An environmental fight that seemed to have ended years ago is back in the spotlight. A gas pipeline that would cut through upstate New York was thought to be dead. But then President Trump mentioned it just recently in a meeting with Governor Kathy Hochul, and the debate returned. Support for Story of the Day and Respite Coalition, seeking volunteers aged 55 plus to support family caregivers in northern and central New York. Visit nyscrc.org slash AmeriCorps.
Hey, I'm David Summerstein. It's Monday, April 21st. First up. There were hundreds of anti-Trump rallies around the U.S. last weekend, including a few here in the North Country. Protesters pushed back against Trump's policies on immigration, social services, and the political influence of billionaires like Elon Musk. Emily Russell was at the protest in Saranac Lake and brings us this story.
More than 100 people packed a little park in the heart of Saranac Lake on Saturday. The protest was part of the nationwide movement known as Hands Off. According to the group's online toolkit, their messaging focuses on protecting social services, immigrants, working class people, and pushing back against President Donald Trump.
Chris Monaco from Saranac Lake held up a big sign with an American flag hanging off it. Did you make this sign? I did. Can you tell me what it says? It says, has it ever worked out well, having a dictator? The answer is no. Never. Monaco and others here think President Donald Trump is threatening democracy and sliding the country into a dictator.
Donald Trump is consolidating power. Congress isn't doing their job. The Supreme Court isn't holding him in check. And we are in big trouble. We're in big trouble as a nation. As Trump cracks down on immigration, imposes steep tariffs, and ignores some court orders, Republicans in Congress have largely stayed loyal to him. Meanwhile, many Democrats say the nation is facing a constitutional crisis.
Trump appears to be wielding his power partially through big budget cuts. One agency that his administration has slashed is the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It provides hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding. 22-year-old Alexa Dumas drove to Saranac Lake on Saturday from Keene Valley, where she works as a school librarian. The library profession is under fire under Trump, so I am here to say how angry I am at the fact that our government...
wants to control what we read and what we think. And that goes against my profession and everything I believe in. Democrats are in the minority in the North Country. The region voted heavily in favor of Donald Trump in November. Many Republicans we talked to back then said they wanted Trump to crack down on immigration, and many supported his plans for the economy.
But Trump is pushing the bounds of what some voters expected. According to Gallup, Trump is polling with 45%. That's far below the average 60% approval rating of all other presidents in their first quarter since the 1950s. On Saturday, about 250 people in Potsdam came out to rally. Protesters held signs that said, protect the Constitution and democracy, not monarchy. In Saranac Lake, organizer Kerry Johnson echoed those concerns and encouraged people to take a stand.
We remember that democracy is not a gift handed down by kings or presidents. It's something we claim, protect, and renew together. There was real fear expressed at Saturday's rally that democracy is under threat. Suzanne Miller held up a sign that said, we are the protectors of democracy. She teared up talking about this moment in the nation's history. We are 250 years almost into this experiment.
It's derailing quickly. Is there anything that's giving you hope in this moment? So many people turning out and saying, hold on, we're not doing it that way. That's my hope. Emily Russell, North Country Public Radio, Saranac Lake. The Constitution natural gas pipeline would have snaked from Pennsylvania up to Albany, largely along Interstate 88 north of the Catskill.
Environmentalists thought they killed it off years ago until President Trump brought it up again recently. Rebecca Redelmeyer reports for the New York Public News Network. Trump has made it pretty clear. He wants to grow the American oil and gas industry. We will drill, baby, drill. And he wants to build more pipelines to move all that gas, including one in upstate New York. He brought it up in the Oval Office recently before meeting with Governor Kathy Hochul.
They were supposed to talk about congestion pricing, the new toll for drivers entering some parts of Manhattan. But Trump also said he wanted this pipeline. Just a simple pipeline going through an area that wants it. It's called the Constitution Pipeline. And it was first proposed back in 2012. But it was never built. And here's why.
A gas company called Williams planned to build it to transport gas from Pennsylvania through New York's southern tier in Catskills to meet up with other pipelines outside of Albany. It was supposed to bring jobs and lower energy costs in the Northeast. But environmentalists and community members got word about it, and many were appalled.
They worried about having to move because of evident domain, pollution from leaks, and new infrastructure that would enable the continued use of fossil fuels, which contribute to climate change. Environmental lawyer Anne-Marie Garty was one of the movement's leaders. The first month after I heard about it, I spent every day looking for a way to stop the pipeline. Garty grew up in New York's Delaware County, where the pipeline was planned to pass through.
She loves the area, but she also knew the law, that pipelines are regulated largely by the federal government, which, at the time, approved most projects, allowing gas companies to move in and display some residents. Gardie didn't want that to happen in her community. So she started a group called Stop the Pipeline and organized protests. Some famous people stood by her side, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's now part of the Trump administration.
He spoke at a rally at the state capitol in 2016. This is a tired dinosaur expired business model. Gardie had a legal strategy too. She realized the state had the power to refuse the pipeline one key permit under the Clean Water Act. She and other groups organized protests and intervened in the permitting process to bring attention to the water issue. And in 2016, they secured a huge win. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation denied the pipeline that permit.
Gardie still remembers how two landowners involved in the movement reacted. The next day, they took one of our Stop the Pipeline signs. And they went to the local office of Constitution Pipeline and they wrote on it, we stopped the pipeline. I taped it to their door. The company appealed and appealed. It lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of the ruling.
But the courts upheld the decision. Gardie's legal approach became an example for activists around the country, trying to fight similar pipelines. In the Constitution pipeline battle, it seemed over. But fast forward to the Oval Office a few weeks ago, President Trump now says...
He wants to build it. My reaction, and I think everyone who fought its reaction at the time, was like, what the heck is this? Like, no one's even talked about the Constitution in years. Alex Beauchamp is the Northeast Region Director for Food and Water Watch, a national advocacy organization. He says the fact that Trump discussed the pipeline with Hochul and has brought it up since is concerning. I think we're sort of forced to take it seriously, sadly, even though it does seem completely crazy.
It's unclear how Trump would pursue building the pipeline. it would still need that Clean Water Act permit from the state, and Hochul has said publicly she is not interested in revisiting the issue. More than 200 advocacy groups recently sent a letter to Hochul and other governors. urging them to push back against any proposed new pipelines in the Northeast. Trump has said he doesn't want to have to use the quote, extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it done.
But he said, if he has to, he will. In Ithaca, I'm Rebecca Rettelmeyer for the New York Public News Network. We have more news all the time on our website, ncpr.org. And I just want to thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for all of the generosity. During our spring fundraiser last week, record breaking. We raised more than $450,000. It's all needed. It's all important. Thank you so, so, so much for your enduring support for public radio.
Music today by Eddie Lawrence of Saranac Lake and Gretchen Kohler and Daniel Kelly of Potsdam. I'm David Summerstein, North Country Public Radio.