Pipeline Fighter Scales Boom Tractor, Stops Work at MVP Construction Site in Lindside

Action report from Appalachians Against Pipelines on recent shut down of Mountain Valley Pipeline construction.

[Lindside, WV] – On the morning of Monday, November 19th, a protester halted work at a Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in Lindside, WV. The anonymous pipeline fighter scaled a piece of construction equipment and locked themself to the top, more than 20 feet in the air. A banner hanging below them reads “STOP MVP, NO PIPELINES ON STOLEN LAND”. The boom tractor, temporarily disabled by the protestors action’s, is used to lower pieces of pipe into a trench near the US 219 highway crossing.

“Who are you responsible to?” asked the anonymous pipeline fighter taking action today. “I’m here with the people that don’t vote, the ones without IDs. The little birds and deer and flowers and stars, the dormant seeds and ancestors. We have always been here. We will always be here.”

The 42-inch-diameter Mountain Valley Pipeline is intended to transport fracked gas 300 miles from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia. EQT, the corporation overseeing the project, has already announced plans to extend the pipeline in to North Carolina where the fracked gas can be exported internationally, due to lack of domestic demand. With capacity to transport 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day, MVP’s completion would also contribute to expanded fracking infrastructure across the Utica and Marcellus shales.

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Blockade HAPPENING NOW at a Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in Lindside, WV. . Donate to support this action & future resistance: bit.ly/supportmvpresistance . Below is a statement from the pipeline fighter atop the boom tractor: . "I was born a white settler on land that was stolen from its people, witnessing the pain of peoples stolen from their land. To my fellow settlers: who are you responsible to? If it’s not the spirits of the ones you have hurt then you are definitely cursed. . America itself has always been cursed. In a dystopian age of war on terror, terror still reigns supreme. Genocide is not the exception but the rule. In the words of my personal hero, former AIM leader John Trudell, industrial civilization has been, “literally, the most bloodthirsty, brutalizing system imposed on this planet.” We are living in the land of bulldozed tombs. . Two years ago (on November 20, 2016), a crowd of people burning sage, playing drums and shouting “Water is life!” stormed the barricaded highway 1806 bridge by Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock. The police responded by firing teargas, percussion grenades, and dousing the crowd with water in subfreezing temperatures. Choking, hypothermic and blinded by the gas, my friend led me by the hand away from the line. There are many who will never forget that night. . It’s going to keep getting worse before it gets worse. If you’re halfway interested in autonomy, it’s time to get a decent pair of boots and some friends. To keep your head up to perceive what’s around you, to think strategically and critically. To learn and practice skills and to decolonize your idea of survival. The border crisis, natural disasters, and rise of the far right are probably not going to go anywhere soon. . That being said: who are you responsible to? I’m here with the people that don’t vote, the ones without IDs. The little birds and deer and flowers and stars, the dormant seeds and ancestors. We have always been here. We will always be here. Catch us if you can in the hills and the dark and the woods. . #nomvp #nopipelines #stolenland #resist #appalachiantrail

A post shared by Appalachians Against Pipelines (@appalachiansagainstpipelines) on Nov 19, 2018 at 6:30am PST

At a time when virtually all climate scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions must be immediately reduced in order to avoid devastating climate crisis as early as 2040, millions worldwide are calling for an end to the fossil fuel industry. The Mountain Valley Pipeline has faced resistance since it was proposed in 2014. Hundreds of residents have voiced opposition and many landowners along the route refused to grant the project access to their property – only to have it seized through eminent domain.

Local Lindside resident Becky Crabtree (who took action against the MVP by locking herself in her Ford Pinto on the pipeline easement in July 2018) stated the following in support of today’s action: “Against the greed of elected ‘leaders,’ we fight for the very future of the planet. In the face of corrupt regulatory laws, we rely on common sense and wisdom of the ages. Blockades, lock downs, banner drops, protests — all are necessary in these desperate times to open closed eyes and slow environmental damage.

Today’s lock down continues a nonviolent direct action campaign that has slowed pipeline progress since construction began in January. Currently, two treesits are preventing tree clearing near Elliston, VA for 76 days and counting. Numerous other long term aerial blockades and equipment lockdowns impeded construction over the past 10 months. In that time, MVP has increased their budget by nearly $1 billion, pushed their expected completion date from late 2018 to late 2019, and lost their permits to work in national forest and to cross wetlands. While MVP attempts to assure millionaire shareholders that construction will be completed eventually, pipeline fighters worldwide are insisting that the only future is one without fossil fuels and so these destructive projects must be stopped.