Public Forum on the Vermont Fracked Gas Pipeline
Montpelier High School Auditorium
5:30 - 8:30 pm Wednesday, February 22
On February 6th eight people occupied the Department of Public Service and won a Public Forum with the DPS Commissioner!
They, along with the Coalition to Stop the VT Fracked Gas Pipeline, are inviting you to join us and make it clear that we know the facts:
Gas is Expensive
Gas is Dirty
Vermont Gas Lied
This occupation of the DPS was an attempt to stop the 11th hour of Phase 1 of the VT Fracked Gas Pipeline. If VGS is allowed to complete Phase 1 to Middlebury the next phase will bring this fracked fossil fuel to Rutland, dangerously close to the US grid and the International Market.
Why we have to stop this pipeline
Gas is expensive
Gas is temporarily cheap because of the explosion of the fracked gas industry, but without the infrastructure to distribute it. Once the pipelines and international shipping terminals are built the surplus of gas will shrink as supply meets demand on the international market. As demand finally catches up with supply the price will have to spike, regardless of what multinational fracking companies want us to believe. That’s just how the market works.
What about “Mostly renewables by 2050”? Not only is 2050 probably about 20 years too late by all credible scientific estimates, the VT Fracked Gas Pipeline will keep Canadian methane flowing to international markets, and keep changing the global climate, no matter what our VT market is doing with gas or renewables.
Methane (“Natural Gas”) is a very dirty greenhouse gas.
Methane has a global warming potential of approximately 80 times that of CO2 over the 20- year time frame, or 8,000%. That’s too much. (Source: the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/).
This gas is fracked on Native Land, is financed by TD Bank just like DAPL, built by one of the same construction firms as DAPL, and will help bring on runaway climate change which will impact the worlds most vulnerable the hardest.
VGS Lies. DPS is working hand-in-hand with “Vermont Gas Systems”, part of a multi-national fracked gas conglomerate, while VGS bullies and deceives the VT public again and again.
The original bid for the pipeline was just over $60M, then over $80M, now over $160M but, using a page from the tobacco industry playbook, they lie that their “clean-burning natural gas” pipeline is “On time and on budget” in almost every press release.
They say this gas is going to continue to be affordable, but are knowingly saddling VT with the cost of this $160M+ pipeline plus the inevitable increase in the cost of gas. It’s ironic that this is partially because this pipeline will help global gas supply catch up with demand.
Landowners and small towns along the pipeline route report constant deception and deliberate misinformation from VGS representatives from the start.
Please come show the DPS and your fellow Vermonters that you aren’t going let this irresponsible pipeline be built without a fight. We are looking forward to seeing you in Montpelier next Wednesday, but if you are unable to attend the forum but would like to make comments or provide input, you may contact the Department by writing to the Department of Public Service at 112 State St., Montpelier VT 05602 or by calling the Consumer Affairs and Public Information Division at 1-800-622-4496 or by e-mailing psd.consumer@vermont.gov. Please cc Laura Simon from the Stop the Pipeline Coalition simonlaura06@gmail.com
Please join us! https://www.facebook.com/events/1793284147555425/
In defense of our communities and our future,
The Coalition to Stop the Vermont Fracked Gas Pipeline.
(350VT, Just Power, Protect Geprags, the Make, The Upper Valley Affinity Group, Rising Tide VT, The Rutland Area Climate Coalition, and countless dedicated individuals)
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