Appalachians Against Pipelines
Since September 2018, a small group of “tree sitters” in Elliston, Virginia, have occupied tiny platforms hanging some thirty feet up in the branches of white pine and other trees threatened by pipeline construction.
“They basically cleared all the trees except this stand here,” says Phillip Flagg, who has occupied the stand for more than sixty percent of the days since the demonstration began 133 days ago.
“For quite a while, security would just stop in and look at the sits, not really do anything,” Flagg says. “Occasionally, there would be helicopter flyovers.”
But recently, he noted, pipeline security installed 24/7 security watch over the tree sitters, and the company has named Flagg and the other tree sitters in an eminent domain lawsuit. Under eminent domain, property is seized from owners for public use, in this case, for the construction of a gas pipeline.
“We are currently being sued though none of us own land,” Flagg says. “They are trying to use [eminent domain] as the legal mechanism so they can get the U.S. Marshals to remove us.” The tree sits are on land with no nearby access roads, and which is too steep for the pipeline company to use a cherry picker to remove the tree sitters—a tactic previously used to remove tree sitters along other parts of the Mountain Valley Pipeline route.
Appalachians Against Pipelines
A federal judge is currently weighing whether to issue to issue an injunction against the tree sitters, and it’s unclear when a decision will be made.
Activists and residents along the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposed route in West Virginia and Virginia have used tree sit-ins to halt and delay construction for nearly a year. One of the most notable sits was conducted by the Terry family on their own property. Sixty-two year old Theresa ‘Red’ Terry and her daughter, thirty-one year old Theresa Minor Terry, occupied trees on their property to protest the pipeline and to prevent the trees from being cut down under eminent domain. Charges against the two were dropped in November 2018.
Though tree-sits are still being used by activists to stop and delay pipeline construction, the bulk of the current fight to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline is occurring in the courts and through political pressure led by environmental groups and activists.
The pipeline is planned to extend 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, and the pipeline company applied in November 2018 to construct a 73-mile extension into North Carolina.
On January 28, oral arguments will be heard in a lawsuit filed by Appalachian Voices and several other environmental groups against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The lawsuit challenges the commission’s approval of the pipeline, which was based on the finding there is a public need for the natural gas it will transport. The pipeline will transport up to 2 billion cubic feet of fracked natural gas daily from the Marcellus and Utica shale basins.
In December 2018, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a lawsuit against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, alleging the company violated environmental regulations more than 300 times.
“We are currently being sued though none of us own land.”
“This suit alleges serious and numerous violations of environmental laws that caused unpermitted impacts to waterways and roads in multiple counties in Southwest Virginia,” said Herring in a press release. “We’re asking the court for an enforceable order that will help us ensure compliance going forward, and for penalties for MVP’s violations.”
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is facing further delays after several stream crossing permits were vacated by a federal judge in October 2018. The environmental violations, and concerns over potential impacts from heavy construction equipment traversing the mountainous Appalachian terrain, prompted the Virginia State Water Control Board to vote in favor of reconsidering the Mountain Valley Pipeline permit to continue construction. A meeting for that reconsideration has not yet been scheduled, according to the Virginia State Water Control Board.
Appalachians Against Pipelines
The delays have pushed back the pipeline’s expected completion date from late 2018 to late 2019. The company says the pipeline’s expected costs have increased due to work stoppages and heavy rain, from $3.7 billion to $4.6 billion in September 2018. In a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2018, Mountain Valley Pipeline company EQM Midstream Partners said the pipeline was at risk of not receiving authorization or permits “on the projected time frame or at all.”
The Mountain Valley Pipeline company has fought back in courts and through intimidation to suppress resistance. Dozens of activist and residents have been arrested since construction began, though the majority of charges have been dropped. Some residents have fought back with their own lawsuits.
Last December, two Craig County Virginia residents sued the Mountain Valley Pipeline Security company, Global Security, claiming they were falsely accused and arrested for trespassing while observing pipeline work. A security employee pushed to press charges, which were dropped, even as a state trooper on the scene declined to arrest the residents because they had permission from the landowner to be on the property. A court date for the lawsuit has not yet been set.
“There’s a high level of optimism that comes out of the belief the projects should have never been permitted.”
Some landowners filed a petition to appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2018 after the fourth circuit court dismissed the constitutional challenges of the landowners against the congressional delegation of power of eminent domain to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to take the case.
The pipeline is planned to extend 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, and the pipeline company applied in November 2018 to construct a 73-mile extension into North Carolina.
“There’s a high level of optimism that comes out of the belief the projects should have never been permitted,” says Russell Chisholm vice-coordinator for Preserve Giles County in Virginia, in an interview. “They’re not going to stop trying to build these projects and we’re not going to stop fighting them.”
An EQM Midstream Partners spokesperson tells The Progressive in an email, “The MVP project team certainly respects the opinions of those who are opposed to natural gas pipelines, the energy industry at large, and efforts to provide homes and businesses with affordable, reliable and cleaner fuel. While we appreciate the support we have received across the region, we understand that the efforts and progress we have made to plan and design a pipeline route that will protect cultural and historic resources, as well as preserve sensitive and environmental species, may not satisfy those opposed to underground, natural gas infrastructure.”