Yet another lawsuit regarding the Mountain Valley Pipeline, this time by Sen. Chap Petersen, was filed this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division. Check it out, below.
P.S. Chap Petersen posted on his FB page: “Today my firm filed a First Amendment lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of Virginia citizens who seek to reopen access into the Jefferson National Forest. The Pocahontas Road entrance has been closed for several weeks by U.S. Forestry Service while tree cutting continues for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Forestry Service decision to close the road was intended to (and did) prevent people from observing and protesting the tree cutting. It also cut off access to ‘tree sitters’ in the Park. (Note that ordinary citizens had to hike through a wilderness to reach the protest site while corporate trucks could use the public road). The decision was about expediting the pipeline, not public safety. The National Forest is not private property. It is owned by the Federal taxpayer. A corporation has no right to deputize a Federal agency so as to limit political expression. That’s what our suit is intended to stop.”
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