Mid-Hudson News reports that at a Nov. 21 arraignment, 15 people were cited for trespassing, and four were charged with criminal trespass for a protest at the Cricket Valley Energy Center on November 16. The Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office offered the trespassers 50 hours of community service at a Dutchess County non-profit in exchange for guilty pleas. The four defendants that climbed the 275-foot smokestack at the almost-finished fracked-gas plant would receive a 30-day sentence in the Dutchess County Jail and one year probation if they pleaded guilty. Instead the protesters entered not guilty pleas. “I don’t want to go to jail for 30 days, but that was a risk worth taking to shut down the plant for the day and bring awareness to the harm this plant will cause to our communities and the climate,” said Creek Iversen, an Ulster County farmer charged with criminal trespass. “We shouldn’t have had to be up on that smokestack though. If Governor Cuomo is a real climate leader who cares about protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers, he’ll shut down the plant for good.” The protesters have also been given restraining orders to keep them from within 1,000 feet of the plant, which includes New York Route 22, and public transportation on the MTA Harlem train line. Read more about this story at Mid-Hudson News.