Al Gore proud of daughter’s pipeline protest arrest: ‘We are facing an existential crisis’

Former Vice President Al Gore said he is proud of his daughter, Karenna, for getting arrested at a pipeline protest in Boston this week.

’’We are facing an existential crisis and should speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and a decarbonized economy,’’ Mr. Gore said in a statement regarding his daughter’s arrest Wednesday.

Ms. Gore, who serves as director of the Center for Earth Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, was among a group attempting to stymie construction at the site of Spectra Energy’s West Roxbury Lateral pipeline.

She was arrested when she sat in a trench and refused to move until firefighters carried her off. Her arraignment is scheduled for Friday.

Ms. Gore said she was honored to be one of the 23 people arrested for nonviolent protest.

’’The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should be helping us transition to renewable energy like solar and wind but instead they almost always defer to the fossil fuel industry,” the activist wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

’’Our pipelines provide a vital source of reliable, affordable energy for the nation’s homes, hospitals, businesses and schools. Low energy prices help everyone, particularly those least able to pay their bills,’’ Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. spokesman Creighton Welch said in a statement Thursday.

The 5-mile pipeline is part of a $1 billion project to increase access to natural gas in the region, AP reported.