Stopping the Mountain Valley Pipeline, MMIWG, and Protecting Mother Earth

American Indian Airwaves

On September 8th, 2022, Indigenous peoples and allies from Appalachia and elsewhere protested in Washington DC against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The protest – No Sacrifice Zones – was against the concessions demanded by WV Senator Joe Manchin in the $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which the concessions if granted will expedite the permitting process by gutting the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) for the benefit of oil and natural gas pipeline projects including the construction of the MVP. The $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303-mile fracked gas pipeline spanning from West Virginia to southern Virginia and potentially into North Carolina, in the heart of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi nation. It is estimated once fully operational, the MVP would transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and generate GHG emissions equivalent to 37 coal plants annually. The MVP pipeline is owned by the MPV, LLC which is joint venture consisting of several oil and gas companies including EQM Midstream Partners and NextEra Capital Holdings, Inc.; Con Edison Transmission, Inc.; WGL Midstream; and RGC Midstream, LLC. To date, the MVP’s developers have amassed more than 300 violations of environmental laws, and they continue working to pressure Indigenous, POC, and poor whites out of their homes and lands for the constructing the pipeline. If development continues, Indigenous sacred sites, lands, ancestors, and more are at risk for permanent destruction. Despite the MVP, LLC difficulties, legal hurdles, and setbacks over the past decade, on August 23rd, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted the MVP, LLC a four-year extension to complete the MVP. Our guest joins us for the entire hour to discuss the implications of the MVP project including WV Senator Joe Manchin and New York Senator Chuck Schumer’s accepting political donations from one of the MVP LLC joint venture owners, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) throughout the Virginia and North Carolina regions, the potential destruction of sacred sites, land losses by Indigenous families, POC, and poor white communities; protecting Mother Earth, plus more. Guest: Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation), co-founder of Seven Directions of Service, chair of the NAACP Environmental Justice Committee, and former Indigenous council person.