the Public Service Board why the company should be allowed to continue construction in Hinesburg. Vermont Gas Systems omitted information about a wetlands area in its permit with the state. A biologist hired by Dumont’s clients discovered the wetlands area was not included in the pipeline permit. That demonstrates, Dumont says, that the company didn’t acquire all necessary permits before beginning construction, as required.
Meanwhile, activists spent most of Friday locked to a bulldozer in Middlebury, halting construction at that location for a day.
Hinesburg’s vote
Hinesburg select board members voted Thursday not to contest Vermont Gas eminent domain proceedings for Geprags Park. The parcel is the sole remaining easement needed to complete the pipeline.
An earlier agreement between Vermont Gas and Hinesburg would have given the town $75,000 for the easement.
Under the new deal, the town will get $250,000 and gas lines to several hundred Hinesburg residents. Vermont Gas representatives say the extension of the gas line to people in town is worth $470,000.
The agreement also requires that Vermont Gas drill horizontally beneath Geprags Park, instead of digging a trench and burying the pipeline.
Dumont says the Public Service Board that the town’s select board doesn’t have the authority to enter into an agreement with Vermont Gas. The Geprags family granted the park to Hinesburg for recreational and educational purposes, and Dumont says the easement doesn’t satisfy either of these purposes.
Vermont Gas offered $125,000 as incentive payment to the town if construction deadlines were met this fall. The additional payment was not approved by the selectboard.
Dumont said this condition would have left his clients vulnerable to pressure from Hinesburg public officials.
“It was a way to say to Hinesburg’s select board, ‘If you can get [my clients] to drop their petition, we’ll give you $125,000,’” Dumont said.
Franklin County and Chittenden County ratepayers will underwrite the Hinesburg agreement with Vermont Gas, Dumont said.
Hinesburg select board members say they sought the best deal they could for town residents, given the fact that Vermont Gas is almost certain to prevail at the hearing.
Select board member Phil Pouech said he’s against the pipeline, but he believes the town had no choice.
“The Public Service Board approved this thing, and it’s coming no matter what Hinesburg does, and therefore, my object is to get the best deal Hinesburg could get to protect the park,” Pouech said. “I feel like we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Pouech says the board sent a signal that they don’t want public involvement, when it recently decided to close the hearing next week. There will be a livestream of the hearing, and the press is allowed to attend.
“The fact that they’re meeting and they don’t want [the meetings] public tells me they’re moving forward — they’re not listening to anybody who objects to the pipeline,” Pouech said. “It’s a done deal.”
Pouech voted against the agreement Hinesburg reached Thursday evening with Vermont Gas. He said his remarks are his own and he is not speaking for the town or the select board.
Deadlines loom?
The company would gladly pay $125,000 to eliminate the legal hassle with Dumont’s clients, because Vermont Gas is under other financial pressures, the Bristol attorney says.
Until the pipeline is finished, the company can’t use money in a system-expansion fund.
That puts the company in a bind, Dumont said, because Vermont Gas will at the end of October seek to use the system-expansion fund to lower gas rates by 3.3 percent. The fund is ratepayer money that has been collected since 2011.
Without the fund, Vermont Gas would need to raise rates by about 14 percent, Dumont says. Most of that rate hike is needed to pay for the 41-mile pipeline, according to the Department of Public Service.
Either way, if the pipeline is not finished by Nov. 1, when the company’s rate-year begins, Vermont Gas can’t use the expansion fund and must pass the 14 percent rate hike along to customers, Dumont said.
Don Rendall, the CEO of Vermont Gas, says the company has requested a 3 percent rate decrease, and has no intention of seeking a hike in rates.
More conflict?
At the Aug. 5 hearing, as a result of the agreement, Hinesburg will not contest Vermont Gas’ efforts to acquire an easement across Geprags Park through eminent domain. But Dumont’s clients — five Hinesburg residents who regularly use the park — will.
Dumont has already contested the company’s actions in a number of ways.
He claims Vermont Gas can’t acquire an easement through Geprags Park using eminent domain. The Vermont Supreme Court has established that property granted to a local government for public use can’t be committed through eminent domain to some other use, Dumont argues in a recently filed motion.
And Dumont has asked one Public Service Board member to recuse herself.
Board member Sarah Hoffman shouldn’t hear the case, he says, because while serving with the Department of Public Service, she testified several times in favor of the pipeline, Dumont argued in a motion filed July 25 with the Public Service Board.
Dumont said he’s unwilling to speculate what effect Hoffman’s recusal might have upon the case.
Work Stoppage
While parties in the legal case prepared Friday for next week’s hearing, environmental activists spent the day locked to a bulldozer in Middlebury.
The machine was located on one of the busier work sites along the 41-mile route of the pipeline, according to Jason Kaye, an activist and a carpenter living in Middlebury.
Kaye talked on the phone with one arm in a section of steel pipe that was attached to a large earth-mover used to lay the pipeline.
“For the first three-and-a-half years, I’ve been trying to stop this process through the regulatory processes of the state of Vermont,” Kaye said. He submitted comments, and attended hearings, but seemingly to no effect, he said.
“It’s become apparent that the Public Service Board doesn’t truly take into account public participation,” Kaye said. “At this stage, there are no more legal avenues that have a reasonable expectation of stopping the project.”
Kaye said he and fellow activist Alex Prolman locked themselves to the machine early Friday morning in hopes of stopping the pipeline’s construction long enough to impact the construction schedule.
“I think for a long time they’ve been in a precarious position, and any delay, no matter how small, has an impact on the likelihood of this being completed,” Kaye said.
Kaye said he also hopes to bring to Vermonters’ attention the fact that the Public Service Board is not serving the public interest. Vermonters need “more control over projects that affect them,” he said, such as the pipeline and the large wind and solar projects that have sparked controversy across the state.
This is Kaye’s first act of civil disobedience, and Prolman’s, they said.
“It’s not an easy decision,” Kaye said. “I was hoping that eventually the Public Service Board would do the right thing. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”
Middlebury police, Addison County Sheriff’s officers and state troopers have all stopped by the site, as have laborers who attempted unsuccessfully to start their work-day.
“We got a bunch of workers who showed up this morning, and they dilly-dallied and tried to figure out how to work at this site, and they left when they realized they couldn’t,” Prolman said.
Prolman and others were among the protesters who have interrupted or prevented several Public Service Board hearings held (or attempted to be held) to consider various elements of the pipeline project.
CORRECTION: The Town of Hinesburg discussed the Vermont Gas deal in open session and did not approve a $125,000 incentive payment from the company.