Karenna Gore explains her role in West Roxbury pipeline protest
Ahead of appearing in court on charges related to protesting the construction of the West Roxbury natural gas pipeline, Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, explained her actions in a Boston Globe op-ed.
“In order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, including flooding of coastal cities like Boston, we must accelerate the transition of our energy economy away from fossil fuels like natural gas, toward renewables like solar and wind,” Gore wrote. “When a local community rejects new fossil fuel infrastructure, it ought to be enough. But the oil and gas industry is now an empire that makes its own rules.”
Gore was among a group of 23 protesters who were arrested last month after trying to halt the pipeline’s construction by lying in a trench at the site and refusing to move. She faces charges of trespassing, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace.
The natural gas pipeline is being built by the Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp., which has said the project will provide the region with a reliable source of energy. In her Globe piece, Gore warned not only of the environmental impacts created by fracking, the process used to obtain natural gas, but also of more immediate safety risks the pipeline could pose to residents, noting that its proximity to an active, open quarry could cause a fire.
Still, she says the main issue at play is how the concerns voiced by local residents have gone unaddressed.
“That particular flaw of the West Roxbury project underscores the problem,” Gore wrote. “Local families feel voiceless. It does not seem to matter that all community elected officials are opposed to this pipeline, or that the city of Boston is actively litigating against it. So far, Spectra has been able to easily overcome these inconveniences through lobbying and influence peddling.”
Gore is expected to appear Friday in Boston Municipal Court to fight the charges against her. While several of those arrested pleaded guilty to reduced charges, Gore and five other activists have pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanors.
Read Gore’s full Globe op-ed here.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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