Plant security: Chicken or egg
Restitution of $94,577 was included in plea agreements for the six Greenpeace members who breached security at Hatfield’s Ferry power plant and then scaled the smokestack. Actually breaching security might be an overstatement, as there appeared to have been little evidence that the grounds were secured. How else could a handful of environmentalists armed only with wire clippers, ropes and a banner have reached the top of a smokestack and unfurled a 2,500-square-foot banner before anyone noticed the intrusion? Now Allegheny Energy, the plant’s owner, wants Greenpeace to pay for its costs of inspecting the tower and grounds following the demonstration, lost productivity and the hiring of additional security. Allegheny Energy ought to be embarrassed to raise the later claim.
If the company had in place high-level security, as the public was led to believe, Greenpeace would have been stopped long before any damage had been done.
Defense attorneys plan to appeal the restitution amount, and they should. Greenpeace ought to pay for fence repairs and the like. But additional security? Hardly.