South Burlington police on Wednesday night arrested Jane Palmer of Monkton at the Vermont Gas headquarters after Palmer — a landowner who lives along the route of a proposed, hotly debated pipeline that would carry natural gas to Addison County — refused to leave the building after business hours.
There wasn’t any banner waving, sign toting or political theater at the afternoon’s protest, as was the case in late May at a larger event; this time, it was just five women, knitting needles in hand, camped out in the lobby of the Swift Street business. They’d come requesting a meeting with Vermont Gas leaders to raise several concerns — among them alleged trespassing on the part of Vermont Gas employees on private property along the pipeline route.
The protestors — who included Palmer, Claire Broughton and Maren Vasatka of Monkton, Mary Martin of Cornwall and Rebecca Foster of Charlotte — also expressed deep frustration with the way Vermont Gas dealt with protestors in the past. They pointed to the charges of trespass leveled against Henry Harris, Will Bennington and Sara Mehalick after a May 27 protest. Vermont Gas alleged the protestors assaulted a company employee at the event; protestors maintain it was a peaceful undertaking.
Sitting in the gas company lobby, Palmer said she was “appalled and incensed” after watching one of the arraignments following that event, and in a statement the women accused the company of using “scare tactics” to fend off dissent.
“By over-prosecuting, by coming on so strong, it makes people people wary to get involved,” said Foster.
They called their protest a “knit-in.” Speaking more broadly, the women returned to a consistent refrain of complaints about the pipeline project, raised over the last two years by residents along the route and environmentalists across the state. Those complaints include concerns about the environmental toll of using “fracked” natural gas; the behavior of Vermont Gas officials and contractors; and the concerns of landowners who feel railroaded by the gas company and ignored by regulators.
Foster said that after participating “beautifully” in the process — writing letters to the Public Service Board, to local newspapers and speaking up at public hearings — the small group felt compelled to make their concerns known.
“We’re reluctant activists — because they’ve forced us to be,” said Martin, whose Cornwall home is along the proposed route of the second phase of the pipeline project.
“Nobody is listening, and that’s why we feel we have to make a point,” said Palmer. “This is what it’s come to.”
Five p.m. arrived, and with it the official closing hours for Vermont Gas. Vermont Gas employee Tom Murray stepped into the lobby, requesting the group — and the assembled band of reporters — to leave the building. Reporters and photographers were nudged outside. Several police cruisers eventually arrived. After being issued formal warnings against trespass, Martin, Foster, Broughton and Vasatka — along with a supporter filming the event — voluntarily left the building.
But Palmer stayed on. According to South Burlington Chief of Police Trevor Whipple, Palmer was cited with trespass, and taken to the South Burlington police station.
Martin, visibly frustrated and upset, wagged her finger at one police officer behind the wheel. “Shame on you,” Martin said, as the cruiser glided away with Palmer, in a floral sundress and straw hat, sitting in the back seat.
Steve Wark, Vermont Gas Spokesman, was not available for comment on the protest.
The afternoon’s protest came on the same day that Vermont Gas announced that higher-than-expected material costs — as well as increased project oversight and additional construction inspectors — were bumping up the cost of the first phase of the Addison Rutland Natural Gas Project by an additional $35.6 million. The updated cost of the pipeline project now stands at an estimated $121.6 million.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Way to go Vermont landowners! Why should a Canadian energy company have more rights to their land than the landowners themselves??? I applaud Ms. Palmer’s bravery.
In addition, Vermont Public Radio is reporting*:
“[Vermont Gas employee Tom] Murray asked the media to leave the headquarters at 5 p.m. Murray physically pushed Seven Days reporter Kathryn Flagg toward the door when she did not immediately comply.”
SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!??!
For the sake of journalists’ rights and safety, I hope Ms. Flagg presses charges against Mr. Murray. Assault and battery is definitely not something VT journalists should have to endure as “part of the job.”
*source: http://digital.vpr.net/post/protesters-stage-knit-vermont-gas-offices
If I recall correctly Don Gilbert once said that if communities didn’t want the pipeline VGS wouldn’t come with it.
Nevertheless, landowners never pressed any charges against VGS employees or contractors for trespassing or defacing properties with survey flags while there. Even in the face of your company thinking that trespassing is OK even after you’ve been asked not come back. Doing it sneakily so that people don’t even know it’s happening is OK. Showing up on someone’s property to dig a trench through it and lay down a gas pipeline is OK. It’s even OK if when you get to the end of the property, you move on leaving your garbage with just some soil thrown on top. It’s OK for you to bring with you some pipeline construction workers, who who are selling meth to one another —
on the job no less. And if a couple of those workers try to strangle each other outside the local hardware store that’s OK too. Shoving a journalist is OK.
But, on the flip side, two young men walking through unlocked doors at a building that is open to the public is trespassing. Hanging a banner on your roof is “defacing property.” Protesting peacefully is extremism and “crossing the line.” A mother, three grandmothers, and a sister/aunt/kind neighbor knitting in the reception area of your offices and staying in hopes that you meet some pretty reasonable demands is not OK?
To (mis)quote a favorite American movie, I will just say this VGS leadership about protesters visiting your office:
If you don’t build it they won’t come.
This pipeline goes through my land. They have asserted a right-of way easement without my consent and are planning to go ahead with construction despite my opposition, under the rubric of ‘public good’. An agent from Vermont Gas has called my aged mother in South Carolina repeatedly, trying to get me to negotiate. I have no idea how they got her phone number but this is a form of harassment. I do not accept their offer. I oppose this pipeline and am not soliciting bids for its construction across my property. They can go pound sand as far as I’m concerned.
Kudos to the Burlington Free Press for a great video http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/n…
If they can have you arrested for being on their property, why can’t landowners have them arrested when they go onto yours?
Nice that this story comes at the same time that Vt. Gas adds 40% to its budget. If I did that in the website development business, I wouldn’t be in business for long! And So much for all those lower energy rates. The fleecing of Vermonters begins for this dangerous, unsound, and environmentally irresponsible pipeline (for gas that Vermont homeowners can’t even tap into!). As they have in other states, the lower rate argument is just a lie. They say it to get the permits, and raise the rates incrementally after that. So, thanks to the Public Service Board and a few businesses for hanging yet another environmental disaster in the making around our necks, with no economic upside.
natural is an overused word. the way that ‘natural’ gas is taken from the earth is anything but natural.
It’s true, Murray pushed Katie on her upper arm; I happened to be looking right at them when he did it. I was astounded. Two important points. 1) Katie is *tiny* — short and slight. 2) The push was a physical manifestation of Murray’s vocal insistence that the journalists leave the premises, which he chose to direct toward Katie, the smallest and only female reporter, rather than the larger men with video cameras and other apparatus. Katie was apologizing to him for staying, but explaining that it was her job to stay and follow the story and see what would happen to the knitters; she also said she wanted to call her editor. After the shove, however, she stepped outside the first glass door, and we could see her on the phone (presumably with her editor), shaking and crying. She’s a hero for having had to endure Murray’s dishonorable, cowardly, and sexist focus on her. She’s also a hero for turning out the most substantive of the reports on the knit-in yet.
I am so proud of our Monkton neighbor. Bravo, Jane Palmer!!
It breaks my heart that the Palmers’ property is being threatened in this way. I’ve witnessed the respectful and heartfelt connection they’ve had to their land for over 15 years. How ironic that they should be faced with the prospect of this dangerous and destructive project running right through their cherished land and right next to their house.
This pipeline has nothing whatsoever to do with public good. Nothing at all. As the true costs and dangers of the project are coming to light, more people are questioning it. I feel inspired by the five knitters. Let’s find creative ways to make our voices heard and to raise awareness of these issues while there is still time.
Kudos to Mrs. Palmer! I also love the quote “We’re reluctant activists” from one of the other knitters. Its looking like more and more of us reluctant folk are going to have to step up to the plate to fight this ugly battle. The will of the people and the sacredness of the land should always, ALWAYS trump profit.