By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
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| Three activists locked themselves to different pieces of construction equipment on Sept. 14 to protest natural-gas projects in Burrillville, R.I. (FANG) |
BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — Environmental activists have once again launched an act of disobedience on the grounds of a natural-gas pipeline project and a proposed natural-gas power plant.
Before sunrise on Sept. 14, Matt Smith of New Jersey, Nick
Katkevich of Rhode Island and Keith Clougherty of Massachusetts locked
themselves to construction equipment with fortified PVC pipes to temporarily
halt expansion of Spectra Energy’s compressor station.
The project will
increase the volume of natural gas flowing along the 1,200-mile Algonquin
pipeline that runs from New Jersey to a distribution hub outside Boston.
The protests are drawing attention to the local and global
environmental impacts of natural-gas extraction, distribution and use as a
fuel.
“What happens in Burrillville doesn’t stay in Burrillville. This
project hurts communities across the Northeast and climate change is already
killing people around the world,” said Clougherty, who lives near a proposed
compressor station and pipeline expansion project in Weymouth, Mass.
On Aug. 13, two protesters were arrested after locking themselves to the gate of the compressor station. Both were released the same day and eventually convicted of trespassing.
One of the arrested was Peter Nightingale.
The University of Rhode Island physics professor recently embarked on a series
of fasts to coincide with several protests in Rhode Island and an ongoing
protest outside of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency
in Washington, D.C., that issues permits for fossil-fuel projects.
“FERC has a pattern of rubber-stamping fracking-related
infrastructure and other fossil-fuel projects, in violation of the National
Environmental Policy Act as well as ancient, venerated legal principles,” said
Nightingale, a founding member of the divestment advocacy group Fossil Free
Rhode Island.
Activists have held regular protests at and outside the compressor
station. In May, two protesters were arrested after a tree-sit at the
edge of the compressor station. Civil disobedience has been on the rise since
Gov. Gina Raimondo announced last
month plans for a $700 million natural gas-fired power plant on land next to
the compressor station.
National Grid recently unveiled plans for a $100
million gas-liquefaction plant on the Providence waterfront. A similar project
is planned for New Bedford, Mass. A new gas-fired power plant also is being
built in Salem, Mass., in tandem with pipeline expansion.
New England’s governors say the projects are needed to ease winter
demand for natural gas and control price swings.
This latest protest was organized by Fighting Against Natural Gas (FANG), a
group with an active chapter in Rhode Island that has engaged in several
protests against natural-gas projects across southern New England since it was
founded in 2014.
Fire and police plan to remove the protesters by cutting off their
PVC locks.