(Washington D.C.) On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) allowed construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline to continue, and to cross federal land in Virginia, over the objections of hundreds of environmental groups and the people of Appalachia. The not-yet-completed 303.5 mile fracked gas pipeline has faced widespread opposition for more than five years. Most recently, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prevented construction from continuing on key federal lands. Yet SCOTUS has now overturned that decision and allowed progress to continue, which NBC says comes “despite Congress including language in the recently enacted Fiscal Responsibility Act backed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that stripped courts of authority to review approval of the pipeline.”
Jeff Ordower, 350.org’s North America Director, responded:
“There is nothing constitutional about the Mountain Valley Pipeline, or about displacing lives and wreaking further havoc on a world on fire for the sake of a few people’s short term profit. Don’t buy into any of the false narrative that Manchin, Biden, and other supporters of the Mountain Valley Pipeline tell you. They know they are throwing fuel straight into the fire—they have known it for years—and they are pocketing the profits while they watch the world burn.
Government leaders have demanded so devastatingly much of Appalachia for decades, and yet—the people of Appalachia have continued to show us how to fight back at every step just as they have since day one of the modern movement to fight fossil fuels. We have never had doubt that they would rise to every challenge, and we will be there with them at every step, but let’s take a moment to say unequivocally: this amount of fight for the basic human right to live safely and securely should never be required. Not in Appalachia, and not in any other sacrifice zone in the US or globally. This is an emergency, the era of fossil fuels must end, and we will make sure they hear us.”
###
Press Contact: Melanie Smith, [email protected], (917) 408-3145