From Del. Mark Keam:
Yesterday, the mountains in Southwest Virginia visited Richmond, and today, they came to Northern Virginia!
At the “Virginians for Justice: Progress Not Pipelines!” rally in Leesburg, a huge crowd of activists from across the Commonwealth called on Attorney General Mark Herring to take stronger action to stop the disastrous Mountain Valley Pipeline from destroying Appalachia.
These fierce grassroots leaders and tireless environmental champions have been fighting for years to stop more fracked methane gas extractions generally, and Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines specifically.
I regret that I joined this fight only last year when I should have done so much earlier. But today, I was proud to stand with these warriors and with my friends and House colleagues Sam Rasoul and Chris Hurst whose legislative districts are much closer to the impact zones.
It was also inspiring to hear from environmental attorney Karenna Gore and so many other experts who are helping shape a winning advocacy effort. But we can’t rely on professionals alone.
As described in this article by Sam, there are many ways that anyone in Virginia can take action to protect us from a risky and unnecessary infrastructure project which will lead to further carbon pollution and environmental injustice:
I want to thank all the organizations and individuals who are part of the growing coalition against pipelines: POWHR (Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights), Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, 350 Loudoun, Indivisible NoVA West, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter-Great Falls, The Climate Reality Project-Northern Virginia chapter, Indivisible Northern Virginia, Fauquier Indivisible, Food & Water Watch-Virginia, Water is Life. Protect It., Protect Our Commonwealth, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice, Appalachian Voices, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, Friends of Nelson, NOVA Climate Action Network, 350 Fairfax, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter-Falls of the James, Wild Virginia, Indivisible Charlottesville, Virginia Justice Democrats, Virginia’s Poor People’s Campaign, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Concern for a New Generation, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, ARTivism, Friends of Buckingham, the SUN SiNG Collective, Mothers Out Front Fairfax County, People Demanding Action, Virginia River Healers, and many more.
— with Jonathan Sokolow, Chris Hurst and Chad Oba.
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