Cyclist group hosts anti-pipeline event in Albany | VIDEO

ALBANY — Growing opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline through Dougherty County now includes a group of cyclists from North Georgia who stopped in Albany Monday to host an awareness event in downtown’s Art Park.

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Despite Monday’s wet conditions, members of the Georgia Climate Change Coalition, pedaled into Albany as part of a 200 mile bike tour through Georgia in support of the organization’s mission to bring awareness to issues affecting the climate and the environment of the state in regard to energy infrastructure.

According to Gretchen Elsner, a member and spokesperson for the group, the coalition chose to ride into Albany to show its support to the opposition which has grown around Spectra Energy Corp’s Sabal Trail pipeline which is proposed to run through Southwest Georgia and Dougherty County.

“I was reading a story about the Sabal Trail pipeline that is proposed to go through the southwest part of our state and the compressor station the company desires to put here in Albany,” said Elsner. “Our mandate as a organization is to educate, to advocate and to take action so we’re trying to do all three of those things with this bicycle tour. That’s why we’re here.”

Elsner said the organization, which was founded in 2010, uses its voice to encourage lawmakers to support infrastructure for renewable energy sources, such as solar power and thus limit the use of fossil fuel consumption.

To achieve its goals, the coalition helps citizens by providing information, including addresses and phone numbers for state and federal lawmakers, so that those concerned and opposed to projects can be heard.

Elsner said the Sabal Trail situation offers an opportunity to have discussion before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued permits allowing the pipeline construction, rather than after the fact, as has happened in other states.

“We have to take this positive, constructive energy that we’re putting into some of our campaigns and lend a hand to the opposition that is building here in Albany,” said Elsner. “Without resorting to the same kind of measures that people in New England are taking against this very same company that’s executing a pipeline expansion across the entire eastern seaboard. People in New York and Rhode Island and Vermont, Pennsylvania, didn’t really get the jump on it when the permitting processes were happening and now they find these pipelines being run through their community. They’re chaining themselves to construction fences, they’re locking themselves to the office doors of their elected officials, they’re getting arrested. We just don’t need to do that here in Georgia.”

Local residents who are also opposed to the Sabal Trial project said they were pleased to have gotten the attention of the Georgia Climate Change Coalition and are excited the group chose to ride through Albany.

Nancy Barclay from the Radium Springs Neighborhood Association, which has worked with local officials over the years to improve the area around the springs with park space, said she and other members of the neighborhood association are vehemently opposed to the Sabal Trail pipeline due to potential impact to the Radium Springs area and other parts of the county.

“This project has problems written all over it,” said Barclay. “They (want) to build a compression station which is loud and there’s a history behind it in other areas that tells us this is not a good thing for our safety, for our health, for our property values even. This is exciting to have these people bike all the way down from Athens to help us. They understand the importance of not allowing this entity to exist in our region. They are very supportive of us and they are showing that support to our citizens here, helping them learn how to protest, how to write letters in support of us and against this willy-nilly putting pipes and compressor stations all across our country, anywhere a gas company wants to go.”

Former Dougherty County Commissioner Gloria Gaines, who has been vocal in her opposition to the pipeline project, also attended the event and reiterated her feeling that in addition to the pipeline project providing little benefit to Dougherty County, it presents a concern for all of Georgia.

“Of course we’re concerned about the climate, we’re concerned about the environment just as (the climate change coalition members) are, but of course this is home for us,” said Gaines. “They realize that the environment, if it deteriorates in South Georgia it could affect a much larger area than just Dougherty County. So we welcome that. We welcome that attention that this is bringing at the state level, we do need that. We need our state officials to step up to the plate on this.”