It’s been almost a year since Ralph Northam PROMISED – in response to a question (see video below) about the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines:
“Pam, my wife, and I are going to go around, we want to sit down, we want to have focus groups and talk about how we an protect our environment as best we can, how we can use what leverage we have to make it safe, to make it scientific, to make it transparent, to protect people’s property rights…let’s sit down, put our heads together and talk about as a group how we can move forward…we’re trying to set up times.”
OK, so have I missed something here? Has Ralph Northam held a single “focus group” with concerned citizens on these pipelines? Let alone, has he gone out to visit the tree and “monopod” sitters first hand? If not, why not?
By the way, note that Northam was in Roanoke on Tuesday, attending “the grand opening of the inaugural Virginia Career Works center.” Also note that Northam was in Salem – just outside of Roanoke – for a minor league baseball game yesterday. That’s just down the road from where Red (of #StandWithRed fame), a 61-year-old woman fighting to defend her land, has been up in a tree since April 1 fighting the MVP. Red’s daughter Minor is in a nearby tree. They are joined by a group of supporters camped out with her. Yet despite being nearby, Northam didn’t offer to meet with them, nor has he met with people directly affected by the pipelines even once since that promise as a candidate was made last July. What happened to being the guy who, as a doctor, makes a profession out of listening?
P.S. On the other hand, Dr. Northam DID have time to go on WTOP earlier this week and call out Red for her unhealthful smoking habit (note: Red retorted to Northam’s insults — “I am quitting smoking! YOU quit this pipeline!”)
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