A group of 11 Algonquin pipeline protesters pleaded not guilty in Cortlandt town court today to charges of disorderly conduct.
The charges stem from a protest last month outside pipeline operator Spectra Energy's drilling site in Buchanan. State police arrested the group, who have become known as the Verplanck 11, after they locked on to one another blocking access to the staging area a few hundred feet from the Indian Point Energy Center.
Today, the group expressed support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to stop construction on the natural gas pipepine until an independent safety review is completed. "We really are at ground zero now. Spectra is building the pipe right next to leaking Indian Point. And there are a lot of people in the community who don't know all about it," says Verplanck 11 member Tina Bolz-Bongar.
The Algonquin Pipeline is a 42 inch-diameter, high pressure pipeline that would run under the Hudson River from Rockland County to Westchester County. The pipeline would run within 100 feet of Indian Point.
The group is scheduled to have its trial begin on April 14.