Wawayanda, New York: Hudson Valley Earth First! Shuts Down Local Office

WAWAYANDA, New York – Santa Claus came to Wawayanda, New York early this year to support the Hudson Valley Earth First! tree sit campaign and to bring a bag of coal to the offices of Millennium Pipeline. He also praised the brave work of the tree sit blockade that has stopped and slowed work on the construction of the 7.8 mile Valley Lateral pipeline for 10 days now. Santa’s visit was a highlight of the Hudson Valley Earth First! rally to support the tree sit that took place Monday at 10 am and successfully shut down the offices of Millennium Pipeline LLC.

Upon his arrival Santa said:

“I have this bag of coal to deliver to the dirtiest nastiest most-no-good-polluter around. I was flying over a while ago and a lovely and kind person sitting in a tree told me to head this way. They told me that the people that come in and out of this office are destroying forests and disturbing bald eagles, and that they climbed up the tree over yonder to try and stop it, and seeing that to be just about the bravest most inspiring story of do-gooding I have heard this year, I thought I better come over and share my appreciation for their courage by delivering one dirty fossil fuel to another as this company (pointing at the Millennium offices) is trying to dress natural gas up with fancy talk and lies, but the truth is that gas fuels nothing but climate change.”

Santa also read out a statement from the Tree sitter:

“We need people to come out here and stop work in meaningful ways. They haven’t cut these few trees around me but I’ve seen so much work continue. Every day I watch more trees cut and every night I hear less coyotes and other wild life noises as they flee what was once wild. Capitalism and corporate greed will continue to destroy the land and creatures in the name of progress. When all else fails, when the justice system serves no justice and collectives are moved to take direct action seeing no other options, the state supposedly based on freedom will suppress and criminalize activists. Please come out here, see what destruction is being done. Form a group and DO something about it. You don’t have to be a saint to do something good for this earth.”

Earth First! Santa also read out a list of the naughty and nice. Millennium Pipeline, Competitive Power Ventures, The Valley Lateral Pipeline, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo topped the naughty list for their active participation in the destruction of the planet and the killing of endangered species and habitats. For all present Santa invited those on the nice list to come and share what they wished for this solstice. The wished for the stopping of this and all other dirty pipeline construction projects, to save the bald eagles, bog turtles, and Indianan bats, and all other critters of this planet, to bring an end to the attacks on the indigenous peoples of the world, and to live in harmony with the bioregion. Santa gave them gifts, and they sang eco carols like “Climate Change is Coming to Town.”

Background:

Hudson Valley Earth First has established tree sit blockades in the path of the Valley Lateral Pipeline to stop its construction and to save the forest. On December 8th, 2017, Millennium Pipeline Company started clearing trees for the Valley Lateral Pipeline, which would connect fracked natural gas from the existing Millennium Pipeline to the scandal-ridden, toxic Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) Power Plant. Area activists have tried every other mechanism for stopping the construction of this pipeline, however the state of New York, the federal government, and the courts have failed to protect these woods and the species that live in and around them.

If this 7.8 mile pipeline is completed, it would run through ecosystems which contain, and have the potential to contain, endangered species such as the Bald Eagle(a mating pair is known to live 30 feet from the right-of-way), the Indiana Bat, and the Bog Turtle. Additionally, if the CPV plant is fueled, the pollution from the plant release tons of chemicals known to increase cancer and asthma rates in nearby areas.

This pipeline is the bottleneck to stopping this plant. Aides to Gov. Cuomo and CPV executives go to trial in January over a bribery scandal. Also, if the pipeline is stopped before August 2018, the CPV plant will likely go bankrupt and this beautiful bioregion will be spared from further ecological destruction. After nearly 10 years of calling our government officials and light disruptions, we are out of options.

Contact:

We have posted a wishlist on facebook and you can donate here.

[email protected] https://www.facebook.com/HVEarthFirst/

https://hudsonvalleyearthfirst.org/ (845)670-5149