Why did the Preserve Salem hold a Die-In on June 9? Is MVP really that bad?

The more you know about MVP—the corruption, duplicity, apparent collusion between regulatory agencies, our Governors and MVP, harm to our economy, attacks on our water and land values and the boondoggle nature of MVP, yes!

Combined with Anthony Flaccavento’s Town Hall, our Die-In made a statement, and we invited our 9th District Democratic Congressional Candidate, Anthony Flaccavento, challenger to Congressman Morgan Griffith, to promise he would never support a boondoggle project like this. He promised and even kneeled down with the protesters to “stand” with them. That is how close Anthony Flaccavento is to future constituents and a testament to how he recognizes a bad boondoggle idea like the MVP. Congressman Morgan Griffith was not and would not do the same. He is “Mr. Fossil Fuels,” a member of the energy committee and should have protected his constituents from MVP’s harm.

Our 9th District has enough challenges to overcome that we do not need to introduce a factor that makes every economic strategy here more difficult. It is unforgivable that Governor Northam and the State Water Control Board (SWCB) have not yet used their power to issue a “stop work” order to stop MVP’s destruction. The Federal Courts are slow to react, but they began deciding on lawsuits last Friday—complicating the challenge of MVP crossing our Jefferson National Forest. Richmond’s Fourth Circuit Court ruled that the USFS was “arbitrary and capricious” in using sediment containment estimates from their own original 45 percent to MVP’s estimate over 30 percent more.

Another case will be decided by the same court involving the SWCB/DEQ, which were even more arbitrary and capricious by its April 2017 announcement to use the Clean Water Act’s Stream-by-Stream analysis (which MVP could never survive). Six weeks later, they announced: “Whoops, mistake! Instead, we’ll use the Army Corps’ blanket permit Nationwide 12.” Therein lies the reason MVP is destroying our land and water. The DEQ, the SWCB and Governor Northam, by their silence and inaction, appear to be colluding with MVP instead of protecting Virginians, who all stand to lose big-time on sky-rocketing domestic natgas prices as happened in Australia when it became the world’s leading LNG exporter.

Here are some of the headstone captions at our July 9 “Die-In:” “R.I.P: Clean Water, Our Region’s Clean Future, Water Was Life: Appalachian Trail, No Water, No Life, Here lies the Roanoke River: Killed by small People with weak hearts, Explosion-Free Road Xings.”

I attended the public hearing at the Higher Ed Center last night for Virginia’s energy future. Expert Thomas Hadwin confirmed that there are no buyers for ACP or MVP gas, but VA and American ratepayers will pay for the pipeline construction plus 15 percent profit anyway. That harms America’s cheap natural gas competitive edge for industry and consumers alike. MVP and ACP will only sell gas abroad if they can find export buyers—If! The only reason companies like EQT build pipelines is due to that guaranteed 15 percent profit. FERC’s pipeline approval has no connection to real gas markets that are fast tumbling. Meanwhile, our usable land and safety are disappearing from unnecessary pipelines construction.

– Cynthia Munley, Preserve Salem Facebook