Three Arrested Protesting New Salem Power Plant

Three protesters were arrested at the Footprint Energy headquarters in New Jersey this week while protesting against the company’s planned gas-fired power plant in Salem, according to a report by the Daily Record and a YouTube video posted online by the group.

The people that were arrested were from Students for a Just and Stable Future. They sat with their feet chained together and hands “super-glued” for about an hour in front of Footprint’s Bridgewater, N.J. headquarters before the arrest.

The group said in a press release it was “acting to the discourage the financing of the Footprint’s planned Salem gas plant and take a stand against the building of natural gas infrastructure everywhere.”

The gas plant will be just as polluting as the coal plant it will replace, according to the group, which instead says it is pushing for “clean, safe energy.”

The arrested students, all from Massachusetts, were Ben Trolio, Martin Hamilton and Julie Salvatoriello, according to the Daily Record, a New Jersey newspaper. Each of them were charged with trespassing.

The arrests come on the heels of the Festival for Our Future last Saturday at Derby Wharf in Salem, where local environmental groups gathered, pushing for alternatives to the gas-fired plant.

Photo from Students for a Just and Stable Future