Protesters disrupt confirmation hearing for Trump's FERC nominees, 4 arrests, 1 detained

Update May 26 7PM: Everyone is out of lockup, one facing possible jury trial, two no-papered, another activist was cited and released at the scene.

On the 25th of May, protesters repeatedly disrupted a Senate confirmation hearing for Trump's nomineess to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. One of the protesters was locked to a chair, and someone threw a loud noisemaker into the room.

Messages of the protests included ""FERC hurts families, Shut FERC down!" and "FERC hurts families, FERC hurt towns" and "The future is watching." One protester elaborated "I am compelled to interrupt this because I have seen the damage of climate change." Four of the protesters were arrested and one was detained.

Beyond Extreme Energy organizer Lee Steward called FERC "an arm of the oil and gas industries," referring to their history of rubber stamping almost all proposed oil and gas project. Protesters said that FERC was not qualified to manage a transition to renewable energy and should be replaced rather than re-enabled with new commissioners. FERC lacks a quorum at the moment and cannot approve new eminent domain pipelines.

Video-intense disruption of the FERC commissioners' confirmation hearing with protest continuing in the hall outside

A protester tied to a chair is dragged out of the hearing

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