Shumlin Backs Landowners Asking Vermont Gas To Halt Eminent Domain Cases

“In response to pressure from landowners and Gov. Peter Shumlin, Vermont Gas Systems has agreed to temporarily stop pursuing legal action to secure rights-of-way along the route of the company’s Addison County pipeline.

The move comes after a vocal group of landowners spent months attending public meeting and staging public demonstrations such as a “knit-in” at Vermont Gas headquarters.

After Shumlin himself met with the 10 landowners last month, his chief of staff, Elizabeth Miller, followed up with them and the group came up with a set of requests.

“The governor supports the request of these landowners that VGS [Vermont Gas Systems] significantly improve its communications and work more constructively to resolve remaining land disputes,” Miller said in a letter to Vermont Gas Friday.”

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Dobbs, Taylor. Vermont Public Radio 3 December 2014.