What follows is the speech I made at the DPU hearing in Greenfield on March 30.
My name is Ron Coler and I am a Select Board member from the town of Ashfield.
Please know that on June 23, 2014, the Town of Ashfield adopted a resolution directing town officials to oppose the development of the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline within our town’s borders.
I stand before you tonight to ask that you not exercise your authority and grant trespass and survey permission over lands that have specifically been denied such. I ask that you respect the private ownership rights of Ashfield’s residents.
I stand before you tonight with a fair bit of reservation. I want to fully embrace and believe in the principles of our democracy. I also want to believe that the system is not in fact, rigged.
As witnessed by the clear intentions of this project, the very cornerstone of our democratic foundation has been perversely twisted and misaligned to serve the needs of a few at the expense of the many. Once clearly identified, the sanctity of concepts embracing; private ownership rights, the voice of the individual, the common wealth, and the public good … historically speaking, all of these were elevated and nearly enshrined, thought to be preserved forever within the four corners of many famous documents of governance.
So here I stand before you while you hold by your side, certain enabling and preemptive energy acts and legislation that now define individuals as corporations, and foreign markets in the “public good,” all while pushing aside the public’s clean air and clean water acts.
So here I stand before you while you consider granting trespass rights against the will of certain Ashfield residents to foreigners. You contemplate the taking of individual rights and freedoms from my town’s people — trust me this does not bode well.
I remind this board of the words within Article 97 of your state constitution;
“The people shall have the right to clean air and water, freedom from excessive and unnecessary noise, and the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic qualities of their environment …”
As an elected official, I took an oath to uphold our state’s constitution. I am standing before you tonight doing just that. I would contend that this Article rests in harmony with our most recent Paris climate talks. I would also say that the building of a 30-inch high-pressure methane transmission line that has a service life in excess of 30 years flies in the face of that same Accord.
History has shown us time and again that the erosion of moral principles when coupled with excessive governmental overreach will lead to radical democratic action. It was in fact a very similar governmental infringement on private ownership rights that resulted in unwarranted seizures and set the stage in 1778 for Shays’ Rebellion. These same trigger-points laid at the very core of that conflict. Ashfield’s own farmers, most who had served in the Revolutionary War, joined the Shays forces with serious determination to say “enough is enough.” Trust me, their courage, determination and passion yet remains in the bedrock and streams of these same hills and valleys.
Please, Department of Public Utilities, I ask that you dig deep, step up to the moral high ground, and deny Kinder Morgan the right to trespass on private land within Ashfield and its sister towns.
We beg that you do not test the strength of our resolve.
Ron Coler lives in Ashfield.