That it's already under construction and has future corporate and community customers lining up doesn't change the reality: What once looked like a sure thing for Vermont Gas is now in question as the PSB reconsiders its certificate of public good. Other pipeline opponents - environmentalists, ratepayer advocates, landowners - have lawyers working to persuade the state Public Service Board to cancel its approval of the project, the cost of which has grown by $68 million since Vermont Gas' initial estimate. The group also knocked on doors in Addison County, rallied landowners and organized meetings to bring opponents together. Protests are just one piece of Rising Tide's strategy to stop the pipeline. At the same time, Pittman calmly and concisely talked about the group's goals - the most ambitious of which is the "end of capitalism." Pittman, who asked to be referred to by the gender-neutral pronoun "they," squirmed in a chair and drummed on the table during an interview with two other Rising Tide organizers last week at Burlington's New Moon Café. "This is part of the plan, that they get sick of us." If people are tired of the protests, that's the point, said Avery Pittman, a 25-year-old Burlington resident who is one of the founders of Rising Tide Vermont. The ragged band of protesters has managed to sap the time of police, prosecutors and judges, soaked up media attention, and - Vermont Gas argues - put their own and others' safety at risk. Donovan, the Chittenden County state's attorney, whose office is prosecuting Wolfe and other protesters. "In the past, people tended to say, 'I don't want a criminal record,'" said T.J. Penalties, which so far have included fines, community service and probation, haven't been a deterrent, prosecutors say, so they are starting to seek jail time for offenders. The unusually persistent protests, mostly organized by the all-volunteer group Rising Tide Vermont, present a growing conundrum for authorities who want to discourage costly disruptions while also respecting free speech. "We should not be spending money for a fracked-gas infrastructure." "We have to keep oil and gas in the ground," Wolfe said. The pipeline's opponents argue that the project will force Vermont consumers to remain dependent for many years on an energy source derived from Canadian fossil fuels, some of which are extracted using hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking. Wolfe is one of more than a dozen Vermonters who've been hauled off by police in the last year for protesting Vermont Gas' $154 million Addison Natural Gas Project, which would extend a natural gas pipeline from Colchester to Middlebury. The crime I'm trying to prevent is bigger than the crime I committed." "I'm sure we'll be found guilty," Wolfe said of the gang of grandparents, one of whom has since died. On September 21, he embraced a new role: Wolfe and five other senior citizens chained themselves to the gate at a Vermont Gas construction site in Williston - and were subsequently arrested. A Rising Tide protest in downtown Montpelierįred Wolfe is a bearded, full-bellied 85-year-old great-grandfather who, until a few years ago, acted the part of Santa at the annual Strafford Post Office holiday party.
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