A political power play overruled West Virginians in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. They still feel betrayed.
[ THIS COULD BE YOU ]
Mountain State Spotlight
Sarah Elbeshbish
October 20, 2024
Randy DuPre built the workshop on his Monroe County, WV property by hand. He feeds and cares for the three dogs and two horses that quietly roam and graze on the land near the home he has shared with his wife for 23 years. While there’s much Randy enjoys about his home, the peacefulness is his favorite.
“I love it here,” he said.
But now, Randy and his wife are leaving.
“I don’t want to, but I have no choice,” he said.
For years, the couple dealt with the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which limited the roaming and grazing area for their animals. Arietta DuPre fought against the pipeline from the beginning. She helped organize meetings, supported other affected landowners and wrote letters to federal officials as well as her local, state and congressional leaders voicing her objection.
She and the other opponents of the project were winning.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled at least eight times that the pipeline didn’t follow the law. The court found that federal and state agencies had awarded the Mountain Valley Pipeline permits despite violations and those same agencies bent or rewrote their own rules to advance the project. The developers were not able to comply with rules protecting endangered species, public forests and fragile water crossings.
Then Sen. Joe Manchin stepped in.
In a deal with the Biden administration, Manchin promised his vote for a major climate change bill in exchange for the White House’s agreement to acquire the remaining permits the pipeline still needed. And through a provision in an emergency bill to keep the government from shutting down in June 2023, Manchin got what he asked for.
The provision said that Congress declared that the completion of the pipeline was required in the national interest, and, therefore:
Congress hereby ratifies and approves all authorizations, permits, verifications, extensions, biological opinions, incidental take statements, and any other approvals or orders issued pursuant to Federal law necessary for the construction and initial operation at full capacity of the Mountain Valley Pipeline
The last-minute addition to the bill guaranteed the remaining approvals needed to complete the pipeline as well as stripped the authority of all courts to consider any legal actions against the project. It also granted the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sole judiciary authority over whether the provision was constitutional.
West Virginians in path of MVP torn on next steps — and faith in the political system
Now, the DuPres are headed right across the state line to Virginia, leaving their Wayside home behind. Part of their decision to go is fueled by their outrage over the role their congressional representatives played in rushing the pipeline through and bypassing their ability to do anything about it.
“I’m pissed,” Arietta said. “They’re there to do for the people, and they did nothing for the people. Nothing.”
Manchin celebrated in a press release following the passage of the June legislation, announcing that they had “finally secured the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline” after working “tirelessly to build consensus and garner the support necessary” for more than nine months.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito also applauded the move in a statement following the passage, noting that expediting the completion of the pipeline was something she “personally fought to include.”
As the West Virginians in Washington celebrated their win, some back home were appalled.
“It was when that bill passed, the fact that they actually slipped it in, I was like, ‘I don’t believe this,’” Arietta said. “I just gave up. There was no use fighting anymore.”
While the provision marked the end for Arietta, it motivated others to fight harder.
“I thought we could strike it down,” said Maury Johnson, a farmer from Monroe County who is among the most vocal opponents of the pipeline. “A lot of people gave up. I said, ‘No. This ain’t over. There’s still lots of fight left.’”
Johnson thought that someone, at least one of the environmental groups that previously challenged the pipeline, would also challenge the constitutionality of Manchin’s provision. But more than a year later, no such case has emerged.
“It’s just infuriating,” Johnson said. “You kind of wonder how our government got in this kind of a shape that they allow these kinds of things to happen.”
Johnson is not finished. He still drives the path of the pipeline, submitting reports and findings of violations and other observations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for regulating the pipeline. Johnson’s activism has grown beyond just the pipeline as he continues to document other potential environmental issues.
The whole experience has changed Johnson’s level of confidence in the system though.
“It’s shaken a lot, but it’s the system we have to use,” he said. “There is nothing else, and the only way to change it is to use the system. The way we fought this pipeline was using their own rules against them.”
Manchin’s potential successors voice support for Mountain Valley Pipeline deal
And as the November election approaches, West Virginians’ will send someone besides Manchin to Washington. He isn’t running for reelection. While Gov. Jim Justice is likely to win the state’s Senate seat, he’s been challenged by Democrat Glenn Elliot.
Elliot said the provision in the debt-ceiling bill was a necessary component of the deal between Manchin and the White House for the senator’s support for the 2022 landmark climate legislation.
“It’s just one of those things where you have to weigh it against, not the perfect, but the good,” Elliot said. “I think the net gain to West Virginia from getting these renewable investments and from opening up some economic opportunities with natural gas production is a net win, recognizing that some people are going to be angry.”
Justice did not respond to a request for comment on the handling of the situation. However, he did previously voice support for the congressional intervention and even appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the provision passed by Congress.
“We absolutely need that pipeline to go,” Justice said during a July 2023 briefing. “We don’t need any more delays and everything, and things just held up. It is ridiculous. That’s just all there is to it.”
A 1971 Ford Pinto sits on Becky Crabtree’s property in Monroe County displaying a sign that says, “Stop MVP”. When the controversy over the pipeline still raged in 2018, Crabtree propped her car up on wooden blocks, on a worksite where workers were installing a section of the 42-inch pipeline. She settled herself inside the car, and chained herself to it —- blocking the path of the pipeline. She was later arrested, charged and let go.
Now, natural gas flows through the pipeline underneath the 25 acres that were once meant for the homes of her children.
“They beat us. It’s in the ground. We live knowing that we’re in the evacuation zone,” she said. “It’s very painful, and we gave it our best shot.”
Now that “MVP has won,” Crabtree said, she’s going to change the sign on the car to read “Jesus wept.”
“That’s the only thing I can think of to sum up my feelings,” she added.
But, for Crabtree, there’s a silver lining. While opposing the pipeline, she connected with other protesters and developed a community around their efforts.
“Out of this, out of the horrors of it all, there has been camaraderie and a group of people who have come together,” she said. “And if you need something, or if there’s another something to face – oh my, we’ll be organized.”
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