Vera Scroggins, of Susquehanna County, cannot legally go to the grocery store. Or the shelter where she adopted her Yorkshire terrier. Or the bowling alley. Or the Chinese restaurant where she takes her grandchildren.
The Guardian recently profiled the 63-year-old fractivist (anti-fracking activist):
“They might as well have put an ankle bracelet on me with a GPS on it and be able to track me wherever I go,” Scroggins said. “I feel like I am some kind of a prisoner, that my rights have been curtailed, have been restricted.”
The ban represents one of the most extreme measures taken by the oil and gas industry to date against protesters like Scroggins, who has operated peacefully and within the law including taking Yoko Ono to frack sites in her bid to elevate public concerns about fracking.
There are 312.5 square miles that are off limits to Scroggins as imposed by a temporary court order from a local judge. The order bans her from any property leased or owned by Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation, one of the biggest drillers in Pennsylvania.
That amounts to nearly 40% of the largely rural county in north-eastern Pennsylvania where Scroggins lives and where Cabot does most of its drilling.
The temporary injunction granted on 21 October does not require Cabot to identify or map the lands where it holds drilling leases, putting Scroggins in the bizarre position of having to figure out for herself which areas were off-limits.
Scroggins is fighting to get the court order overturned. Right now, she risks facing fines and arrest if she steps foot on any of the drillers’ properties.
