Duke Energy Workers Greeted with Banners Against Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Smoky Mountain Eco-Defense (SMED) took the fight against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to the regional headquarters of Duke Energy on March 23rd  in Asheville, NC. Following the culmination of a two week long march against the pipeline in eastern NC, folks with SMED paid a visit to Duke, a major backer of the pipeline, with signs reading “Stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline” and “No Justice on Stolen Land”. SMED greeted Duke Energy workers coming back from their lunch break and received many an approving honk from supportive drivers.

If built the ACP would bring fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields of West Virginia down through Virginia and into North Carolina. In addition to threatening thousands of acres of National Forest, wetlands, farms, and woodlands, the ACP threatens to destroy burial grounds and other sacred sites belonging to the Lumbee and Tuscarora tribes.  The amount of gas the pipeline will bring to market would equal the greenhouse gas emissions created 20 new coal plants.

The good news is the ACP is facing stiff resistance along the entire length of the pipeline route. Many landowners have refused to sell their land or allow surveyors onto their property, and public hearings regarding the pipeline have been packed with people opposing it. SMED and others fighting the pipeline are now setting their sights on the Duke Energy shareholder’s meeting May 4. Word has it that Duke Energy is holding a virtual shareholders meeting online instead of at their headquarters, as is customary, in order to avoid protests. SMED and other groups resisting the pipeline intend to show Duke that ain’t going to work.

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