Photo by iStockphoto.com/RomoloTavani
This Halloween season we want to share with you the real and very scary stories of two fracked gas pipelines snaking their way through the Southeast.
Like the armies of the undead, Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline are a lurking menace creeping in the periphery of daily life for millions across West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. These twin spectres of destruction are at different phases of construction but both threaten our mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, and private property, devouring everything in their path.
The polluting corporations behind these devilish projects (including Duke and Dominion Energy) are master illusionists, deceiving the public with beguiling tales of a dire need for more gas. But they must be referring to ghost customers since, as multiple studies and reports have shown, there is nothing but phantom need for these pipelines. This contradiction hides the chilling reality that gas pipeline regulations are like a mirrored maze of horrors, allowing companies to receive a hefty return on investment by manufacturing “need”-- all paid for by customers. It’s like Dracula has the keys to the bloodbank!
But not all is lost as the forces of good will always rise to the occasion. In the years since the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines were proposed, the Sierra Club, our partners, and communities in the pipelines’ paths have been fighting back -- and we’re winning. Multiple legal, financial, and regulatory challenges are slowing them down in a quagmire of their own making.
As pumpkins began to appear on porches, the Mountain Valley Pipeline got a slew of very eerie news. After suing MVP for committing more than 300 violations of clean water protections, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced MVP must pay a multi-million dollar penalty and will be subject to closer scrutiny. After the Sierra Club and its partners filed a new lawsuit, MVP lost two more necessary permits related to the Endangered Species Act. And in a real spine-tingling turn of events, federal regulators ordered a halt to all construction along the entire length of the project. MVP admits these challenges are taking a toll, pushing back the expected completion date another year to the end of 2020. But like Frankenstein’s monster, developers continue to try to build onto the doomed pipeline -- moving forward with plans for an extension into North Carolina.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been similarly thwarted by those fighting to protect our water, communities, and climate, and has also lost multiple permits necessary for construction. In one of their most diabolical moves yet, ACP developers Duke and Dominion plan to cut the pipeline through the iconic Appalachian Trail. While that move was defeated in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court will now take up the case to revisit the decision. Right now the future of both these pipelines is murkier than a black lagoon on a moonless night. And communities, the Sierra Club, and many more are working to make sure this story’s ending will be a treat and not a trick for our people, lands, and waters.