 United States. We'd love to see the world left that they could play in and enjoy as I have. The oil, the gas, the coal that's in the ground, it has to stay in the ground. You have to control climate change. Not tomorrow is not in the future, it's now. So I ask everybody to do your part, work at it for our kids, for the future, for the little guys who are coming along. I care about them. I hope you will too. The pipeline to be stopped and we want the MOU that the governor and the public service department has signed with the gas company to be cancelled and we want the specific public good that the public service board has given the gas company to be revoked. Folks, we're here last year on October 27th. It's on September 21st with this wonderful group of people, the Williston Six, the Upper Valley Affinity Group who's up here with me. And it was just an honor to be awake at dawn with these amazing elders as the sun's coming up over the Winooski, the Fog, and helping these elders get locked to the gates of the Williston Pipeyard. I'm a gay zoe. I know Hagen Coasek citizen who has been involved in the Indigenous People's Movement for over 25 years. All in eyes. All of the United States. This is what we must look at. You say you have clean energy, but who does it affect? The original peoples first. The Lubicon, the Cree. They have a higher instance of cancer and pristine waters in a lake that they've created. That's all pollution. There's a ring and several rings around that in terms of where the cancers are. And as they do this to everything, those rings get bigger, they get closer. We all have been given the idea that we have clean energy because in Vermont we don't see that effect here, right? We don't see it in the greater United States. They want you to believe that it is okay. The air that we breathe here right now, the land that we stand on, the darken our homeland, right now, Vermont, this is the same land, same air that's in Alberta, that's in the Amazon, that is in other places that are being compromised in the environment. We want to be able to survive. We want to be able to live. This is what we desire for ourselves, for our children, for our children's children. This legislature has passed no fracking in Vermont. But we have a public service board who doesn't seem to understand what that means. It's okay to bring this forward. It's okay to bring this gas in which affected so many other people in the environment. As long as it's not our people in our environment, this is what they have been selling this forever. And as that ring gets tighter, this pollution will come our way. But this is something that we can look at and say no to. We can choose to change our path, our way of thinking. These people work for us. I asked the Canadian government, I asked the U.S. government to stop giving proxy tribal governments no, you're the chief. We'll give you a ton of money. Then you sell us the land and we got the resources. Well, here they're colonizing you. They're doing it to you now. Do you have a say with the public service board? Do you have a say in the future in terms of what clean energy is? Is the average citizen able to do that? This is what we're talking about. Peacolonize. Peacolonize. Give people back the authority. We give the authority to the government. It's not the other way around. They need to be reminded of Omananui, Omanagunawa, Omanabaki. This is the Abenaki way. So Jane Palmer lives in Monkton on land that is currently threatened by the pipeline project. So she's an intervener in the permitting process and was previously arrested and knitting in at Vermont Gas Office when they didn't refuse to listen to her. She's also a fan of Tom Petty and has vowed never to back down to her left. Used to think that climate change was a lie that Al Gore manufactured. Ever since then, she's been fighting fiercely to stop the project and unite her community around pipeline resistance. So both of these ladies are not afraid to face off with Vermont Gas, whether it's in a hearing or on a construction site of the pipeline. Give it up for Jane and Mary. My husband and I had a call from Vermont Gas and they said they wanted to put a pipeline through the heart of our farm. We resisted. We were resisting. We learned more than we ever wanted to know about methane and regulatory system in this state and how it is extracted and how it is transported. And we learned firsthand how the utility regulatory system in this state is corrupted and broken. 14 years ago, my husband and I stopped burning fossil fuel to heat our home because we knew that human abuse of fossil fuels is hurting the planet. But now, this huge, expensive, invasive pipeline was being planned to cut through the state of Vermont and our lives as well. But how do you resist something that seems inevitable? How do you resist something that the gas company falsely claims will save Vermonter's money? How do you convince policymakers that just because the gas company says burning fracked gas is better for the environment, that doesn't make it true? How do you deconstruct the lies and untruths that the gas company and our government is spending millions of dollars to spread when those lies are what some people want to hear? Back when this project was just beginning, rising tide was onto our government and the way the Department of Public Service and our governor had already made up their minds that this project would be built. They even took a giant rubber stamp to the DPS office and handed it to them, symbolizing the lack of oversight and transparency our regulatory system was demonstrating. At that time, I was still hoping that if enough people stood up and spoke out against the project that the Public Service Board would have to condemn it. At that time, I still had faith in the regulatory system. In March of 2013, I went to the Public Service Board's public hearing on the fracked gas pipeline and there was an overwhelming majority of people who spoke out eloquently against the project and every public hearing after that was dominated by those who are against the project. I still had hopes that if enough of us got together and denounced the project, the Department of Public Service and the PSB would have no choice but to listen to us. Well, silly me. So here we are almost three years later and the PSB is still deliberating about whether or not VGS will retain their right to build this insane pipeline but only because of the inadequacies and blundering of Vermont gas, not because of the opposition. So rising tide was spot on from the get-go. After playing by their rules and getting nowhere, I am not here to ask the PSB to do what they should have done three years ago. I have said it before, if the people's voices are ignored, they will only get louder. To demand, they shut it down. Three years ago, Vermont gas said they needed $86 million to complete their pipeline before the end of 2014. Then in July of 2014, they said they needed $121 million. Zip forward December 2014, still not built, but they needed $154 million. At the last hearing, the number was $162.4 million. Double the original price. October 2015, a 43-mile-long pipeline has even left Chittenden County. Yet Vermont gas repeatedly says, we are on time and on budget. Well, which time and what budget? What's changed for Vermont gas? Well, let's see. The cost, the destination, remember, IP in Rutland, the accountants, the land agents, the surveyors, the construction company, the PR person, the CEO, they've all been fired or replaced. Incompetence or arrogance. They continue to say, on time and on budget. The savings they promised are gone. The clean energy choice does not exist with fracked gas. Gas has proven to be as dirty as coal. That's what's changed for Vermont gas. What's changed for us? Our numbers have grown, and our stand today is stronger than it was back then. Arguments have been bolstered by newer technologies like heat pumps. Middlebury businesses have their fracked gas without a pipeline. What's changed? Everything but us. We are here again to stand together. Raise your fists because we're here to rise up and shut this down. Ben Lentiman, I'd like to introduce to you a commissioner, Chris, the Rekorekia, on top of this. He has the Vermont economy in his grips. It's Sonoda to always be standing up for her community and speaking truths of power. Here you go. Us and delegations in Paris, we need a just transition. We need to have a saving from and right now we need to change that. Get your camping equipment, and we'll just stay here until they answer our demands. And cancel the pipeline and stop making these backroom deals, right? President of the VSCA from Berry City, Ed Stannick, working 30 years administering Act 250. He's going to talk to us about solidarity. Give it up for Ed Stannick. In the years I've never thought I'd stand here and quote a pope. But the pope, in his recent encyclical on the planet and steady environment, talked a lot about intergenerational solidarity. And I look out here, and this is intergenerational solidarity. We are in solidarity with the pregnant women who live near the fracking wells. We are here in solidarity with the people in New York State that can no longer drink their water from their wells. We on the east side of the Green Mountains are in solidarity with the brothers and sisters from the west side. There will be no pipeline in Addison County. Because of the corruption of government process in Vermont. And this is up here. And what's called the public service board. It should be called the public disservice board. The public disservice board by law is supposed to administer as a quasi-judicial board justice. And last but not least, we have our governor on the top floor of the building over there. This is the same governor who suddenly had this epiphany and he's talking about how large industrial scale energy projects are problems for the grid and are economically warped. This is the system which has been dumping on brothers and sisters from the Northeast Kingdom for years now as they raise these same issues and before the public disservice board. We have to stand together on all these issues. This is a corruption of the fundamental process. The change we need folks, the change we need, history shows us will not originate in that building over there. The changes we need in this country, history shows us, originates here by people taking collective action, this collective energy, by you, me, and other brothers and sisters builds energy which cannot be extinguished and that results in the change that we want. So we're here in solidarity with the people from Island Pond to Middlebury from Newport to Brattleboro. We stand together, solidarity now, solidarity tomorrow, solidarity forever. Just a second. There appears to be a puppet show. The census down there, right? What's your reason? Dramatic change is here in Vermont and we expect to see more. Let's just talk about what it means to be a farmer when you have to face these. Climate change is expected to increase overall temperature. What does that mean for agriculture? It means your livestock are going to be stressed, milk production is going to go down, egg production is going to go down, more food insecurity. It means there's going to be more diseases and pests that happen in the state. We already have enough diseases and pests, we don't need more. When you have warmer climates, fungi and bacteria, they love to reproduce in those environments. That means more fungicides, most likely being sprayed in the northeast. Insects will be able to have more life cycles and insects that didn't used to be able to live here are already coming here. We see these new insects every day. Also, warmer temperatures bring in more prolific noxious weeds, herbicides, not that I've ever used any of those things, but that's what's predicted is going to happen because there's going to be so many new insects, pest diseases coming our way. Climate change is also expected to increase overall precipitation, but less rain here in the summer when farmers need it. What does that mean? We're going to probably see more droughts here in Vermont, even if you think we're a water rich state. Having more drought days means we are going to have to irrigate more and use our precious resource of water that we have. Climate change is also expected to have fewer snow cover days. You might think that's fine, but what does that actually mean? It means a lot of things for winter wheat, grapes, apples, crops that rely on having a winter chilling or vernalization. It means they might not be able to have the pollinators here at the same time, so crop yield is going to go down. All of this obviously leading to food insecurity in our state. But the climate change effect that has been most visible and violent in the state of Vermont is the occurrence of more heavy dramatic precipitation events. So we're not talking about which leads to flooding. We're not talking about flooding in spring when you see the snow melt off the mountains. We expect that. We're in a state that floods, we're out flooding in the month of May, in the month of August, in the month of September. And we've seen this. You all know about tropical storm Irene. 476 farms affected by tropical storm Irene. Damage to 7,200 acres of hay, 6,000 acres of corn, 1,700 acres of pasture, 225 acres of soybeans and nearly 600 acres of vegetables and fruits. All of that we could not eat. The livestock could not eat. All of that was completely wasted, had to be put back in the ground. Food insecurity. These are the effects of climate change and agriculture. Just a few of what we've already seen here today and we only expect more, not only in Vermont, but around the country, around the world. Climate change basically equals food insecurity. So why the hell is Governor Shumlin making his administration not making the connection that when you invest in gas pipelines that destroy our farmland and frat gas, you invest in making climate change worse. You are investing essentially in more tropical storm irons and that's not what this state needs to be investing in. So Shumlin, stop these backroom deals with Vermont gas, stop the pipeline and instead, fight for the green Vermont you always talk about in the media Vermont to rely on renewable energies. Thank you. Quasi democracy for my whole career. But maybe some crooks liquidating all of our futures so that they can try and create a green zone that they can survive in while the rest of us drown or become food insecure and land insecure and turn into refugees and the population of people who are already in that situation maybe that's not what we want. So I think that I have to agree I think I've got to agree with what you guys are saying if it's capitalism versus the climate in our futures then it's us versus capitalism. Shell Oil but every piece of capitalism including all of the corporate lobbying that runs everything that goes on under that hunk of gold over there have to take over and I want to be part of that. Come back if you leave, come back so they have stated they are moved for cooperation but this is consensus okay let's not put it out right there let's drag it to the gutter and put it out. If that's okay with everybody is there any problem with us putting it out? It's been accommodating guys. It kind of would be too bad to make so let's I bet we can probably hook it. If everyone just takes a middle it's very light. You know how dangerous these things are. You don't even And yet again the flames of democracy are extinguished by the cold cold waters of oppression. That's alright. I think we got consensus with them. I was like pretty good consensus with the state. I was only almost that simple. Kind of in the day when your tribe needed to be warm on the streets but I guess that's good. There's no America any longer. Oh you got water? There's healthy hollows on it. Yeah. Hopefully the sun will come out to get a little warmer. You'll mess up to come half way around. How's that looking level wide? We're just here and in touch with the fire chief. Well I'm not getting to murder you. Seconds matter. They're not going to get down the street fast. So that's good you can serve that place. We'll take that into consideration. Thanks for your concern. Do those two together. We can clear them off. Rising of the moon Rising of the ground We are the scene that takes root As we tear the fortress down We are the shifting of Hopefully about what's happening in the campaign right now the eminent domain papers being filed on nine homes in Addison County and the MOU the DPS cut with Vermont gas. Memorandum of understanding. Yes the memorandum of understanding bureaucratic bureaucratic ease for secret back room deal. Alright everybody let's roll. Front team let's go ahead and get a position. Vermont gas has tried to take homeowners land through eminent domain. Just last week they issued eminent domain letters for 10 homeowners holding out against the pipeline. They called for a for profit corporation to take citizens land just because they want to. Google wants the gold out of my teeth. The public service board is the doer is the hand in glove facilitator of these big process projects that benefit for profit corporations in this case gas metro Vermont gas, Russian multinational it's completely unacceptable that our government just like does whatever these corporations want and then puts the cost on the citizens of Vermont. Natural gas is a false solution to climate change it is not a bridge fuel methane is 120 times more heat trapping as a greenhouse gas. The damage to the water supply that's really what makes me crazy it's like if we're blowing up America's water of our country for 5 minutes worth of propane I think it's just completely unacceptable as a patriot it's American use the language of I think republicans have beat up the language of patriotism but this is a patriotic movement to like stand up for our country and its rights and democracy is being undermined by corporate power that's just so in its head about what it wants to do. we called everybody we know that has a sign and only two just make up numbers and then figure out how it works it seems to be like the whole industry pretending to be in your paperwork just speak with authority and people will listen just find if no one cares I think the idea was that if you're out in Pennsylvania you just have to basically it's like you know they're trying to give you a free car you know you say here's this free car and it gets half the gas are you going to read the fine print and find out what the details are it's a little bit painful to try and wake up to the nature of it I always think about the dog trying to wake the owner up when the building is burning and you just want to say shut up just stop parking let me go back to sleep but the dog is persistent he turned to Exxon New Exxon New in the 80s the climate change was real the moral crime of that to unfold the entire climate change era upon human race it was very dark we're up against humanity has to reclaim the reigns of this thing it's like the Martian attack where humanity has to get together against the machine in this case the Martian is the logic of unaccountable corporate power that just wants to do things without any sense of ecology or physics or what people need it's all one and we have to be like together we have to be ethical we have to be long-term thinking playing for future generations popes and cyclical deals with a lot of that very eloquently arguing the world's poor are already feeling the thumb of climate and so it's a moral just to keep rolling it out and if we want to be an authentic humanity we have to respond to protecting our earth protecting our future protecting future generations it's not enough just to be like live on the earth like demented renters ripping the pipes out 5 minutes for the gas smash the windows we're like junkies we're humans we're going to live here and we deserve to be able to protect our water in the future that's what we're up about we're not going anywhere we're here to stay this mind determine the ecological mind that wants to save the planet that's what it's about we have to be flexible and how we have a response to that and due to low traffic impact we did allow the road to be closed temporarily over the weekend but one of the concerns that we did have that we would have to make sure the road was open for Monday morning commute because of the impact there so we had communication with the group throughout the weekend and as a result of some discussions just last night we were committed that we would have two-way traffic we had a coordinated plan which we implemented and they were true to their word and that they would be breaking things down and out of here by 11 o'clock so that part was just good communication cooperation because again nobody wanted to see they couldn't want to adversely impact people from Montpelier itself committing through here and we certainly had to make sure that the road was going to be open this morning which it was the agreement was at 4.30 a.m. I thought it was 4.30 a.m. it was 4 o'clock and the road was open and it was open on schedule at 4 o'clock in the morning kind of unusual of this kind of coordination with the protest group I would call it unusual every protest is different not always so we're going to be able to find some common ground whether it's reasonable or not so again we try to balance the needs of everybody but public safety first and foremost is always our concern what do you say to folks who said Montpelier cops were soft over the weekend that the public has a right to drive through town well it's you know they do it was again what was we thought it was a reasonable action to take on our part to also have some sort of and not just have an impromptu protest ignite again somewhere else where we don't have resources in place so again we think there was a minimal impact over the weekend certainly that's why we did take the action no matter what we made clear that the road would have to be open the two-way traffic as well as the sidewalks for today which in fact was and also I want to add that separate from that Montpelier police department did have to make three arrests here at 112 State Street for disorderly conduct could you kind of describe how that played out sure the first the first arrest was an individual who chained himself to the rear door our officers used bolt cutters free the subject from the rear of the building took him transporting them off to the police department and then two other individuals were arrested in the front of the building here for denying access to the stairway and all three have been cited and released and will be appearing in Washington Superior Court on December 12th for disorderly conduct no damage to the building no damage at all so again again measured response I would say and what's reasonable so we did make arrests where we had to make arrests and the rest we had the best coordination and communication that we could given the circumstances I was just trying to think of a hypothetical over the weekend I mean there have been people camped all over the every situation is going to be different the law is still there and so again we are just balances the really key word here with civil disobedience and a speech as well as what are the needs of the public good for transportation so we can act in access do you think that the decision that you settled on actually helped helped ensure that there were fewer problems and as you said that you worried about an impromptu sentence myself you think that balance really worked I would like to hope so and certainly what we did see they did fall through with their commitment to me from yesterday from last night and I was here yesterday evening when we started up the plan and they had already moved their symbolic oil drilling platform so everything was coordinated as far as that part goes thank you very much they were sleeping right in the middle of the road sleeping on the middle of the road is that crazy or what you want to know because they were trying to say that one of these things that's happening is working for us and it's not a good idea so we're going to camp out right in the middle of the road and stop everything from going down thank you some video