Energy companies are seeking federal approval for a 300 mile pipeline they want to build across wild natural areas in Virginia and West Virginia in order to bring fracked natural gas to areas that don't even need it!
This pipeline would set a horrible precedent, bulldozing a 125-feet-wide path through protected wild national forest lands, impacting wilderness areas and even cutting across the Appalachian Trail, our nation's best-loved hiking trail.
The pipeline also threatens clean water that communities rely upon, crossing 1,000 waterways and wetlands.
FERC's public comment period closes on Dec. 22nd, so please add your signature and share the petition today!
Care2 is proud to be working with Chesapeake Climate Action Network and other partners on this campaign.
Dear Secretary Bose:
Given the overwhelming evidence of the harm the Mountain Valley Pipeline would inflict on our region, the proposed project is not in the public interest. The only way that FERC could justify it is by sweeping the dangers under the rug, and that’s what the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) does.
FERC’s review falls short in several ways:
1) It fails to account for the cumulative, life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions the pipeline would trigger.
2) It completely dismisses the “upstream” damage that the pipeline could trigger via expanded fracking and gas infrastructure, given the 2 billion cubic feet per day of added capacity the project would create.
3) It does not fully assess the damage to water quality the pipeline would create. The pipeline would cross more than 1,000 waterways and wetlands.
4) It fails to look at the cumulative effects that the pipeline would have on vegetation and wildlife, permanently fragmenting habitat and harming wildlife such as the endangered northern long-eared bat.
5) It does not fully consider the harm to the region’s history. The pipeline would cross six historic districts and several archeological sites.
6) Finally, it fails to assess the true need for this new pipeline given the availability of renewable energy and existing pipeline capacity. That FERC allows companies to seize private land through eminent domain without a comprehensive evaluation of the need for the pipeline is shameful.
A thorough examination of this project would show that the public and environment lose, while the gas industry profits. I urge you to deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s application or, at minimum, conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that assesses all the regional pipeline projects in one document.
