Verdict in Pipeline Opponents' Disorderly Conduct Trial in Cortlandt

CORTLANDT, NY — Thirteen months after nine opponents of the Algonquin Pipeline expansion project blocked access to a construction worksite, town Judge Daniel McCarthy on Friday found the “Montrose 9” guilty of disorderly conduct for blocking traffic.

The “Montrose 9,” local residents and environmental advocates who werearrested Nov. 9, 2015 for blocking access to a worksite in Cortlandt to halt construction of Spectra Energy’s AIM pipeline, had claimed that their actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm.

SEE: Arrests as Protesters Block Pipeline Staging Area in Montrose

“I am extremely disappointed with respect to the necessity defense, which seems so obviously true," Defense Counsel, Martin Stolar, a prominent social justice attorney, said in a statement after the verdict. "We will take it up on appeal. They (the defendants) are heroes, not criminals.”

Spectra Energy has approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expand its pipeline from New Jersey to New England in stages; so far, three have been delineated. The first, called AIM, covers compressor stations in Stony Point and Southeast plus about 37 miles of pipe in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

At the trial, which ended on July 22, many of the defendants expressed their concerns about global climate change and environmental damage from the fracked methane gas the pipeline will carry, fear of pipeline explosions and the possibility of an accident involving the Indian Point nuclear power facility. They argued that although members of the community had been diligently working through regulatory channels, their efforts were stymied by interminable delays and legal maneuvers, leaving them no recourse but to pursue non-violent direct action.

Pipeline opponents are further angered by the fact that FERC granted permission to Spectra Energy to run additional gas through existing pipelines under the Hudson River and past Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant while they keep trying to put new pipe under the river. This scenario, running additional gas through 50- and 60-year-old pipelines, was never examined by FERC or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for safety and was not a condition granted in the FERC permit, protesters said Friday.

RELATED:

• Work Can Start on 1st Algonquin Pipeline Project: FERC
• Pipeline Foes Stage Die-In to Protest Public Health Dangers
• FERC Says Environmental Impacts of Pipeline Expansion Minimal
• Is Algonquin Expansion Part of System Upgrade: FERC

Photo by Erik McGregor