Nine people were charged by state Capitol Police Monday when a group of climate defenders called Don’t Destroy Our Future and youth activists from Sunrise Movement held a sit-in protest inside of Gov. Ned Lamont’s office opposing what they call his “plan to approve new methane gas construction across Connecticut.”
The nine were charged with obstruction of free passage, Capitol Police said.
About 30 protesters gathered for a display that was months in the making and included citizens from various pro-environmental groups across the state. The nine were methodically removed without incident from the Lamont’s office and were greeted by applause the lower stairwell of the State Capitol Monday afternoon.
Lamont was not in his office at the time of the protest. Ned Coursey, Lamont’s Constituent Service Representative greeted and listened for about 10 minutes to Norwalk resident Diane Keefe and other protesters about the environmental issues they have with the governor. Other protesters remained outside singing and chanting. Shortly after, an officer made an announcement that the protest was no longer lawful, and the protesters remained on the grounds they could be arrested. Keefe was the first to be escorted out of the office.
“We want the governor to stop supporting any additional fossil fuel infrastructure in the state in particular the expansion of fossil gas in Brookfield. We would like the Capitol Area System to be converted to a geothermal and no more authorizations of expansions of pipelines, Keefe said.
Members of Don’t Destroy Our Future take part in a sit-in outside Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s office at the State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. The group, joined by activists from the Sunshine Movement, is urging Lamont to honor his prior climate commitments and oppose plans for new methane gas construction across the state. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
“We need to stop using natural gas because it’s 90 percent methane and methane has 86 times the global warming power of carbon dioxide in the first decade after its emitted. That’s the moment we need to shift in the next 10 years. We need to stop something that is going to have a negative and dramatic effect on the climate,” Keefe said.
The Brookfield expansion Keefe was referring to was to expand a natural gas compressor station within 1,900 feet of Whisconier Middle School and near many homes. Earlier this year, Lamont was criticized by environmental groups for plan on the Capitol Area System in Hartford.
The protestors said “the Department of Administrative Services is allowing the Capitol Area System to be updated with natural methane boilers.”
Keefe was escorted out by Capitol Police shortly after. Keefe said Coursey assured her that he would convey her concerns to the governor’s staff.
Reached later, Lamont spokesman Rob Blanchard said, “Governor Lamont has been clear that he wants to bring new energy resources into New England to increase our energy supply and lower costs for ratepayers.
“We look forward to continuing the conversation with regional partners on how we can best achieve this goal, while protecting the state’s investment in renewable energy,” he said.
New Haven resident Sydney Collins was one of the leaders of Monday’s protest. Collins said she was protesting for a couple of reasons, but the biggest being her opposition to fossil fuel.
“A couple of months ago Ned Lamont had a meeting with someone from the Trump Administration and came out of that meeting being very pro gas and expanding pipelines in the Northeast,” Collins said.
“This is repetitive behavior, and we’ve seen him permitting and moving toward fossil fuel projects. The action in itself is to action against Lamont and to say we don’t want any more fossil fuel infrastructure, and we want you to stop allowing that in the state,” Collins said.
Collins said she felt the protest gave a powerful message that she hopes Lamont will receive.
“The power will come from the consistency of our message. Our group has continually showed up at his events to stay ‘stop supporting gas’ and he has not listened. These demands are not new to Lamont,” Collins said.
“This has been years of work, and this is another effort to say, ‘Lamont, you see us. We are sitting outside of your office. You can’t look away.’ We are asking the same thing, and we will continue to ask if you won’t listen.”
Collins said Connecticut has a Global Warming Solutions Act with the goal to have zero emissions electricity by 2040 and other climate initiative goals
“We are not on track to meet those at all because we keep investing in fossil fuel infrastructure,” Collins said. “The Capitol Area Systems project is the public fossil fuel network in Hartford recently did a study to upgrade the structure. Should we do it with fossil fuel infrastructure or should we upgrade to a more renewable infrastructure. The logical answer is that this would be an opportunity to upgrade and modernize the structure to something clean that go in line with our emission reduction goals.
A Connecticut State Capitol Police officer escorts Claude Allen of Thompson down the stairs to be processed as members of Don’t Destroy Our Future show their support while others continue their sit-in outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s office at the State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. The group, joined by activists from the Sunshine Movement, is urging Lamont to honor his prior climate commitments and oppose plans for new methane gas construction across the state. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
“Unfortunately, Lamont and his administration decided to replace existing gas infrastructure. Which is entirely disappointing and frustrating because you are locking the state into more fossil fuel infrastructure. This was a perfect opportunity to invest in clean energy. This has been an ongoing issue and it’s a recent example of him investing in technology that will hurt us in the future,” Collins added.
Hamden’s Melinda Tuhus was another leader of the event and was also in the governor’s office during the sit-in.
“We are concerned that Governor Lamont has been going backwards on issues related to climate. He now loves methane. He talked about it at his latest inauguration speech. He’s talked about it several times. We don’t think developing methane projects in Connecticut is the way to go. We feel we need to double down on renewables. We don’t think he’s down on renewable energy. He’s been much more enthusiastic about building up a methane project than renewables. The state still has restrictions on solar,” Tuhus said.
Tuhus said the protesters want to raise awareness for the environment.
“With everything else going on in the country, climate has kind of receded as an issue in terms of coverage – not in terms of extreme importance,” Tuhus said. “Governor Lamont could easily ignore it, but we hope he won’t. This protest was something we can do other than just signing petitions, writing letters and holding rallies – which is something we have been doing all along.”
Hedley Freake, of Willimantic, was one of the protesters escorted out of the governor’s office by police. He said was protesting to ask Lamont to live up to his climate promises.
“We’ve had some good laws that had been passed but they are not being executed and he’s approving gas line expansion in Brookfield elsewhere,” Freake said. “President Trump denies there is a climate crisis and (Lamont) pretends to have another agenda but he doesn’t live up to his promises. So, we are ending up in the same place in terms of using more fossil fuels now that we should be. In 40 years, none of us will be using fossil fuels, it’s about how much damage we are causing to get there.”
Easton resident Jonathan Webster said he protested because he is against the expansion of methane in the state.
“I think the people in Brookfield are getting a raw deal with the expansion of the compression project there,” Webster said. “Locking in more methane infrastructure at this time inconceivable today.”
The last person escorted out of Lamont’s office was Thompson’s Diane Jamieson. She said she’s voted for Lamont twice but is disappointed in the governor.”
“He backed down from every climate goal he has set, and he won’t get my vote again unless there are significant changes,” Jamieson said.
Jamieson said she was part of the group that stopped the Killingly gas plant and is troubled by the expansion of the gas pipelines in other parts of the state.
“The governor should take this seriously and start making changes,” Jamieson said.
Jamieson said in order to help get that message across she had no problem getting arrested on Monday.
