In late August, following a summer of environmental protests that catalyzed communities across the country, the Mountaintop Justice Festival brought hundreds of citizens to one contested mountaintop in southern Vermont to raise the stakes against yet another offender: the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB), the body responsible for regulating big energy utilities in the Green Mountain State.

Located on the summit of Northeast Mountain in Wells, Vermont, the event took place appropriately at one family's home that is being made unsafe by the installation of a cellphone tower. The homeowners fought a long court case with the state and the utilities, and lost. Now a cell tower - and the unhealthy radiation it spreads - is going in 100 feet from the house. The PSB ruled that the utility company Velco only had to reimburse the family $25,000 for their loss.

"Thank you for coming to be with us as we say goodbye to this place," said homeowner Olga Jalinski. "The Vermont Public Service Board gave the utilities everything they asked for and we got nothing. Some of us are just so disgusted with the way the corporations have been ganging up on the little people."

The PSB is a judicial process organized by the state of Vermont to mediate between citizens' interests and the interests of the utilities. But in practice, it's a rigged game because the utilities can afford endless legal bills and citizens can't. When the PSB approves projects, it issues a "Certificate of Public Good." So at the mountaintop event last month, activists countered by issuing the PSB itself a "Certificate of Public Harm."

Showing bipartisan dissatisfaction with the board's activities, Republicans, Democrats and Progressives turned out to speak about ways to reform the PSB and rein in the power that utilities wield across the state. During the day, protestors worked to develop a long list of reforms, and Vermont Senator Bob Hartwell promised to introduce legislation to enact those reforms, including making PSB board members elected, not appointed by the governor; moving the PSB from a building it shares with utility regulators to minimize conflicts of interest; and forcing utilities to fund citizens' legal needs when they drag the public into the process.

Homeowners Felix and Olga have a few months left before their house becomes uninhabitable - the day the tower gets switched on - and said they intended to spend that time not only enjoying the place, but continuing to draw attention to the injustice carried out against people in the name of corporate profit, on this and other mountains.

A follow-up event is scheduled for Oct 6, called "Mountaintop Justice 2.0: Occupy The Sky." And this time, as Vermont's leaves turn technicolor, participants will use Occupy ideas about direct democracy and art to deal with that larger crisis looming on people's minds: climate change.

For more info and to get involved visit Voices For Good.