Anti-Fracking Filmmaker Among 20+
Arrested at Latest Seneca Lake Blockade
Thursday, May 14, 2015
‘This gas storage facility threatens the community character and
the economy of the entire region.'
According to organizers, regional opposition to gas storage in
Seneca Lake salt caverns reflects a growing commitment to a thriving renewable
Finger Lakes and is part of a nationwide rejection of a backwards-looking
fossil fuel industry. (Photo: We Are Seneca Lake)
Another 21 people were arrested outside the controversial
Crestwood Midstream gas storage facility in upstate New York on Wednesday,
bringing the total number of arrests since the We Are Seneca Lake civil
disobedience campaign
began seven months ago up to 272.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox,
whose documentary Gasland focuses on communities affected by fracking,
was among those arrested during the human blockade.
"I'm here to support my friends and my community who are
protecting Seneca Lake from underground gas storage," Fox said in a
statement, noting that Crestwood's methane gas storage expansion project, which
would see vast quantities of methane stored underground in questionably sound
salt caverns, is situated in an "incredibly important location."
Seneca Lake is the largest of New York's Finger Lakes, providing
drinking water for 100,000 people, and supporting local distilleries, wineries,
breweries, and agriculture.
"I'm here primarily though because this is a fracking
site," Fox continued.
As We Are Seneca Lake has repeatedly pointed out,
Texas-based Crestwood has indicated that it intends to make Seneca Lake the gas
storage and transportation hub for the northeast, as part of the gas industry's
planned expansion of infrastructure across the region. Though New York recently
banned the dangerous practice of hydraulic fracturing, Crestwood opponents are concerned
that this infrastructure expansion would turn the area into a "gas station
for fracking."
"We have to stop fracking all across America, wherever it
is going to be," Fox added, before taking aim at the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC), which approved Crestwood's project last October
in the face of broad public opposition and unresolved questions about
geological instabilities, fault lines, and possible salinization of the lake.
FERC, Fox charged, "is really acting like a subsidiary of
the fossil fuel industry masquerading as a government agency. FERC has to be
overhauled. FERC is a disaster…So today is very important because it is a
national moment." The protesters have a "very clear message," he
concluded. "We want renewable energy, and not these kinds of crazy
projects."
To that end, Renovus Solar—a local renewable energy company—set
up an outdoor "help wanted" desk directly outside of Crestwood's
gates during the demonstration.
"This gas storage facility threatens the community character
and the economy of the entire region," said Renovus CEO Joe Sliker in
advance of Wednesday's action. "In contrast, the solar industry
complements the existing, thriving and growing winery and tourism industries.
Solar is cleaner, safer, and a more prosperous path forth for families and even
for all of the Crestwood employees."
Sliker was also arrested Wednesday.
In this video, Fox speaks about his participation in the
demonstration:
Fox also put together this short documentary, which premiered
exclusively at the Daily Beast on Wednesday—a call to action from him
and fracking activist Sandra Steingraber, an ecologist and author who has been
at the forefront of the We Are Seneca Lake campaign:
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can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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