Environmental Activists Call to “UnFrack FERC”

WASHINGTON (03-22) – The issues of global warming, LNG, climate change, environmental justice, fracking, natural gas, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP) and eminent domain all coalesced yesterday at a press conference outside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) headquarters prior to the commission’s monthly meeting.

Activists present representing several environmental organizations were focused on a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources meeting chaired by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) where three pending Manchin/Biden nominees for the FERC commission were being considered for confirmation. All three nominees were opposed for approval by activists who offered their own slate whom they believe would work diligently on climate crisis impact by limiting further development of additional LNG facilities and other fossil fuel projects.

Andrew Hudson, spokesperson for 98methods and their “UnFrack FERC” campaign, said, “It’s obvious what Joe Manchin is doing with these three nominees. He is putting his stamp of control on FERC permanently even after he leaves the Senate and is no longer elected and is no longer the chair of the Senate Energy Commission just like he has in the last two and a half years.”

Speaking on the influence of Manchin and his support for the MVP, Hudson stated that FERC a few years ago “…when considering a new rule that would have evaluated the climate and environmental justice impacts of gas projects they review and approve” was subjected to extreme political pressure from Senator Joe Machin to withdraw the rule, which they did. “Since then, they have never rejected a single gas application and they have never evaluated or even considered the impacts on climate.” As a regulatory agency, he exclaimed that “FERC does not work.”

Another area of contention is why the commission has not upheld the “organic farm protection protocols” (OFPP) required by the MVP in West Virginia and Virginia created to protect five certified organic farms impacted by the project. Those protocols outlined in MVP’s “Organic System Plan” (OSP) delineate what fuels and materials can be used at or near construction sites including the use of equipment, herbicides, issues related to soil handling, erosion control and most importantly “compensation for landowners if organic certification is lost due to the construction project.” MVP is also responsible for compensating farmers for any crop loss or damage done to their farms and crops during construction.

As an example, activists pointed to the experience of West Virginia organic farmer Maury Johnson whose farm was “taken by the MVP through eminent domain in a long running dispute.” Johnson, who has tried resisting the construction on his property for the past ten years and has been unable to stop it, soon discovered after construction began that his well water, which he relies on, had become murky and unusable. Since that time, he has not had a source of pure clean water for his use and now instead must rely on hauling water from other sources some distance from his home and by purchasing water to meet his needs.

On one occasion, when meeting a pipeline contactor, Johnson inquired about violations of the Organic Protection Farm Plan he had witnessed only to have the contractor admit he was not unaware of any related requirements or restrictions for the project. After informing him about those conditions, the contractor in turn “called a meeting with his people and they completely changed the way they were treating the property.” But he confessed that, contractors generally “find it cheaper not to follow the rules and later say ‘I’m sorry’ after they have a problem.”

Johnson’s personal experience and the fact that pipelines tend to fail has elevated the anxiety of many residents who fear their property will be impacted by landsides, runoff, stream sedimentation, application of pesticides and polluted water along with other environmental degradations and the ever-present danger of explosions in the transmission of natural gas due to pipeline failures. Johnson went on to describe the explosive potential of the pipeline as a “ticking time bomb.”

Speaking about Joe Manchin and the pipeline, Johnson said: “It pains me to say this, but Joe Manchin does not care who he harms as long as he gets his campaign contributions, and his fossil fuel buddies can make millions. Joe Manchin Wake Up! you’re killing West Virginia”

In closing, Johnson promised that he would have a meeting with FERC officials and relate to them that property owners and others impacted by these projects are “Tired of the fossil fuel agencies with someone somewhere taking our rights away from us, trampling on the Constitution, and disaffecting landowners so they can make a few bucks. To paraphrase a few of my friends, ‘We refuse to die.’”

Related to safety issues activists have raised repeatedly, the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Materials Administration (PHMSA), charged with all matters related to the movement of hazardous materials nationwide, has issued a safety order over their findings regarding both the negative environmental impact along the pipeline’s route and ongoing safety problems with the pipeline itself.

In its “Notice of Proposed Safety Order” sent to Equitrans Midstream Corporation (ETRN), on August 11, 2023, the PHMSA indicated that their on-site inspections in Virginia and West Virginia of the “proposed and partially constructed pipeline” had revealed that “…conditions may exist on ETRN's Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) facilities that pose a pipeline integrity risk to public safety, property, or the environment. The conditions potentially exist on the MVP system and may present immediate risk if the pipeline is commissioned without remediation.” They called for action to “…take measures to ensure that the public, property, and the environment are protected from the potential risks.”

Speaking for the Institute of Policy Studies and People v Fossil Fuel Coalition, Basav Sen stated that “The elephant in the room of U.S. politics that no one talks about is corruption and bribery. Senator Joe Manchin received more than $700 thousand dollars in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. More than any other legislator in either house.”

Calling the donations “bribery in broad daylight” by which the industry in turn can influence favorable energy policy that inhibit even the mildest of reforms to address climate change and environmental injustice and accusing Manchin’s “Oversight of FERC in allowing fracking to go unchecked,” he noted that energy policy adversely impacts the lives of Indigenous people, the poor and people of color. “Because of Manchin, the U.S. has second rate fossil fuel acts and has loose control over the natural gas industry.”

In closing, Sen mentioned President Biden whom he characterized as “rolling over and allowing Joe Manchin to dictate energy policy” by allowing Manchin to select the three commission nominees for regulatory oversight on FERC calling it “endemic corruption.”

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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