Protest marchers bring anti-pipeline message to Canton

Pipeline opponents make their way down Sherman Street to the Canton Public Library. (Jay Turner photo)

The weather was downright oppressive and the turnout was lighter than advertised. But the message still came through loud and clear as dozens of protesters made their way through Canton on Friday as part of the People Over Pipelines March — a 43-mile trek to the steps of the State House to oppose the $3 billion Access Northeast gas pipeline expansion project proposed by Spectra Energy.

The highly publicized march, organized by 350 Massachusetts for a Better Future, had started out in Medway a day earlier and had covered nearly half of the total distance by the time it crossed into Canton from Stoughton in the early afternoon on Friday. Along the way, they passed through many of the communities that stand to be impacted by the proposed “Q1 Loop,” a 22-mile stretch of new 30-inch pipeline spanning from West Medway to the Canton/Randolph town line.

Toting signs with messages such as “Not in anybody’s backyard” and “No frackin’ way,” the marchers made their way down Pleasant and Sherman streets before stopping at the Canton Public Library for a pre-planned lunch and rally.

“What you are doing today is wonderful; it’s remarkable,” said Selectman Kevin Feeney in welcoming the marchers to Canton. “It’s the bedrock of our democracy. It’s an incredible example of civic and political engagement that’s constructive, and that’s the best thing about our system and our country.”

While recognizing that Canton officials may be “a little behind the curve” in understanding the scope of the project, Feeney said the selectmen plan to be attentive listeners and ask a lot of questions when they meet with pipeline opponents at their next public meeting on Tuesday, July 26.

To date, the Canton BOS has yet to take a position on the project. Meanwhile, officials in some of the neighboring communities, including Walpole, have adopted formal motions opposing the pipeline expansion in their communities.

While Feeney refrained from offering any of his personal views on the project — which proponents say will lead to lower electricity prices and increased electric reliability in the region — he did make a point to acknowledge the founders of No Canton Gas Pipeline, a burgeoning grassroots organization that he said has done a “terrific job in beginning to raise awareness in the town.”

One of the group’s founders, Jennifer Wexler, also spoke at the rally after taking part in Friday’s march, and she outlined her many concerns with the project, calling it “dangerous, costly, and unnecessary.”

Specific to Canton, Wexler said the five-mile stretch of proposed new pipeline, which is slated to run parallel to an existing Algonquin Gas Transmission line, would not be in the town’s best interests.

“Spectra would think nothing of taking Canton’s Article 97-protected conservation lands — such as Canton Woods and Along Red Wing Brook — by eminent domain,” she asserted. “Spectra would think nothing of placing a high-pressure gas pipeline through our Irish Cultural Centre and next to where families live on Pleasant Street, on Rebecca Road and on York Street, just to name a handful of the homes and streets on the proposed route, or at Cobb’s Corner where many of us socialize and shop and connect and where additionally many people live on Washington Street. It’s absurd.”

Wexler also called on her fellow Cantonites to “take action” against the project and to join the broader movement against climate change, although relatively few were on hand to hear the message. Instead, the majority of the attendees were non-residents affiliated with one of the local climate action groups, such as 350 Mass or Mothers Out Front.

Hattie Nestel, a 77-year-old activist who played a prominent role in stopping the Kinder Morgan pipeline project across the northern and western parts of the state, traveled all the way from Athol to take part in the march and to voice her opposition to new fossil fuel infrastructure.

“We don’t need them, that’s for one thing,” Nestel said of natural gas pipelines. “We need to really use our renewable energy, our wind and solar. It’s right there, it’s free, it’s nontoxic. We need to stop destroying the planet.”

Emily Kirkland, a Cambridge resident and the director of organizing for 350 Mass, said a lot of thought and planning went into the march and she expressed optimism that the grassroots effort would help to effect real change.

Kirkland said a key point of leverage for the opposition groups was the controversial “pipeline tax,” referring to the proposal by the Department of Public Utilities to offset construction costs with a tariff on ratepayers. The tariff issue, which is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute between the Baker Administration and Attorney General Maura Healey, has become a major rallying cry for pipeline opposition groups, and Kirkland believes the momentum is now starting to shift decidedly in their favor.

“We’re optimistic that they are going to step up and ban the pipeline tax and that our march will help push to do that,” she said.

Opponents of the tariff, meanwhile, have already secured the backing of the state Senate, which voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would prohibit the DPU from imposing any surcharge on ratepayers, and a similar bill has since been filed in the House.

State Representative Walter Timilty, who filed the new bill, joined the marchers on Friday and reaffirmed the House’s commitment to the measure, and two of the bill’s co-sponsors, representatives Bill Galvin of Canton and Louis Kafka of Stoughton, echoed that commitment in a letter to the marchers that was read during the rally.

“As co-sponsors of an act protecting ratepayers against unnecessary taxes due to gas line expansion,” stated Galvin and Kafka, “we will continue to fight to ensure that should the pipeline be built it will not be built on the backs of the ratepayers.”

Following the speeches and after taking some time to rest and recharge, the marchers packed up, grabbed their signs, and headed north onto Neponset Street toward Norwood for the final leg of the day’s journey. The march then continued throughout the weekend through Dedham, West Roxbury and on to the State House, culminating on Monday with a rally on the grand staircase attended by an estimated 250 people.

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