Thousands Demand
Megan Holleran, Impacted Landowner, (570) 7093268, megholleran@gmail.com
Coryn Wolk, Clean Air Council, (215) 5674004 x107, cwolk@cleanair.org
Alex Lotorto, Energy Justice Network, (570) 2699589, alotorto@gmail.com
On Friday, February 26, we sent a letter to public pension funds around the country as the start of a nationwide campaign to demand that they divest from Williams Companies. Thousands of individuals and groups across the country have since joined the letterwriting campaign, which continues into this week.
This week, Williams Companies and Cabot Oil and Gas plan to move forward with the seizure and destruction of the Holleran family’s land and livelihood for construction of the Constitution Pipeline. The Holleran family depends on the sugar maples on their property for their family maple syrup business, North Harford Maple . Despite the family’s repeated requests, Williams has refused to reroute the pipeline to avoid the maple trees they depend on for their business, and plans to cut them down within the next few days. They are proceeding despite lacking the permits from New York state necessary for completing the pipeline. Public pension funds in New York, California, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Arizona, Ohio, and Florida are invested in Williams and therefore the success of these actions. We are calling upon pension funds across the United States to divest its funds from Williams to show their disagreement with Williams’ illegal and permanent destruction of the Holleran family’s land and livelihood.
This story is newsworthy. The Holleran family’s fight to save their land has already made national news. With multiple state pension funds invested in Williams’ destruction, the local and national question becomes: should public retirement funds come from the destruction of other American families’ property and livelihoods?
Signed,
Clean Air Council
Energy Justice Network
