Area Man Supports TransCanada Protest

The eight people arrested after a sit-in at TransCanada's Westborough office now will be arraigned Wednesday, Westborough District Court officials said today.

However, the word that the proceedings were expected today inspired one supporter to hold a “Stop the XL Pipeline. Save the Earth!” sign outside the courthouse.

Worcester resident Scott Schaeffer-Duffy said came to the court after reading about Monday’s protest at TransCanada, 110 Turnpike Road, Suite 203.

Eight current and recent college students were arrested after chaining themselves together and super glueing their hands there.

The group was protesting the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, according to the "Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline" website. The website describes the Keystone XL Pipeline as "a proposed 1,400-mile pipeline that would transport tar sands oil from the Canadian tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico. The southern leg is currently being constructed in the face of massive local opposition in Texas."

“I am very, very much a supporter of their actions, and very much an opponent of this pipeline,” Schaeffer-Duffy said of the eight people involved Monday.

Schaeffer-Duffy said he has been “a peace and justice activist for many years, and actually I was arraigned in this courthouse many times opposing nuclear weapons when they were built at the GTE plant here in Westborough.”

He said he hoped that people seeing him at the courthouse “will realize that this is a project that’s a disaster for the environment, and bad for the U.S. economy.”

“And really, the only beneficiary are the corporations,” Schaeffer-Duffy said.

“This is dirtier than dirty coal, and really a boondoggle. A terrible project.”