A group of protestors that call themselves the People’s Department of Environmental Justice showed up at Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia’s home Wednesday morning and set up a fake hydraulic fracturing tower in his driveway.
The protestors were there to make a theatrical point about current eminent domain cases related to the Vermont Gas Systems pipeline from Chittenden County into Addison County. But Recchia says the protest crossed a line.
According to a police news release, Recchia called Vermont State Police just after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and said there were “approximately 11 protestors in his yard and that they had blocked the driveway with cones.”
Doug Smith says he was one of the protestors present, and is part of the group.
“We did a mock eminent domain survey – we had survey tape and we had a transit and a rod – so we did a mock eminent domain survey and a mock eminent domain proceeding against Commissioner Recchia’s driveway,” he said.
Smith says the protest was non-violent and no one was threatened.
“This is a dramatic action, non-violent – no one was threatened – but it was highly colorful,” he said. “We went there to dramatize the dangers, the multiple dangers of fracked gas and the Vermont Gas pipeline.”
Recchia said in an interview that the group’s name, the People’s Department of Environmental Justice, was new to him and that he passed it on to state police investigators. The group seems to have some overlap with Rising Tide Vermont, a group that has vocally opposed the Vermont Gas pipeline. Recchia said the mock fracking equipment was the same prop used by Rising Tide as part of another protest last year.
Smith has taken part in Rising Tide protest actions in the past, but says the People’s Department of Environmental Justice is “distinct from Rising Tide.”
Previous actions by Rising Tide have led to arrests, and most took place at state government buildings, at the Vermont Gas headquarters in South Burlington, or at pipeline work sites. Smith acknowledged that Wednesday’s protest at Recchia’s personal home was different.
“It seems to me a natural progression that as the department sort of hunkers down and says ‘No, no, we’re going to pursue these eminent domain cases right to the very end and push this pipeline through in spite of all the information that shows what a waste of ratepayers’ money it is and what a crime it is to be still investing in fossil fuel infrastructure’ – the biggest investment in fossil fuel infrastructure in Vermont in I think over 50 years – I think that it’s safe to say that different groups, whether they call themselves Rising Tide or, in our case, the People’s Department of Environmental Justice, I think we can assume that this public outrage will continue and will grow,” Smith said.
Recchia too felt Wednesday’s protest was different from past demonstrations.
"I've always felt like I had the best interests of Vermonters in mind, and I don't expect to be accosted at home in the context of that work." - Chris Recchia
“I have been in public service for a very long time,” he said. “I’ve done environmental work as well as energy work. I’ve always felt like I had the best interests of Vermonters in mind, and I don’t expect to be accosted at home in the context of that work. I’m happy to meet with anybody at work any time, but this was, I think, crossing a line that we should not be crossing.”
Recchia said the most concerning part of the ordeal, which lasted about half an hour, was the chainsaws. The demonstrators started chainsaws and pretended to cut various trees on the property, but Recchia was relieved when he saw that there were no cutting chains attached.
“But I was upset, and it was very concerning,” he said.
Smith said the chainsaw was not meant as a threat, but as a prop in the group’s dramatic depiction of an eminent domain case.
“It served the purpose of dramatizing what it’s like to have your property taken away by eminent domain so that a foreign company can make profits,” he said. “Your property’s taken away, and your trees and everything on that property is cut down. And that is what is happening in Addison County right now – Chittenden and Addison County. You can go there and look. You can hear the chainsaws, and those chainsaws have chains.”
The protestors were gone before police arrived, and police are searching for the protestors on suspicion of trespassing, unlawful mischief and disorderly conduct. Recchia told police that the protestors were in a “blue vehicle” and a “truck painted camouflage.”
Vermont State Police have requested that anyone with information about the incident to call 802-234-9933.
VPR's Steve Zind contributed to this report.
