Reporting from E&E News Energy Wire that ‘Manchin Deal might not save the Mountain Valley Pipeline’ gives hope, but the fight will continue
WESTON, W.Va. – We read in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, including a time to be silent and a time to speak. By now, I had hoped to be silent. As a pensioner, I was hoping to hang out with my family, do some hiking, and to travel a bit. In short, I’m just trying to live a peaceful life. The only problem is that corruption and violence is so rampant that it can’t be ignored.
Silence in the face of violence is compliance with it. (To hear a beautiful take on that notion, listen to “Medicine” by the Americana band Rising Appalachia). So my season of silence is over.
For nearly a decade, before I tried to step back a few months ago, I had written more than 100 articles about the public health, safety and environmental dangers of fracking and related pipeline development. I’ve also written about Mountaintop Removal and efforts by environmental activists to protect the pristine Appalachian Mountains. What West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his fossil fuel cronies have inflicted upon the people and land of West Virginia and Virginia in attempting to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is nothing short of a violent assault upon the people and land.
In building the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the MVP, energy companies EQT, Duke Energy and Dominion and their subcontractors have been ruthless, as the articles below reveal. (Note: some links within articles may no longer be valid). This collective chronicle of the gas industry’s tactics reveal deceit, threats and destruction. The MVP remains uncompleted only because of the people in its path. A coalition of individuals and groups have stalled it primarily through successful legal and regulatory challenges, not to mention dogged determination.
These articles – the first published Aug. 4 2014 – demonstrate what a roller-coaster ride of emotions and betrayal landowners and environmentalists have experienced. They succeeded in shutting down the ACP and had the MVP on the ropes. Investors were nervous.
However, it appeared that all of that work against the MVP may have been undone in a behind-closed-doors deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Manchin to get Manchin’s essential vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That deal was supposed to streamline the permitting process for the MVP. However, E&E News Energy Wire is reporting that may not be enough to salvage the beleaguered and long-delayed project. According to the article, a primary obstacle may be legislation announced and sponsored by West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The Republican proposal is picking up bi-partisan support. The E&E News article details how legal and regulatory challenges could still derail the MVP should the proposal pass, as it would not allow the MVP to bypass judicial review.
Though this is hopeful news, this fight is far from over. There is simply too much money changing hands. So, keep up with this story and support any effort to thwart the shady dealings of Schumer and Manchin.
These articles would not have been possible without the cooperation of my family and the subjects of the articles. They are the brave souls willing to share their stories, allowing me insight, facts and documents to support my enterprise and investigative reporting; additionally, contributions from other writers have served to enrich our reporting.
So, while it may take you a while, please read through the articles below. You will see that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t changed tactics in over a century. Only this time, instead of using Baldwin-Felt thugs to do their dirty work as they did during the West Virginia Mine Wars in the early 1920s, today’s energy executives hatch their plots on Manchin’s “Almost Heaven” yacht moored on the Potomac River.
‘Fractured Sanctuary’ Art Exhibit to Explore Impact of Mountaintop Removal and Fracking
From ‘Almost Heaven’ to Almost Hell
Incompetence and Complacency Increase Dangers from Fracking
A Mother’s Quarrel with West Virginia
Victim in Fracking Truck Accident had Warned Commissioners of Roadway Dangers
Area Group to Host Forum on Fracking and Pipeline Issues
Fracking Forum a Time to Learn, Unify and Act
Dominion is a Bully, not a Community Builder
More than Woods and Streams Destroyed Shen Wild Places are Defiled
Lent Offers Opportunity to Reflect Upon Environmental Stewardship
A Dirty Dozen Reasons to Oppose Fracking
EQT Letter Characterized as ‘Misleading’ and ‘Bullying’
Environmental Groups Align Efforts to Challenge FERC Pipeline Projects
FERC Challenged to be Truly Independent
Federal and State Agencies Targeted for Lax Oversight of Mountaintop Removal
Citing Medical Studies, Activists Call for End to Mountaintop Removal Permits
The Conflict between Dominion Theory and and Stewardship
A Pivotal Moment for West Virginia’s Eminent Domain Law
Provisions of W.Va. Storage Tank Law Undermine its Stated Intent
West Virginia Church Earns Award for Solar Energy Use
Breaking Ground, Breaking Hearts
Fracking Poses Threats to Public Health, Say Experts
WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman Says Charleston Politics Limits Agency’s Influence
Catholic Committee of Appalachia Issues Statement on Applying the Pope’s Encyclical
Appalachian Residents Joining Hands in Opposition to Pipelines and Fracking
Environmental Scientists, Activists Applaud Mountain Valley Pipeline Ruling
West Virginians and Pennsylvanians Standing in Solidarity Against the Natural Gas Industry
West Virginia Residents in Heart of Fracking Fields Join in National Action
West Virginia Pipeline Project Cited for Numerous Violations
Groups Work to Bring the Public Voice into Pipeline Projects
Natural Gas Pipelines, the Drumbeats of War and Our Sense of Entitlement
Ecological Groups Take on West Virginia AG over Clean Power Plan
Ecological Monitoring Group Challenges Va. Governor to be Transparent about Pipelines
Citizen Groups Organizing in Response to Fracking
West Virginia’s Top Story of 2015: People and Land Under Assault
As W.Va. Legislature Convenes, Root Cause of Elk River Spill Remains, Say Researchers
Poor Emergency Planning in West Virginia Puts Citizens at Risk
U.S. Forest Service Puts the Brakes on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Citizen Groups to Unite for Water Justice in West Virginia and Beyond
Proposed ‘New’ Route for ACP No Better Than One Rejected, Say Opponents
ACP Costs Outweigh Benefits, Claims Independent Study
Jury in Pennsyvania’s Fracking Case See Clear Value in Lives and Property
Atlantic Coast Pipeline Not a Done Deal
West Virginia Catholic Diocese Challenged to Reject Coal’s ‘Dirty Money’
Virginia Officials Agree to Demands from Advocacy about Pipeline Deliberations
Citizens Encouraged to Request Public Hearings about MVP
MVP Would Cost Impacted Communities Billions of Dollars Asserts Study
FERC Independence Challenged by Nonprofits
An Open Letter to W.Va. Governor Jim Justice and DEP Secretary Caperton
Why People Deny Global Warming Clues
Pipeline Proposal Raises Questions that Beg for Answers
Where are the Courageous and Visionary Leaders?
Mountaintop Removal’s Health Impacts Examined
The Power Behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Mural Project Highlights Endangered Species
Alpha Natural Resources Ordered to Justify Mountaintop Removal Mine Permit
Virginia DEQ Criticized for Failing to Properly Study Pipeline Impacts
ASU Student Uses Art to Teach Peers about MTR
Virginia DEQ Ignores Requests for Pipeline Comments
North Carolina Law Enforcement Wrong to Target Pipeline Opponents
Reflecting (Again) on Laudato Si’ – the Ecological Encyclical by Pope Francis
Why and How the People are Leading on Climate Issues
A ‘Lonesome Friend of Science’ Presses On
Mother Earth Needs Her Children
Appalachia a ‘Sacred Place Calling for a Spiritual Solution, Says Forum Speaker
‘Living the Sermon on the Mount’ in the Midst of Chaos
Laying the Groundwork for Sustainable Farm Businesses
Highlights from the Sustainable Living Forum
April Pierson-Keating: The Best of West Virginia
Lessons from Monongah Ignored for More than a Century
Earth Day Wisdom from a West Virginia Teenager
‘Pray and Delay’ v. Dominion, Duke
Dominion and Duke Abandon the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Environmentalists Outrages as Standards Changed to Help MVP
SW Virginia Coal Plant Faces Early Closure
Clean Water: The People Speak as WV Legislators Decline Hearings
Three Years of Aerial Resistance
The Biblical Response to Disaster Requires Surrender
New Solar Fund a Rare Chance for Appalachian Leaders
The Climate Emergency and Appalachia
Reluctant Activist Fight Fossil Fuels
Manchin Fails Basic Question: Why Choose to Lead?
MVP Legal Setbacks Give Breathing Space to Opponents
Black Miners in the Battle of Blair Mountain
The 1972 Buffalo Creek Disaster is a History Lesson Ignored
Manchin Lying about Mountain Valley Pipeline, Says Landowner
Manchin is Dead Wrong on Fossil Fuels, Insists MVP Opponent Maury Johnson
Maury Johnson: Fierce Friend of Mother Earth
Has Manchin’s Brain Been Fried by Our Climate Emergency?
© Michael M. Barrick, 2022.
Thanks Mike. BTW I will be on Wilson Creek in a couple weeks to fish for some trout.
I’m glad someone has the “intestinal fortitude” to say what Manchin
needs to hear!
[…] This is underscores our recent article, Silence about Manchin and the MVP is Compliance with Violence. […]