Above Photo:Â Mary Crandall/flickr/cc
Dozens of community members just shut down ANOTHER eminent domain hearing for Vermont Gas Systems fracked gas pipeline. We packed the hearing room, made them let EVERYONE in, and used our voices to defend the home of our friend Claire Broughton. The hearing was adjourned within ten minutes, further delaying the eminent domain process and the construction of the largest fossil fuel project Vermont has seen in the past 50 years.
It’s getting pretty clear – It’s time to leave the gas inside the ground. We’re singing out for climate justice NOW!
We hope you can join us for the next one, Friday, February 19 @ 9:30 am at the Public Service Board office in Montpelier. Stay tuned for details.
If you can’t make it, support this movement to defend the planet here:Â http://bit.ly/1RS9v0y
350 Vermont, Just Power, Vermont Workers’ Center, Rising Tide North America, FANG: Fighting Against Natural Gas
another report by Stuart:
“The prehearing conference at the Public Service Board this morning was most definitely disrupted. Twenty five to thirty people belted out “Officer My Dear”, drowning out the eminent domain proceedings brought by Vermont Gas Systems against landowner Claire Broughton of Monkton. Lawyers for the gas company and the Vermont Department of Public Service huddled at the front desk for a very few minutes before the session was adjourned. (There should be a video posted soon.)
PSB staff attorney Tom Knauer presided over the session as the hearing officer. VGS was represented by Attorney Dodge and two assistants. Louise Porter, from the Public Advocacy Division, represented the Department of Public Service. Jim Dumont represented Claire Broughton, who was not present.
There were at least 4 uniformed police from the Washington County Sheriff’s department in the hearing room and in the hallway outside. (Brian Tokar told us later that he had counted at least 6 state troopers and 4 Lamoille County Sheriff’s officers in the parking lot outside.) At first they only allowed as many people in the room as there were chairs set up around the perimeter, about 25, citing fire marshal instructions. Members of the public objected, noting that far more had crammed into the room in earlier hearings. When pressed on the maximum number allowed in the room, one of the deputies responded “30 to 35 … ish” Shortly after that, they allowed the 5 – 10 people remaining in the hallway to come in the room and stand behind one line of chairs.
Before the start of the hearing people engaged the police in a very polite but spirited discussion about public hearings and discourse and what constituted “orderly” conduct.
The plan that was finalized in the meeting at the church just before the hearing was for a disruption of the session, primarily through song by pairs of singers. We formed into pairs or threes at the church, trying to make sure there was a strong singer in each. We practiced a bit then agreed on the order in which each pair would sing. The expectation was that each pair would be removed from the hearing room by the authorities, then another pair would take over.
The hearing officer and another PSB staffer entered the room and convened the conference. That’s when the first two singers stood up and sang. They were Heidi, who has the amazing voice and often leads us in song, and Karen Bixler from UVAG. They sang while the rest of the room hummed along loudly. It appeared that the gas lawyers were complaining but I couldn’t really hear what they were saying. After a while Heidi and Karen sat down. The parties at the table seemed to compose themselves. The hearing officer read from a script about how members of the public should conduct themselves. He intoned, “I note for the record that some members of the public were singing… I note for the record that now some members of the public are humming.” He started to proceed with the hearing when the next duet stood and sang. After a while when it became clear that none of the parties could hear each other, the hearing officer and his assistant left the room.
The sheriff warned us that continued singing would constitute disorderly conduct and that singers could be subject to immediate arrest. There followed more energetic discourse between public and police. Then the hearing officer and his assistant re-entered the room and took their seats. The conference resumed and the next pair of singers, Erok and I, stood and sang. (I know I’d said I wasn’t going to do that.) It didn’t take long at all for the wheels to come completely off. The lawyers moved to the front desk to try to hear each other. Almost everybody else in the room took up the song at the top of their lungs. It was joyous bedlam. The PSB lawyers left. The gas lawyers left. The DPS lawyer glowered at us on the way out. Jim Dumont seemed unfazed….”
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