By Allen Johnson, President, Eight Rivers Council
FROST, W.Va. — A Dirty Deal is in the works to rig the Established Permitting Process to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Your help is urgently requested to help our friends fighting the MVP that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is attempting to grease through Congress. (Read a related story here)
Until recently, the MVP was on the ropes. After years of our continued opposition to this poorly-designed and intrusive massive pipeline project, many of us were optimistic that the MVP investors would fold up just as investors folded up on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) on July 5, 2020. The MVP was several years behind schedule, billions of dollars over budget, and stymied in court decisions due to regulatory compliance issues.
However, Joe Manchin wants the MVP completed. President Biden and the Democratic Party wanted a climate action bill. Manchin, whose Senate vote was crucial, kept stalling. Then, several weeks ago, Manchin proposed a revised climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), that subsequently was enacted.
However, to get Manchin’s support, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to support additional legislation to expedite energy infrastructure permits. Manchin made it clear that provisions must be in place so that the MVP will be built.
As an aside, no doubt if the ACP had still been in play, it too would be included in the Manchin side deal.
At this point, Manchin’s “side handshake” bill has not yet been introduced, but is planned to attach as a rider to a federal budget resolution by end of this month of September or else federal government will start shutting down.
Our movement’s key strategy right now is to keep Manchin’s bill from getting attached as a rider to the Budget bill.
Recently, I joined a team of activists traveling by van to Washington, DC. Monroe County resident, farmer, POWHR leader, and nationally-recognized activist Maury Johnson headed up our group. Deni Elliott of Greenbrier River Watershed Association had interviews with WV Metro News Talkline host Hoppy Kercheval. We met with a staffer with Sen. Capito, and an hour meeting with five staffers of the Senate’s “Energy and Natural Resources Committee” that Manchin chairs. Rep. Miller’s staff person, however, failed to meet our appointment. Nancy Boldin and Grace Tuttle of Monroe County (WV) POWHR chanced into Joe Manchin on a street and confronted him on the MVP. See Twitter video here
We participated in a rally of perhaps 500 from across the nation, many of them First Nations people. See Twitter link here for video of the super-inspiring rally.
How to help
Rep. Raul Grijalva is circulating a “Dear Colleague Letter” urging that congressional members to oppose any legislation that would short-circuit or weaken or rush permitting as a rider on any “must pass” bill. Many are signing on! Do assertively tell our West Virginia delegation our opposition, and please encourage your friends in other states to urge their representatives to resist this dirty side deal that is engineered by the American Petroleum Institute.
© Eight Rivers Council, 2022.
The Appalachian Chronicle 
The MVP is a boondoggle that will greatly exacerbate an already dire situation in our atmosphere.
Further, it will increase horizontal hydrofracturing in West Virginia which generates billions of gallons-and tons-of toxic, radioactive waste, permanently destroying WV aquifers.
Meanwhile, fracking destroys air quality and spreads radioactive radon downwind from the well pads. Radon, a gas, then becomes the highly radioactive solid, polonium, and settles in the lungs, where at close range and long term, it has its deadliest effects.
Moreover, this pipeline is being built for lucrative foreign markets, not ours.