The Middlebury selectboard recently approved an easement across the Middlebury town green to be conveyed to Vermont Gas systems so they can use it to build out additional fossil fuel infrastructure. The selectboard granted this easement for a single dollar.

Why would this easement, through valuable town property, be granted for only one dollar? There must be some legal reason that Middlebury can’t just give easements away. But why would we want to give easements away? More fossil fuel infrastructure is the opposite of the town’s best interest, and giving things away that we could be getting money for is also not in the town’s best interest. How will Vermont ever reach its 2025 climate emissions reductions with this overly friendly and familial way of relating to fossil fuel companies, such as Vermont Gas. I believe it is only reasonable and prudent to ask Vermont Gas to pay a fair market value for the easement.

If you feel the same way I do about this, you’ll want to vote against Article 1 on October 1, 2024.

Alice Eckles

Middlebury