Dana Pinney has lived in southwest New Hampshire for all of his 63 years. “I'm blue collar,” he said. He is fighting a proposed fracked gas pipeline that would pass near Greenfield, Brattleboro, and Keene. “We should be investing in energy efficiency and solar, not gas,” Pinney said.

The pipeline would be built and owned by Kinder Morgan Corporation of Texas. It would carry gas that is mined using a process called “fracking,” which poisons drinking water.

Fracked gas is a fossil fuel. It causes climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life.

Pinney lives in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, near Keene and Massachusetts. He told the Valley Post he has spoken out against the pipeline at his town's select board meetings. “I'm going to keep speaking out,” he said.

The pipeline would pass through Winchester, New Hampshire, which borders Massachusetts and is about four miles from Brattleboro. The Winchester select board did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

The pipeline would run from near Albany, New York to near Boston.

Coni Porter has lived in Fitzwilliam for 26 years. “Kinder Morgan is offering lower property taxes,” she said. “But can you put a price on nature? I have been hearing from Fitzwilliam people who I never though would say this; they're saying, 'If we stand in front of the bulldozers they won't build it.'”

Porter said the first step is to lobby state legislators from the towns that the pipeline would cross. She spoke with the Valley Post on December 27.

On December 20 in Fitzwilliam, more than 50 people attended a rally at the town common against the pipeline. The rally organizers can be reached by sending an e-mail from:

www.NHpipelineAwareness.org

There is no phone number at that site, but the site says it's affiliated with another group which does have a phone number:

www.NoFrackedGasInMass.org/contact-us

The New Hampshire group's web site also links to a frequently updated Facebook page about the fight to stop the pipeline.

The Kinder Morgan corporation originally wanted the pipeline to run south of Fitzwilliam, in Massachusetts, but activists in Massachusetts appear to have succeeded in keeping the pipeline out of that part of their state.

Diane Hewitt lives in Groton, Massachusetts. She was part of the successful effort to keep the pipeline out of her town. “We seem to have kept it out of our backyard,” she told the Valley Post. “But it doesn't feel like a victory. The goal is to stop the pipeline, not just move it.”

Fracked gas is mined by Exxon Mobil corporation. The CEO of Exxon Mobil was paid $40 million last year. Exxon Mobil received $6.2 billion in subsidies from taxpayers in the USA between 2010 and 2012. That's according to www.AmericansForTaxFairness.org.

Fitzwilliam is home to about 2,400 people.