Two days before Christmas came the news environmental activists and landowners in Addison County were dreading: The Public Service Board approved Vermont Gas’s plan to build a 43-mile, $86.6 million natural gas pipeline from Chittenden County south to Middlebury.
But neither the stamp of approval, nor frigid temperatures and biting wind in downtown Burlington, deterred protestors from turning out for a rally Saturday against that decision. Altogether, around 75 people met up outside One Main Street, waving placards and banners and stamping their feet to keep warm.
The proposed pipeline has fueled opposition throughout Vermont. Environmentalists decry the additional construction of fossil fuel infrastructure instead of renewable energy resources, and they oppose the technology used to obtain the Canadian natural gas. A portion of the gas the pipeline would carry is obtained in Canada using hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Thanks to our hardy copatriots who are speaking out against Gaz. Natural gas, by the way just spiked up in price…anyone notice? Also, Canadian owned Vermont Gaz also bought many other utilities in Vermont. (Remember playing monopoly?). Now a 3 man board has granted them, what, the equivalent of a blessing??? Seems this is backwards from how citizens usually have to own the land first, then apply for permits and explain the wetlands, then ask permission. Is this how the gaz people will claim imminent domain? You know they do not have a “Velco” right of way if anyone really wants to look. There should be no pipelines in wetlands or Under the lake (you left that part out). I mean Lake Champlain…New York said No…So what is so puzzling? We need to say no, forget your pipeline, no 3 man board can vote to trash our pristine countryside.
Vermont really needs an annual Oscars type award ceremony for activist/protest groups.
The anti-pipeline protest is a phony protest. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the those who oppose it, so maybe they don’t realize that oil and propane are also extracted using fracking techniques – often with more dire environmental consequences. But they aren’t opposing oil and propane – they are opposing a pipeline. If natural gas was trucked like propane, would they be protesting? I doubt it because then they would have to compare natural gas with oil and propane and they would see that natural gas is the better alternative for the environment. So we are left with comparing piping energy vs. trucking it. I think piping it is much better and I am left to conclude that this is a protest “fueled” by an emotional response to “Gazland” and not to a rational analysis of the alternatives. When anyone can convince me that oil and propane are better than gas, then I will listen.
Let’s not forget the people in Vergennes spoke: 70%voted in favor of the pipeline. I wonder what the vote would be of all communities along the path? Probably the same!