Don’t put your pom-poms away just yet — folks are still standing up to the gas and oil industry!
Three dozen or so demonstrators organized by Rising Tide Vermont and 350.org stormed and occupied the Vermont Gas Systems headquarters Tuesday morning, dropping a 300-square-foot banner from the roof and chaining themselves to the front door by the neck.
Though Vermont Gas alleges one employee was injured in the “melee” at the front door, Rising Tide Vermont insists the civil disobedience action was peaceful.
Before the rally, Rising Tide Vermont activist Sara Mehalick stated:
“Today, I’m taking action because Vermont Gas is intent upon shackling our communities to fossil fuels, and condemning us to irreversible climate change. Today we’re here to tell Vermont Gas to cancel their construction plans, or expect to see growing resistance.”
Another member, Jonathan Shapiro said:
“Climate change is already driving heat waves, torrential rains, and flooding in the Northeast, which is only predicted to worsen in the coming years. In this context of mounting climate crisis, building new fossil fuel infrastructure is an exercise in complete lunacy and must be stopped.”
“This is not a local issue, this is a national and global issue.”
Mehalick boldly declared:
“I’m staying here today until Vermont Gas withdraws all of their permit applications, including the current application to the Public Service Board, and stops all of their construction plans for the first phase of the pipeline.”
She added that she wished to see…
“…community solutions to meet our energy needs that are affordable and also maintain a livable planet for all of our communities. New fossil fuel infrastructure is not a part of that solution.”
Vermont Gas spokesperson Steve Wark had this to say:
“In this particular case there were a couple of protestors that actually stormed into the building, distracted employees and went up to the roof — a very dangerous situation. But I think the most disturbing one was one of our employees was assaulted. She was at the front door, was caught in the melee of what was going on, and she’s been injured.”
Most likely, the struggle over the Vermont Gas System’s proposed pipeline will continue until after the project’s completion, or Rising Tide Vermont’s mission of peaceful dissent is accomplished.
This article was first published by Take 10. The full article can be read here.
Dylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2003 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact Of Branded Celebrity due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Take Ten, Addicting Info and Green Action News. Follow him on Google+!
