Written by David Katz, student organizer at Skidmore College; Re-posted from WeArePowerShift.org

The Environmental Action Club(EAC) at Skidmore College has always been a hotbed for activism and change at the school, a gathering place for the most committed students. For the past 2 years students involved with the Environmental Action Club have tried to shrink Skidmore’s carbon footprint. Several efforts were made to get the President of the College to sign a Campus Climate Commitment that would do just that, reduce the schools carbon footprint. After nearly a year of meeting after meeting no agreement was reached as the administration perceived the goals to be unrealistic.

With the establishment of a new Student Government Association(SGA) Sustainability Committee(SuCo) the political climate at Skidmore changed. For the last year EAC and SuCo have created a strong student alliance to institutionalize Skidmore College. This semester students have used this alliance to push for divestment at Skidmore.

After initial efforts to call on the school’s Chief Financial Officer to begin the divestment process were rebuffed, students got political. A joint group of students from EAC and SuCo drafted a divestment resolution in hopes that the Student Government Association would adopt it. After a long revision process, and a petition with over 500 signatures, the resolution was passed unanimously on Tuesday, April 30th.

The passage of the resolution is particularly exciting because it represents a unified movement of students committed to protecting our future from climate disaster. Furthermore, by passing the resolution SGA and EAC are both calling on the administration to make an institutional shift. The passage of the resolution gives student activists a lot of clout as the divestment movement move ahead. Supplementary to the passage of the resolution Skidmore has a storied history of divestment.

There is of course at least one example, the divestment from companies involved in the South African Apartheid regime. Skidmore students discovered the use of South African mined steel in one of the academic buildings on campus and began a divestment campaign that is now enshrined on a plaque in the aforementioned building.

Many people, including the administration at Skidmore College, find the goal of divestment to be unrealistic or lofty- but not the students. On May 2nd, a group of student activists delivered the divestment petition containing over 500 signatures to the President Glotzbach’s office, sending a clear message to the administration that students will see divestment through to the end. As a part of the ever-growing national divestment movement there is a growing sense on the Skidmore campus that anything is possible.

Onwards!

Ending the semester strong. The SU/ESF Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign had a huge victory Tuesday evening as the ESF Undergraduate Student Association (USA) unanimously passed in favor of our resolution to divest the ESF campus endowments from fossil fuels.

Standing in front of the USA as they discussed the key points of our final resolution was daunting. The voting began and the room quickly filled with the voices of those in favor. When asked for all opposed, a feeling of pure excitement and overwhelming relief swept over our group as the room fell completely silent. The vote was unanimous. The resolution had passed.

The SU/ESF campaign has been pushing hard on both campuses these past two semesters to make students, faculty, and administration understand the importance of divesting our campuses’ endowments from fossil fuels.

Whether it was getting roughly 1,000 petition signatures combined, the support from 57 SU faculty and five ESF/SU clubs, organizing a teach-in and two campus marches, meeting with administration, or simply just spreading the word to everyone and anyone – our campaign has been persistent.

It has been such a privilege to work with all those involved in this campaign. Everyone has a reason for this fight and have all shown great passion and determination for the cause. Working jointly with the two campuses has allowed for greater collaboration, helping to give us a stronger presence in the Syracuse community.

The SU Student Association resolution is scheduled to be voted on next week. We are hoping for another grand victory there as well. Even with summer fast approaching and the semester coming to a close, our campaign is not finished just yet. We are looking forward to continuing to push even harder in the Fall.

UPDATE: The Syracuse University Student Association passed their resolution with a 28-2 vote on Monday 4/29!

Members of our campaign at the ESF Activities Fair during Earth Week.

Speaking at our Divestment Teach-In.

Marching around the ESF Quad during Earth Week.

April 22, 2013

CITY OF ITHACA JOINS NATIONAL DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT, BECOMES FIRST EAST COAST CITY TO DIVEST 

Mayor Myrick joins forces with a coalition of high school and college students on Earth Day

Ithaca, NY -Earth Day – Mayor Svante L. Myrick of the City of Ithaca, NY has agreed to make Ithaca the second city in world to divest its financial holdings in fossil fuels. The action follows the requests issued by the Youth Power Summit 2013, a coalition of Tompkins County high school and college students–ages 16 to 23–for the City to take action for climate justice.

 Fossil fuel divestment campaigns are taking place at over 250 college campuses in the U.S. and the City of Seattle has already agreed to divest. The City of Ithaca’s campaign is the first in the country led by high school and college students, and Ithaca is the first city on the east coast to make the commitment.

On Friday, April 19, 2013, Mayor Myrick met with students to discuss divestment, and agreed to issue a statement from the City on Earth Day, April 22, 2013.

Today, Mayor Myrick remarked, “The City of Ithaca does not invest in fossil fuels and I can certainly commit, as long as I am Mayor, to not investing City funds in fossil fuels.”  Mayor Myrick has also agreed to write a letter urging the New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, who manages the New York State employee pensions, including the City of Ithaca’s, to divest the NYS Pension Fund from fossil fuels and re-invest in socially responsible alternatives.

 Gabriel Shapiro, a Junior at Lehman Alternative High School, responded to the City’s statement. “We’re proud that our Mayor is not only willing to listen to young people’s demands, but to actively support our work. Our generation will disproportionately experience the impacts of climate change–as systematically marginalized communities already are–and we’re excited that Mayor Myrick is willing to give us a seat at the table around decisions that affect us.”

 “I believe that young people have the creativity, energy, and moral authority that is needed in many of our public debates.  A perfect example is the work this group has done.  The commitment these young people have shown to safeguarding our environment should serve as an inspiration to us all” said Mayor Svante Myrick.

Over 100 students from Tompkins County high schools and colleges joined the Youth Power Summit 2013 at Ithaca College on April 20-21, 2013 to develop local strategies for youth climate justice leadership. Summit Organizer Jane Whiting, Senior at New Roots Charter School, explained, “We took two days to deeply explore the social roots and social impacts of climate change, and to collaborate with our community to re-center our environmental work around social justice. Divestment is one step toward creating a future that puts equity and justice at the center of our solutions to the climate crisis.” 

For additional information contact:

Julie Conley Holcomb, City Clerk julieh@cityofithaca.org / (607) 274-6570 or Anna Kucher, Ithaca High School  anna.kucher8@gmail.com /(607) 342-3564

WHEN: Saturday, April 20th 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM and Sunday, April 21st 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM

WHERE: Ithaca College Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise.

The Youth Power Summit is the Youth Track of the Climate Smart & Climate Ready Conference, a major multi-sector regional initiative under the leadership of Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton aimed at making our communities more climate friendly and climate resilient.

The YPS has partnered with the internationally recognized New Economics Institute to bring in keynotes Juliet Schor, author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth; Lilian Molina, inaugural director of the Environmental Justice Program at the Energy Action Coalition, the hub of the US Youth Climate Justice Movement; and Esteban Kelly, co-founder of the national worker co-op, the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA).

The summit will explore millennials’ leadership in the growing field of “New Economics” and in locally focused, sustainable and anti-oppressive projects in Ithaca and Upstate New York.

To many, carbon-based energy feeds this country, pumping through the land through a network of pipeline veins. It brings with it high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change and causing detrimental environmental effects.

But students at both Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are saying, “No more.” They’ve decided to tackle the issue of climate change by severing ties with the fossil fuel industry— the heart of the beast.

Students from SU and ESF have asked their respective universities to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Activists want the university to abstain from any new investments in fossil fuels and to set a plan in motion to become completely divested in five years.

SU currently has $50 million invested in the energy sector, comprising about 5 percent of its endowment, said Ben Kuebrich, a doctoral student in SU’s composition and cultural rhetoric program.

ESF has $1.9 million invested in the energy sector, said Mike Smith, a junior chemistry major at ESF.

“What the divestment movement does is target the fossil fuel industry, which is spending its money and corrupting our system,” Kuebrich said.

Asking the universities to pull funding from fossil fuel companies sends a social message, said Chiara Klein, who is involved in the SU divestment group.

Those involved modeled the campaign after a movement from the 1980s, in which students across the country demanded that their universities divest from South Africa in protest of apartheid.

“It’s very much akin to stirring up trouble in a good way,” said Klein, a sophomore English and textual studies major.

The idea sparked on campus after renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben spoke last fall as a part of the University Lectures series. In his lecture, he urged members of the SU community to take action against climate change by standing up to the fossil fuel industry.

Students at SU and ESF, along with others from more than 250 colleges and universities across the country, have answered his call to action.

“The most important component of the divestment campaign is the argument that if you’re going to take sustainability seriously on your campus, you extend that focus beyond the buildings to the portfolio,” McKibben said in an email.

SU officials have shown an interest in working with the students pushing for divestment. ESF, however, has not.

“The initial response from President Murphy was dismissive in nature,” said Smith, the junior chemistry major.

Officials at SU, on the other hand, have remained open to discussion. The administration regards climate change as a serious issue, said Eric Spina, vice chancellor and provost. He envisions conversations about divestment will continue into the next year.

Although the university has committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving toward carbon neutrality, it must evaluate its investment portfolio before coming to a decision, said Sherburne Abbott, vice president for sustainability initiatives.

Detangling SU’s endowments from the fossil fuel industry is difficult, and the Board of Trustees has an obligation to maintain the institution’s financial health, she said.

Despite these challenges, Abbott said she admires the students’ determination to push the movement forward.

“There’s a lot to be gained by mobilizing students across the country toward an organized effort around climate change,” she said. “Divestment seems to be the main push.”

The campaign serves as a central organization for student climate activists, said Smith. It has allowed the environmental movement to shift from individual activism to more of a group effort, uniting students around a collective cause and providing a starting point for a new generation of climate activists, he said.

“It takes everyone, plus more, to really go against this thing,” he said.

Students are not the only ones working toward divestment. A group of approximately 10 faculty members have also joined the cause. Bob Wilson, an associate professor of geography at SU, said a part of the group’s mission is to support the students, something McKibben encouraged in his October lecture.

“He said students shouldn’t have to be on their own, they should have support from their elders,” Wilson said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do.”

But the students need more than just faculty to back them — they must rally their peers, as well. To indicate the importance of the issue, they need to get more of the SU community involved, said Spina.

The divestment campaign currently has a core of about 20 students, although its members have collected more than 1,000 signatures in support of divestment, said Kuebrich, the SU doctoral student.

Working beyond the stereotypes of an environmental cause has been challenging. People tend to associate environmental activism with recycling bins and composting, so students have to work to overcome that stigma, said Klein, SU divestment group member.

“Our cohesiveness doesn’t come from the fact that we’re hippies,” she said. “So many different types of people can find something to relate to in terms of what we’re doing.”

The group is now attempting to reach beyond its environmentally friendly circle by asking the community to come together.

Members want to make it clear that as the generation inheriting this planet, they will not tolerate the practices that continue to contribute to its degradation, Klein said.

The group must now prove to the SU administration that it is both the morally and financially responsible decision. Members of the movement are prepared for a long debate, but their desire to relinquish the power of the fossil fuel industry remains undeterred.

“They picked a fight with us, with the future. We’re simply pushing back as hard as we can,” Smith said. “We’re students on campus. This is where our power lies.”

From our founding at Power Shift 2011, to the first Non-Violent Direct Action camp against fracking in NYS, to organizing a Youth

Students at Power Shift NY, April 2012

Day of Action at the original Tar Sands Action, to showing Gov. Cuomo that NY youth will not accept fracking in our future at Power Shift NY, to playing a key role in organizing the historic 3,000-person rally at Don’t Frack New York, to kicking off a dozen powerful campaigns for fossil fuel divestment in NYS, to turning out hundreds of comments from young people on the flawed fracking regs, to the game-changing Marcellus Spring Break action on Seneca Lake — we’ve come a long way in the movement for climate justice in NYS.  

And we can do even more with your help.

It’s time to take our movement to the next level. We’d love to hear your ideas about ways to strengthen our support network and ways to build a broader movement for climate justice off-campus in New York State.  This feedback form will be anonymous but we will share the results with our network.

Please fill this out and share with your campuses by Mon. 4/8, so that we can review results together!

Thanks so much y’all!

Love and Solidarity,
The Green Umbrella

P.S. During the NYS Break-out at the Power Up: Divest Fossil Fuels Convergence, we had some great discussion about ways for the Green Umbrella NY youth network to support and connect students around the state who are working on fossil fuel divestment campaigns. (Check out these notes from the NYS Break-out.)

Two student members of the campus environmental organization Kyoto Now! made their case for Cornell to divest from investments in fossil fuel companies at an open session of the Cornell Board of Trustees meeting on campus March 28.

The trustees, university administrators and student groups have been in ongoing dialogues about divestment for the past year.

“Our financial support of climate polluters creates a discrepancy between the ideals and trajectory of the university and its investment policy,” said Dennis Fox ’15.

Representing Kyoto Now!, Fox and Rebecca Macies ’14 asked the university “to fully withdraw its investments in the fossil fuel industry by 2020, and reinvest 30 percent of those divested funds” in responsible sustainable investments.

More than 300 campuses nationwide are running divestment campaigns, including all the other Ivy League schools, Fox said. “American endowments add up to more than $400 billion, and we have the power to influence the impacts that money will have on our future,” he said.

President David Skorton had yielded his time during the meeting’s open session to Kyoto Now!

Adam Gitlin ’13, president of the Student Assembly (SA), presented a report to the board. Regarding divestment, Gitlin said that while the SA recognizes that immediate divestments could lead to cuts for vital student services, responsible endowment could “align the goals of Kyoto Now! and the investment committee.”

On behalf of the SA, Gitlin advocated for finding ways to increase and continually measure improvements to campus safety, including more support for a night campus shuttle; he also advocated for hiring an associate dean for the LGBTQ Resource Center in the Office of the Dean of Students.

Mitch Paine, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) president, reported that the GPSA passed a resolution this year that supports women’s professional development and asked for additional programming and resources for women to navigate the world of academia and careers.

He reported that the GPSA recently passed its strategic plan, the Graduate Professional Community Initiative. The plan, created collaboratively with hundreds of graduate and professional students, comprises eight topics with objectives and action items, including a graduate and professional student center, career resources, mental health and physical well-being, diversity, international students, family services, housing and community. It was made as a “truly strategic plan” with hundreds of action statements, said Paine.

The meeting began with a presentation by State University of New York (SUNY) Chairman of the Board H. Carl McCall, who discussed Cornell’s and SUNY’s historic collaborations. He discussed how SUNY helps fund the Cornell statutory colleges — Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology, ILR and Veterinary Medicine — with total support of more than $121 million from the $12 billion total SUNY budget last year.

McCall outlined SUNY’s strategic plan “that was rooted in six big ideas”: involvement in entrepreneurial activity, the education pipeline, serving as a resource for sustainability projects, providing for the health of communities, expanding SUNY’s global reach, and engaging and enriching communities, he said. Educational remediation for K-12 students to prepare them properly for college was an important priority for SUNY, he said.

He also called for collaboration between Cornell and SUNY for online education programs, advocacy for funding of state and federal grants, research, and the Cornell NYC Tech campus.

Colleges in the Rochester area and across the country have gone to great lengths to build up their sustainability cred.

The efforts vary from campus to campus, but include changes that greatly reduce waste from dining halls and retrofits that slash energy use in campus buildings. And some campuses have signed on to climate change commitments, pledging to reduce their carbon footprints.

Yet many schools, from Ivy League universities to small liberal arts colleges, still have

Jennifer Benson, a SUNY Geneseo student, says that divesting from fossil fuels would benefit her school, as well as the environment and people’s health.

money invested in oil, coal, and natural gas companies. The contradiction is not lost on students, some of whom are now trying to convince campus administrators to change their approach to investing. Students at University of Rochester and SUNY Geneseo are among those pushing their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.

The students leading the UR and Geneseo campaigns say that

by pulling their investments, their schools would be taking a stand against the fossil fuel industry and its role in one of the biggest environmental and social issues of their generation: climate change.

“If you are coming out and publicly saying, ‘We value sustainability, we value the environment, we believe that climate change is real [and] we need to do things about it if we don’t want it to become literally a global disaster,’ then it’s time to not just say those things and actually do things about them,” says Allison Hoppe, a SUNY Geneseo senior who helped start a divestment campaign at her school.

Nationwide, colleges and universities invest a total of approximately $400 billion, says Dan Apfel, executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, which is working with student-led divestment campaigns across the country. Most schools don’t have large fossil fuel holdings and eliminating those investments wouldn’t hurt the performance of their endowments, says Apfel, a UR alumnus. But how schools invest their money can make a statement and influence other investors, he says.

Divestment — by government as well as by universities and colleges — is not a new tactic: it played a role in ending apartheid in South Africa.

In September 1985, trustees for the statewide SUNY system voted to sell off $11.5 million worth of stock in companies doing business in South Africa, according to an Associated Press report from the time. SUNY was and is the largest university system in the country.

The University of Rochester followed in 1987, says a New York Times article. UR also has a policy prohibiting direct investment in companies that support the Sudanese government.

“This isn’t something that’s brand new, it’s been done before,” says University of Rochester student Alykhan Alani, who supports fossil fuel divestment. “The question is, do we have the political will to institute it here and now?”

At the University of Rochester, the student-led push for fossil fuel divestment is part of a larger campaign targeting how the school invests its $1.7 billion endowment.

For several years, Students for a Democratic Society has pushed for the university to establish a socially responsible investment committee. The committee would advise university trustees on how social issues should affect their investment policies. Similar committees exist at universities including Georgetown and Columbia.

Initially, SDS planned to focus on specific companies as opposed to industries, but the national momentum behind fossil fuel divestment provides a critical opportunity, Alani says.

Last year, Alani asked university officials whether the school had investments in several companies, including Chevron. He specifically asked university officials about Chevron, which bought Texaco a decade ago, because courts in Ecuador found the company liable for substantial pollution in the Amazon rain forest. University officials confirmed that the school had money invested in the company, Alani says.

The university’s Investment Office will tell students, faculty, staff, and alumni whether the UR has investments in specific companies, says university spokesperson Sara Miller. But the school doesn’t disclose that information to the public, she says.

“University policy precludes us from commenting on investment matters other than what is found on the endowment website,” Miller said in an e-mail.

Alani says the environmental degradation caused by the fossil fuel industry is one reason why colleges and universities should stop investing in the companies. The industry also puts money into fighting climate change legislation, he says.

The UR has taken steps to reduce energy consumption in its buildings. And it purchases local food items, provides incentives for employees to carpool, and purchases renewable energy credits to cover a chunk of its energy consumption.

“There are certain things that the university has taken a stand on and that’s commendable,” Alani says. “I would just like to see the university continue to make that kind of progress when it comes to decisions on how it invests the endowment money.”

The university has policies governing how its endowment is invested, including a social investment policy. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni can submit requests for action on a specific security and the UR board’s Investment Committee reviews and responds to the requests, Miller says.

Under President Christopher Dahl, SUNY Geneseo signed on to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Change Commitment.

Under that commitment, Geneseo has pledged to track and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. And the college is supposed to incorporate issues around climate change and sustainability into its academic program. The school has also taken steps to reduce food waste, increase recycling, and curb energy consumption.

It’s with those efforts in mind that junior Jennifer Benson, sophomore Jessica Kroenert, and senior Allison Hoppe, formed Divest SUNY Geneseo.

The school itself doesn’t have any long-term investments, but two affiliated organizations do have mutual fund investments, school administrators say. The funds include a mix of stocks, and commonly include holdings in fossil fuel companies, administrators say.

One of the organizations is the Geneseo Foundation, a nonprofit which maintains an approximately $18 million fund used for scholarships, research, and student programs. All of the invested money comes from donations, administrators say. The other is Campus Auxiliary Services, a nonprofit company that oversees services including campus dining, laundry machines, and waste management.

Divest SUNY Geneseo wants the foundation and Campus Auxiliary Services to get rid of any investments they have in fossil fuel companies.

“No matter when it happens, fossil fuels are nonrenewable and we’re going to run out,” Benson says. “The earlier we can start transitioning and the more support we can have for renewable energy, the better it will be not only for the institution and its investments, but also for the environment and our health.”

The Geneseo administration doesn’t have a position on divestment, says a statement from college officials. The foundation and the auxiliary services each have their own board of trustees, which makes decisions about investments. And administrators say they have confidence in the boards.

Students at other SUNY schools, including Purchase, Stony Brook, and the College of Environmental Science and Forestry are campaigning for divestment, too. And the Divest SUNY Geneseo leaders see an opportunity for their school to be a leader among state college campuses.

“Really, what this country needs and what this state needs is to invest more in renewable sources of energy,” says sophomore Kroenert.

Ultimately, the organizers realize that student, alumni, faculty, and staff pressure are the keys to a successful campaign. Divest SUNY Geneseo has collected approximately 100 student signatures supporting their cause. And more than 200 people have signed an Internet petition posted on www.350.org, though Divest SUNY Geneseo didn’t start that petition.

Beyond the environmental and social arguments for divesting from the fossil fuel industry, the students also say there’s a business case.

The industry deals in a finite resource. And while its stocks have historically offered investors good returns, that may not be the case in the future as reserves dwindle and resources become harder to extract.

And the investment policies of schools may soon become an issue of competitiveness, particularly when it comes to attracting students and faculty.

Alani, who also works as a campus tour guide at UR, says that prospective students often ask him about campus sustainability policies and efforts. And students at UR’s peers, including Syracuse University, are also pushing for their schools to divest from fossil fuels.

Hoppe, Kroenert, and Benson say Geneseo officials highlight environmental initiatives and commitments when they market the school to potential students. The divestment movement is growing and attracting more public and media attention, which means more potential students are going to have the issue on their minds.

“It’s something that’s going to be in the public eye for a while and hopefully that will be something that will encourage schools to take action,” Hoppe says.

Sandra Steingraber PhD., biologist, author and Trumansburg, NY resident, was arrested alongside residents of Seneca Lake and local college students to oppose Kansas City, MO based Inergy, natural gas and liquid petroleum gas storage facility, which would lock in natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale region. Protesters have linked arms and deployed a banner reading “Our Future is Unfractured, We Are Greater Than Dirty Inergy” across the entrance to the facility on NY State Route 14.

The blockade precedes a 250+ person rally opposing the Inergy facility scheduled to begin at the Watkins Glen Village Marina at 5 p.m. today.

Twenty-five demonstrators blockaded the Inergy facility, which they say is one example of numerous fracking infrastructure projects that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have allowed to “slip in the back door” while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo debates allowing the controversial and extreme process of horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

Steingraber, who lives in neighboring Tompkins County said, “It is wrong to bury explosive, toxic petroleum gases in underground chambers next to a source of drinking water for 100,000 people. It is wrong to build out the infrastructure for fracking at a time of climate emergency. It is right for me come to the shores of Seneca Lake, where my 11-year-old son was born, and say, with my voice and with my body, as a mother and biologist, that this facility is a threat to life and health.”

The blockade joins a growing national movement to call attention to environmental injustices caused by unconventional and extreme fossil fuel extraction techniques, including Inergy’s hotly debated salt cavern gas storage facility proposed for Reading, NY.

Dennis Fox, a Cornell University Sophomore said, “This isn’t just a local issue—when students stand shoulder to shoulder with communities on the frontlines of the fight against extreme projects like Inergy’s, we’re one step closer to stopping fracking, and one step closer to protecting my generation’s future from poisoned water and devastating climate change.”

Inergy’s facility has generated widespread concerns for its proximity to Seneca Lake, New York State’s largest fresh water body and the source of drinking water for 100,000 people.

Michael Dineen, a resident of Seneca County, which contains a portion of Seneca Lake, said, “The priorities of Inergy’s project are all wrong. Drinking water and people’s health are more valuable than gas. The Finger Lakes region holds one of the largest pool of fresh water in the United States and needs our protection—we don’t need to lock in investments in dirty fracking infrastructure that will deepen our dependence on an inherently contaminating industry.”

Melisa Chipman, a resident of Schuyler County, where the facility is located said, “Not only do salt cavern gas storage facilities like Inergy’s have a very high probability of ‘catastrophic equipment failure,’ but I do not want more truck traffic polluting our air, destroying our roads, and scaring tourists away.”

The DEC has received increasingly vocal criticism from local wineries and tourist businesses for refusing to conduct a comprehensive review of the potential environmental and economic impacts of Inergy’s plans to expand gas storage capacity of the current facility from 1.5 to 10.0 billion cubic feet.

For live updates on this action, click here.

Watch video of the protest below:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/watkin-s-glen