SUPPORT PIPELINE RESISTERS NATE PALMER AND KAREN BIXLER AT THE MIDDLEBURY COURTHOUSE ON OCTOBER 26TH 8:30 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 15, 2017
Fracked gas from Canada may be flowing through the Vermont Gas System’s (VGS) 41 mile pipeline from Colchester to Middlebury, Vermont, but the fight to stop it from continuing to Rutland County and south from there to a global market, has not.
On Thursday, October 26th at 8:30 AM at the Middlebury, VT Courthouse, Nathan Palmer and Karen Bixler, who are charged with trespassing on a VGS pipeline site, will defend themselves in court.
In solidarity, we urge you to show up in court to support their actions and demonstrate Vermonters’ ongoing resistance to a fossil fuel pipeline carrying fracked gas.
Vermont Gas Systems is owned by the Canadian energy giant, Gaz Metro, which could use Vermont as an energy corridor to transport Canadian fracked gas to global markets. Gaz Metro is the parent company of Green Mountain Power, which controls over 70% of Vermont’s energy market.
Despite Vermont’s nominal ban on fracking within our state borders, strong support for VGS to transport fracked gas into the state began with former Governor Shumlin and state departments under his direction, like the Department of Public Service and Agency of Natural Resources, that expedited the construction of this pipeline.
Natural gas is not natural. It is a fossil fuel derived from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a highly polluting water- and chemical-intensive process of oil and gas extraction which releases methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 100 times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide.
The VGS pipeline infrastructure locks Vermont into a future dependent on fossil fuels rather than investing in renewable energy sources, and undercuts progress on achieving Vermont’s renewable energy goals.
Join us at the Middlebury Courthouse on October 26th and be part of the resistance. Support a clean energy future for Vermont and stop the expansion of the VGS pipeline.