Lynda Majors and Mark Jarrell
Eminent domain under the Natural Gas Act is now responsible for a massive transfer of private rural land to corporations with the backing of government force â all on behalf of fracked gas as a global âcommodityâ with a 16% return to investors. Public servants in all sectors must wake up and reckon with the ills and injustices of Mountain Valley Pipeline.
In the path of MVP through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, law abiding, taxpaying rural landowners â many of them low income, elderly, veterans, people of color and of tribal nations, and the disabled â have sought regulatory, legislative and judicial relief on issues from the environment to human health and safety. Too many authorities choose to ignore the threats of a massive 42-inch gas pipeline, coated with known carcinogens, under 1400 psi of compression with a proven potential for explosions in steep, landslide-prone terrain, and a quarter-mile blast zone to destroy our ever more precious waters and sacred places.