Yesterday, more than a dozen Virginia delegates and senators joined the chorus of landowners, activists, and faith communities in voicing their opposition to the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines.
Dubbed Stand with Red day, the event sought to highlight cruel attempts by the pipeline companies, with the support of Virginia’s law enforcement agencies, to starve “Red” Terry — a mother in Roanoke County. She has been sitting in a tree on her own property with her daughter refusing to leave until the pipeline companies themselves depart the land that her family has called home for seven generations.
The event, organized by Northern Virginia-based attorney and journalist Jon Sokolow, included eleven state delegates and two senators. They all urged Governor Northam to fulfill his 2017 campaign promise to be “very cognizant” of property rights, and to demand that his Department of Environmental Quality undergo “site-specific” permitting processes.
“Let me be clear,” said Blacksburg Delegate Chris Hurst, “it should not be up to landowners, who have already had their land taken through invalid eminent domain procedures to make sure Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC does its job correctly. It should be our state agencies who lead that effort.”
Stand with Red day is not only an addition to the litany of protests against the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines which are seen on a regular basis, it is the culmination of years of work hammering away at Dominion, EQT, and the elected officials that do their bidding. It marks a definitive shift in Virginia’s political culture — which until recently was completely imprinted with the self-interest of Dominion, EQT, and other big polluters. Let there be no mistake about this, Virginia’s shifting political climate is due to nothing less than the countless hours and sacrifices made by activists, landowners, and whole communities to stop these pipelines in their path for the past three years.
“The word MVP should no longer be used to refer to them”, said 35th District Delegate Mark Keam as he addressed the booming crowd. “They are nothing close to what an MVP should be. The word MVP belongs to Red, her husband, and everybody else that is standing up. All of you here today are the real Most Valuable Players.”
To make a donation to the treetop rebellion resistance CLICK HERE. If you are inspired become a volunteer monitor to scrutinize every regulation that these pipelines break CLICK HERE to learn more about being trained!