Protester Blockades the Mountain Valley Pipeline Access Road to Poor Mountain, Asks “Which Side Are You On?”

Action report from Appalachians Against Pipelines on blockade against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. To read a recent interview about the ongoing campaign, go here.

Early this morning, a pipeline fighter going by the name Mullein locked themself to barrels blockading Honeysuckle Rd, which provides access to the Mountain Valley Pipeline easement. This protest, along with many prior, is located on Poor Mountain, where the Yellow Finch Treesits protected some of the last standing trees in the MVP’s path for two and a half years from 2018-2021. About a month ago, a similar action took place at this same location. Two grandparents had locked themselves to a large wooden opossum, stopping work for the day.

“Today, as I sit in the road on so-called Poor Mountain, it is the day after Nakba Day,” stated Mullein. “Today, through this ongoing genocide, Palestinians have been resisting colonization for over 76 years. MVP claims that this pipeline would supply fracked gas to various U.S. military locations including the Pentagon and the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, which is operated by BAE systems, a weapons company supplying weapons to “Israel” during their genocidal campaign. The destruction of land and lifeways is interconnected, from Turtle Island to Palestine. The interlocking systems of colonization and capitalism must end for life to continue. As a settler here, these systems have disconnected me from land, from others, from myself.

“I’m sitting locked to two barrels today because I see no choice but to rebel against these systems in any small way I can. To choose to fight on the side of the mountains, the rivers, the critters, and the people. Against the extraction, empires, and all death-making institutions. Which side are you on?”

In late April, MVP requested permission from FERC to place the pipeline in service (despite the low percentage of final restoration completed along the route and MVP’s failure to comply with safety requirements). MVP asked FERC to grant this permission by 5/23/24 — exactly one week from today.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 42-inch diameter fracked gas pipeline slated to cross at least 300 miles of Appalachia. In June 2023, congress passed a law to fast track the MVP, despite the pipeline’s long history of environmental violations and failure to hold on to key permits. Recently, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality cited Mountain Valley Pipeline for over a dozen violations and MVP’s hydrostatic tests failed resulting in a rupture in the section at Bent Mountain. Today, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is over budget by more than $4 billion and is 6 years behind schedule.