Pipeline protesting treesitters come down, take demonstration on the road - Entrepreneur Generations

Theresa Minor Terry (l) and Theresa "Red" Terry (r) speak at a
protest in Charlottesville. (Daily Progress photo by Zack Wajsgras)

A mother and daughter who camped in trees to block a natural-gas pipeline on their family's Virginia property came down on Saturday after a federal judge threatened heavy fines, Gregory Schneider reports for The Washington Post.

Late Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon found Theresa "Red" Terry, 61, and her daughter, Theresa Minor Terry, 30, in contempt of a court order that granted the builders of the Mountain Valley Pipeline entry to the Terrys' land. If the protesters didn't come down by midnight that night, Dillon ruled, they would face fines of $1,000 a day. Red Terry's husband, Coles Terry III, was also fined $2,00 for contempt. If either of the women remained in the trees after midnight on Thursday, Dillon authorized U.S. Marshalls to arrest them.

"After the ruling, Coles Terry said the women would come down. Even if they didn’t mind paying the fines, he said, the judge had directed that the money go to the pipeline builders — a notion that disturbed the Terrys," Schneider reports.

The women came down from the trees shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, but have not given up their protest: both are now leading public protests in the area to demand action from Gov. Ralph Northam and urge the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to report unfavorably on the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines' effect on streams and waterways, Tyler Hammel reports for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.

At a rally in Charlottesville on Monday, Red Terry was blunt about what she told Northam she wanted: "I told him that I had to grow a set, and it's damn time he did too," she said. "I really think the governor should stop bending over for Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast and stand with the people."

The Terrys have planned several other protests throughout the state.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2I564C2 Pipeline protesting treesitters come down, take demonstration on the road - Entrepreneur Generations

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