Addison County, VT — The ten landowners who have been working with Governor Shumlin to address Vermont Gas System’s predatory practices in securing easements and rights-of-way, were astonished to learn through a VGS press release today that VGS claimed to have opened direct dialogue with them. The Governor’s office sent a letter to VGS a few days ago requesting that the company institute a pause or moratorium on eminent domain filings and interaction between VGS and landowners to provide the space needed to rebuild trust between landowners and the state and thereafter with VGS. In response, the company chose to issue a press release claiming the opening of direct dialogue.
“Once again VGS is using a negotiating platform as some twisted press advantage instead of dealing forthrightly with the issue,” said Maren Vasatka of Monkton. “It’s all smoke and mirrors and illustrates perfectly our point that VGS never addresses the real problems at hand.”
George Gross, who attended the meeting with the Governor last week, characterized VGS’ statements as tone deaf propaganda and clearly out of step with the facts. He said: “In their press release, VGS has chosen to ignore that they have been asked by the Governor’s office to immediately stand down all land easement acquisition activities and not resume them until they have agreed to abide by a set of legal safeguards and ground rules that protect the public’s interest for fairness. The Governor office’s request reflects a recognition there have been many months of VGS misbehaviors to realize rapid and exploitive easement terms from landowners. Trust has been broken.”
Jane Palmer, another landowner added, “No amount of PR or corporate communications showmanship changes the truth. We’ve come to this point because VGS has used every trick in the book to get people to sign away their property rights for less than is reasonable. VGS’ idea of ‘collaboration’ is getting landowners to be complicit in their own demise. VGS’ idea of ‘respect’ for landowners is putting out a press release that misstates the facts to try to save face and buy more time to go about business as usual. VGS knows full well that we’ve seen new team after new team promise to “reset” the relationship and then continue on as before.”
Claire Broughton, a fifth-generation Vermonter who grew up in Chittenden and lives Monkton on a property subject to the pipeline route, added “VGS thinks that the Vermont way is to treat people like mushrooms – feed them a bunch of manure and keep them in the dark – this might be the country, but we’re actually human beings, who deserve to be treated with real respect. We have a right to reasonable conditions and fair compensation for the rights-of-way VGS wants on our property. We think that the Governor’s office is in the best position to get VGS to see the light. We’ve tried over and over on our own, and it’s just no use.”
The landowners say they’ll welcome the tri-lateral negotiation between the Governor’s office, VGS, and the landowners as soon as Vermont Gas agrees to the Governor’s request for a moratorium on all land acquisition activity.
George Gross explained, “Once we have the moratorium in place and these negotiations have concluded successfully, there will be numerous improvements in the process to assure that the public interest is protected and it is served ahead of VGS interests. The easements contracts will include the best practice legal provisions that are common in other states that protect landowners’ interests and assure they have just compensation for the life of the easement. Landowners should make their complex easement contractual decisions informed by their legal council, regardless of their ability to afford such council. VGS will not use non-disclosure agreements to silence landowners about their terms and conditions as a way to manipulate the information available to the market. VGS land agents will obey professional behavior protocols for their landowner interactions that are comparable to those observed by Vermont’s real estate agents. Only with these safeguards in place can land acquisitions be resumed in alignment with Vermont’s expectations for fairness.”