Shit hit the proverbial fan in Giles County during a meeting last night to discuss the Mountain Valley pipeline, which will be built right through Giles County.
300 people showed up at the meeting and a number of these folks showed up and voiced their outrage over the pipeline – but the one thing never mentioned by these same people was their views on fracking, and that is a big part of this equation.
A pipeline is a direct results of fracking. If there was no fracking, there would be no need for these types of pipelines. I adamantly opposed to fracking and these pipelines, but most GOP voters support the GOP’s energy policies, including fracking, and the resulting pipleines.
So, I find it hard to be sympathetic to a county that supports the GOP energy policies by delivering big numbers of their votes for GOP candidates, who in turn, pass legislation like fracking.
Giles County is pretty darn Republican and it certainly has a Tea Party bent in its electorate. Look at these results from some past elections:
2014 – Gillespie – 60%
2013 – Obenshain – 68%
2012 – Romney – 62%
So what we have here is a solid red county, who gives BIG margins to GOP candidates, who in turn, support policies like, fracking. But now that a pipeline is being built in their county, the very voters who support the candidates who passed fracking legislation are now showing up at meetings with their “Not in my backyard” mentality.
The pipelines are going to be built – it’s now a question of exactly what route the pipeline will take.
I really have difficulty feeling bad for GOP voters in places like Giles County, and throughout many parts of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, because they got exactly what they wanted by the ballots they cast. So let them deal with the resulting fallout of lower property values, etc., and perhaps they’ll do a bit more thinking before they cast their next ballot.
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