And in Pennsylvania, 23 protesters were arrested in Lancaster County Monday on charges of defiant trespass, as they peacefully blocked construction on a section of the planned 180-mile-long Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline. The arrests came as construction crews were set to begin digging along a pipeline easement on a farm owned by an order of Catholic nuns who oppose the pipeline and are suing to halt it. Their lawsuit charges the pipeline violates their religious freedoms and their rights to property, clean air and water. Among those arrested Monday was Malinda Clatterbuck of the group Lancaster Against Pipelines. Clatterbuck spoke to Democracy Now! at the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C., last April.
Malinda Clatterbuck “It’s a proposed pipeline that’s been approved by FERC, that takes fracked gas from Marcellus Shale region to export. And we’ve been fighting it because we think it’s a violation of our rights and it’s a destruction of the land. In our process, we’ve learned how much damage fracking does to the climate, and our community is just dead set against it. … And we have almost 900 people who have signed pledges to come out and do nonviolent mass action to stop it. So that’s what we’re looking forward to this summer.”
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