Trespassing.
Theresa “Red” Terry is considered to be trespassing on her family's property. Property that she owns.
Red is perched in a tree stand between two oak trees as she tries to stop a natural gas pipeline from running through her family’s property on Bent Mountain, Va. Along with her daughter Minor Terry, Red is trying to prevent crews from the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from clearing trees on her land to make way for the pipeline.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, led by EQT Midstream Partners, is proposed to carry fracked natural gas for more than 300 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia. It’s one of two large natural gas pipelines that would cross rivers and streams over 1,000 times. The other is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a 600-mile that would run from West Virginia to North Carolina with a connecting pipeline in Hampton Roads, Va.
Red is one of several pipeline protesters sitting in trees along the route of the MVP to stop construction in West Virginia and Virginia. For three weeks, she has been living amongst the trees – enduring rain, winds and low temperatures.
Because she refused to take a settlement from EQT Corporation, a legal declaration of trespassing has been issued. She is trespassing on her own property. This violates the basic tenets of American liberty and freedom.
There’s no need for two more pipelines.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted approval for the MVP and ACP to move forward with acquiring easements on private properties in the interest of “public convenience and necessity.” The state also granted erosion and sediment permits in December, allowing for construction to begin. Neither the MVP nor ACP proved the market need for a new pipeline, and the Department of Energy has shown that existing pipelines can provide the natural gas we need in Virginia.
The risk is entirely unnecessary and the pipeline companies aren't telling the truth.
The MVP and ACP will affect more than 3,000 landowners, and in many cases will only be within 25 feet of people’s homes. Officials for the MVP and ACP tell communities that nothing ever happens, but we know that’s not true.
Last month, families in Chester, Pa. were offered money to relocate to another town because drilling in their community caused large sinkholes. Oklahoma has seen a spike in earthquakes due to wastewater injection, and farmers throughout the South are fighting for pipeline companies to restore topsoil. In many cases, it will take generations to clean up the damage.
It’s reckless to tell people nothing ever happens. The MVP and ACP pipelines and its construction would impact:
- six drinking water assessment areas, including water supply reservoirs and water supply intakes for nearly two million Virginians;
- more than 800 water crossings in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and 300 acres of wetlands;
- erosion and excessive sedimentation of streams, threatening fish – primarily trout – and other aquatic life;
- the tourism and economy of the Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Mountains, George Washington National Forest and Monongahela National Forest; and
- the air and water quality of communities living with the pipelines in the backyards.
This impacts us all. From birth defects and respiratory diseases, the widespread threats of fracked-gas pipelines are well-documented.
Pipelines don't provide long-term economic solutions; they just make energy executives rich.
Our growing need for energy cannot solely be satisfied by a fossil fuel-based economy. Greedy corporations are making life-changing decisions that impact the lives of average Americans without any regard to the health and safety of people. Fracking only encourages more fracking. It is not the saving grace for communities that need economic growth.
The reality is these pipelines create very few permanent jobs and are not likely to generate growth. They will also pass along the costs of transporting the gas to us, the ratepayer. Dominion Power will pass along $2.3 billion to Virginian’s electricity bill from the ACP. We, the ratepayer, end up paying for the pipeline and its risk with an increase in our utility bill.
There's a better way for the energy sector to spur economic growth.
If Virginia wants to create a stronger economy with energy efficient jobs, then we should look to the future of clean energy. We can triple the amount of permanent jobs a pipeline is estimated to bring in. We need a new approach where everyone wins.
We should be investing in clean energy sources and modernizing the distribution and storage of energy. Virginia’s largest private industry is in agriculture, where farmland covers one-third of the state’s total acreage. It’s why I’m proposing agribusiness solar farms as an alternative revenue source in my district. Not only will it reduce our carbon footprint, but it will create jobs in communities that need it. Solar power can always be harvested.
The only people who will profit from the MVP and ACP are the companies that seized private land, and politicians who get campaign contributions. I say NO to fracking, NO to poisoning our water and NO to picking up the tab for corporations.
I stand with Red.