October 25, 2011
Letters, Vermont

Protests can’t trump big business

Bennington Banner, www.benningtonbanner.com 24 October 2011

The chief reason why the Occupy Wall Street protests won’t amount to much is because almost every U.S. senator and congressman curtseys to at least one large corporation that he or she personally loves, thereby preventing the creation of better controls over these behemoth companies.

Take Bernie Sanders, for instance, who talks tougher against the greed and commanding power of big corporations than almost any other senator, and whose favorite word is “outrageous” when he describes the behavior of these powerful businesses. It seems that one of Bernie’s own pet corporations is the large international company Gaz Metro/Green Mountain Power, which purchases and distributes gas and electricity in interstate and international commerce.

In order to build their industrial wind project on Lowell Mountain, GMP needed to temporarily exclude the neighboring farm family and friends from using part of their own land. It seems GMP, typical of huge corporations, was too careless and too cheap to call on this neighboring family during the planning stages of the project in order to negotiate payment to these farmers for temporarily excluding them and their friends from using their own land, as well as to pay for other permanent damages like dangerous ice-throw onto this land from the turbine blades.

GMP couldn’t even be bothered in advance with initiating legal eminent domain proceedings, which would require them under sections of both the Vermont and United States constitutions to pay for temporary and permanent encumbrances on the land.

These farmers and their friends have camped on their own land, protesting for and with their constitutional rights. GMP’s jackbooted response has been to threaten to arrest these protesters and also sue them for a million dollars.

Not only is that outrageous, but it will be even more outrageous if Bernie Sanders comes up with excuses and rationalizations for his own pet company instead of he himself calling GMP’s actions outrageous!

KATHY HEPBURN

Wallingford


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/25/protests-cant-trump-big-business/