Dear Editor,
It is time to expose MVP as a “Zombie pipeline.” Its long-term harms take on a life of their own – its pipes forever oozing toxins from both interior and exterior into our watershed for generations.
We, in Appalachia, have been targeted as a sacrifice zone to MVP, which is not operating on market forces, but on a dictated “rate-of-return” covering construction costs plus a near 16 percent profit on the backs of us nonconsenting ratepayers. Existing U.S. natural gas pipelines are only 50 percent used. With renewables surging worldwide, market forces (usually geared toward future markets) would demand investment transition from fossil fuels to renewables. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), tasked with determining a public need for environmentally destructive pipelines, has rarely seen a pipeline it won’t certify and grant eminent domain. Although MVP promised jobs and energy, Virginia will instead suffer higher energy costs and therefore depressed job creation and economic competitiveness for helping the industry dispose of its expensive fracked gas glut – a hangover from Wall Street’s overinvestment in fracked gas following the Great Recession. Pipeline overbuilding spreads a scourge while EQT pitches unneeded pipelines to stockholders as cash cows. FERC grants corporations “eminent-domain-forprofit” under the 2005 unpopular SCOTUS decision, (Kelo). Pipelines across America are overbuilt with no end in sight. If completed, the 3.5 billion MVP will also cause an $8 billion deficit in lost tourism, property values, etc. to locals. Without domestic or foreign orders for MVP’s expensive fracked gas and need for gasgenerated peak-period energy disappearing with Elon Musk’s revolutionary high-capacity battery, MVP is a Zombie – walking dead. Solar energy creates far more jobs, while also saving our climate future. Local renewable energy and businesses trump antiquated pipelines for building local economies and resilience – rejecting fossil fuel’s boom-bust.
Our October Zombie Ball in Roanoke will decry zombie pipelines – dead on arrival, disrupting climate and the economy, spreading carcinogens, mutagens, lead and radioactive residues while their methane leaks threaten life on earth. Our Zombie event will raise money to defend those on the front lines protecting our regional water resources Save the date: Tuesday, October 9, at 6:00 p.m. at Parkway Brewery, for our costumed Zombie Ball including a walk, dancing, games, contests, skits and featured Blue Grass music and more by the Blue Mule. Be there or be square!
– Cynthia Munley, Granny Pipeline Fighter Preserve Salem
