Protesters arrested after locking themselves to Spectra Energy entrance

TWO PROTESTERS are seen by the entrance to Spectra Energy's plant in Burrillville Thursday morning. The men locked themselves to the gate to protest the company's plans to expand. They were arrested by police for trespassing. / COURTESY STEVE ALQUIST AND RIFUTURE.ORG
TWO PROTESTERS are seen by the entrance to Spectra Energy's plant in Burrillville Thursday morning. The men locked themselves to the gate to protest the company's plans to expand. They were arrested by police for trespassing. / COURTESY STEVE ALQUIST AND RIFUTURE.ORG

BURRILLVILLE – Two men were arrested for trespassing and property damage after they locked themselves to the front gate of Spectra Energy’s compressor station to protest the company’s expansion plans.

According to a news release from the Burrillville Police Department, police were called at 5:40 a.m. by an Algonquin Gas representative who reported the protesters on the property and that two were chained to the fence.
Police and fire officials responded, and firefighters attempted to use bolt cutters to free the protestors from the fence, police said.
The locking device was too thick for bolt cutters so public safety officials used the Jaws of Life extrication device to cut the lock.

Because the protestors’ arms were interlocked through PVC piping covered in chicken wire and tar, they were then transported to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment before being brought to Sixth District Court in Providence for arraignment on the charges. Medical staff had to remove the pipe linking their arms, police said.

Arrested were M. Peter Nightingale, 67, of South Kingstown, a physics professor at the University of Rhode Island, and Curtis Nordgaard, 38, of Newton, Mass., a pediatrician.

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According to a press release about the incident from FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), the “activists engaged in the act of civil disobedience to protest and delay Spectra’s plan to expand fracked-gas infrastructure in Burrillville and across the region.”
They also are against the proposed $700 million gas power plant planned for Spectra’s property in Burrillville by Invenergy and National Grid’s LNG plans for Fields Point in Providence.
“I’m taking action today because as a parent and a being pediatrician compels me to use any and all nonviolent means to stop this project,” Nordgaard said in a statement.
The protest was the latest in an escalating series of actions against Spectra Energy, which plans to expand its infrastructure in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, beginning with the ‘Algonquin’ Incremental Market (or AIM) project, FANG said.
In May, a woman was arrested after staging a tree-sit to stop the clearing of trees ahead of construction on the station.
Activists and residents have vowed to continue their nonviolent campaign to prevent Spectra from completing their expansion projects.

“The shale gas projects of Spectra Energy and Invenergy in Burrillville and National Grid’s LNG plans for Fields Point result from a national energy plan based on bad science. We will keep taking action until these projects are stopped,” Nightingale said.

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