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Get an IUD! Free Birth Control for Virginians Without Insurance

Christina McBride | October 12, 2018

Topics: birth control, General Assembly, Governor Northam, IUD, long-acting reversible contraceptives, virginia, Virginia Department of Health

The Virginia League for Planned Parenthood (VLPP) and the Virginia Department of Health will provide uninsured patients with free long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) through a Virginia LARC initiative. The initiative was approved in the two-year state budget by Governor Northam and the Virginia General Assembly. 

The LARC initiative is made possible from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds. The initiative is a two-year pilot program that allows the Virginia Department of Health to allocate $6 million to the payment for the contraceptive devices, the insertion and removal of the devices, and education for women about their birth control choices. 

From October 1, 2018 to May 31, 2020, the LARC program will provide 2,450 patients with free long-acting contraceptives. Eligible patients must have an income below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, which currently stands at about $12,000 for a single female.

The Virginia LARC initiative aims to provide birth control for low income women and families to aid family planning. LARCs include IUDs and contraceptive implants, the two most effective methods of birth control, both with more than 99.9% success rates. These devices are inserted once and work until they are removed. They leave no room for the kind of human error associated with the daily ingestion of a birth control pill, or quarterly doctors appointments for hormonal injections.

“It’s an amazing service, because they are $1,000 devices that we are able to provide at no cost for both the device, insertion, and removal. We’ll be doing that at all our health centers, including at the new one in the East End when it opens,” said VLPP Medical Director Dr. Shanthi Ramesh. 

More Planned Parenthood centers are located in Hampton and Virginia Beach. If none of these locations are near you, no worries: The LARC initiative includes health care providers other than Planned Parenthood.

“There are other health systems as well that will be participating in the program that are in all corners of the Commonwealth,” said Alexsis Rodgers, Communication Director at Planned Parenthood. 

To view the other health care providers who will be participating in the program, click here.

800 Horsepower: Behind the Scenes, Under the Lights

Landon Shroder | September 24, 2018

Topics: Driver, Governor Northam, nascar, Race Car, Richmond International Raceway, richmond raceway

Most people don’t realize that the history of NASCAR is the history of bootlegging and blockade-running during the era of alcohol prohibition in the US, between 1920 and 1933. The outlaw origins of the sport started with drivers in Appalachia, including Virginia. These bootleggers would modify their cars for speed and handling in order to account for the increased weight of their illicit moonshine, and to give them an edge outrunning the police.

When prohibition was repealed in 1933, moonshine runners continued to develop their machines and by the 1940s they were racing their cars semi-professionally. 70 years later, RVA Mag went behind the scenes at Richmond Raceway during Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400, to see what happens when 40 cars running at 800 horsepower race in close quarters at over 100 miles per hour for around three hours.

Race Day at RIR. Photo by BW
Cars Almost to Fast to Film. Photo by BW

Today, NASCAR runs 36 races a year, two of which are at Richmond Raceway, a three-quarter mile track that runs its races at night. What most people don’t get to see is the sheer expanse of people, parts, and pageantry that goes into running one of these races: the five pit crew members for each vehicle, who can change four tires and refuel the car in 13 seconds; the crew chief and race engineers; the fighter jet fly-overs; the Marine Corps band; and of course, Governor Northam.

Marine Corps Band Singing the National Anthem. Photo by LS
Fly Over During Pre-Race. Photo by LS

And with the average age of current drivers hanging somewhere between 20 and 33, the sport has an energy and accessibility that is befitting of its origins, which makes the experience all-encompassing. The sheer volume of 40 cars that run at a decibel level almost 900 times above a person’s daily average for noise in-take, the percolating smell of fuel, the concrete track on pit-row that is sticky with burnt rubber from tires that are changed up to 12 times per race, and the athleticism of the crews who keep the cars running for all 400 laps.

Sets of Tires in the Garage Area. Photo by BW
Pit Crew in Action. Photo by LS

While the entry point for NASCAR might seem intimidating for first-time race-goers, the experience is unlike any other sport. And unlike other forms of motor sports, NASCAR is unique in that there is a certain level of egalitarianism to the way the teams are structured. What this means, in real terms, is that unlike Formula-1, the NASCAR team with the most money is not always likely to win.

For instance, NASCAR regulates just how big the engine can be, limiting the size to 358 cubic inches, restricting the amount of horsepower an engine can produce. This ultimately makes the racing experience more about driver competency, rather than dollars spent on high tech racing gear. Because of these rules, the race leaders of the change frequently – sometimes with multiple race leaders on a single lap.

Pre-Race Hangs in the Garages. Photo by BW
Going from Garage to Track. Photo by BW
Getting Ready to Race. Photo by LS

Regardless of what your impressions might be, unless you’ve been to a NASCAR race, they’re probably wrong. Richmond Raceway is one of the best tracks on the circuit, and any sport where you can both bring in your own beer and booze, and have the constant potential for death defying race-cars is a result. Some of RVA Mag’s best behind the scenes photo from the Saturday race can be found below:

Driver Matt DiBenedetto. Photo by BW
Driver Daniel Suárez. Photo by LS
Pit Crew, Kyle Larson. Photo by LS
On Pit Row, Waiting for Cars to Pit. Photo by BW
Fueling Up, Flame Resistant. Photo by Landon Shroder
Mid-Race Chill. Photo by LS
Under the Lights, Richmond International Raceway. Photo by LS

Photos by Branden Wilson and Landon Shroder

Occupation: Appalachia

Madelyne Ashworth | August 6, 2018

Topics: ACP, Appalachia, Appalachian Voices, Bent Mountain, Bold Alliance, Dakota Access Pipeline, Dominion, environment, EQT Midstream Partners, FERC, Franklin County, Governor Northam, Jefferson National Forest, landowners, MVP, Pipeline, pipeline protests, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Public Access Project

“I miss my house. I really would not have traded it for a piece of plywood if this were not important,” shouted Red Terry, high above her property in a tree-sit on Bent Mountain this past April. Theresa “Red” Terry lives in an “active crime scene,” according to law enforcement.

Along with other activists, she and her daughter, Minor Terry, are seeking to prevent construction of a 300-mile long, 42-inch wide natural gas pipeline that would cut through Jefferson National Forest. They took to the trees after an ongoing four-year legal battle that climaxed this January when a federal judge ruled in favor of Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, clearing the way for pipeline construction.

This article originally appeared in RVA #33 Summer 2018, you can check out the issue here, or pick it up around Richmond now. 

“Most people [the pipeline] was affecting have been busy doing lawful things for three years, and it’s gotten them nowhere,” Red said. “When they gave the permission to cut on my property, that’s when I decided to go up [the tree]. It’s gotten attention a lot faster than doing things the right way.”

Landowners occupy shelters in the trees above their land in protest of the Mountain Valley Pipeline proposed for construction in Franklin County, Virginia.

Red and Minor were found in contempt of court for their protest, and have been charged with three misdemeanors, including impeding work and trespassing. Living on separate tree platforms in two different locations, they are both near the creek that runs through their property. The pipeline company claims their protest halted tree cutting, but the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has forbidden MVP to cut trees within 75 feet of any waterway for the season due to the spawning season of the Roanoke logperch, a federally-designated endangered species.

“If I weren’t here, they would cut anyway,” Minor said. She’s the seventh-generation landowner on the Terry property. Both state police and Global Security, a private firm hired by MVP, share a tent while camping outside the tree sits. The women are issued state-provided food, which includes two bologna sandwiches, a bag of apple juice, water, and two cookies–food described as meeting all their ‘nutritional needs.’

The protests gave MVP grounds to request an extension to DEQ’s original tree cutting deadline of March 31 to May 31, which DEQ and other federal agencies granted. Originally, this deadline was set to protect bat and migratory bird habitats.

“The path that this pipeline will be going through, the terrain is unreal,” Minor said. “It’s steep slopes, mountainsides, waterways, creeks and streams, and wetlands. And some of these slopes are too steep to even stand on, and they want to bring in machinery and blast through it and bury a giant pipeline.”

According to Dr. Hearst Kastning, a karst landscape expert, pipeline leaks are likely to occur due to the high degree of seismic activity in this region of Appalachia. Landslides are also common here, and Kastning says they’re likely to increase when the trees preventing erosion are removed.

“Karst, in general, is one of the most sensitive landscapes in the environment. In a karst landscape, there are a lot of fractures and openings,” Kastning said. “Caves allow a lot of water to go through, fast, and unfiltered. Because of that, if the pipeline goes over karst, there are no guarantees it will be alright because we don’t know where it will redirect the water… Once operational, if it springs a leak or breaks, that would contaminate the groundwater for quite a distance.”

On Carolyn Reilly’s property, a working farm in Franklin County, an anonymous group has taken to the trees to protect her land. Reilly, a longtime pipeline fighter, faces contempt of court charges for allowing them to remain.

“We call ourselves grass farmers,” Reilly said about her property, where she’s trying to improve soil quality through traditional agricultural practices. She contrasted that with MVP, describing them as “extractive, and all about claiming space.” She said MVP is “working it to death and then moving on. That doesn’t honor life at all.”

The Reillys and the Terrys have been fighting the MVP for the past three and a half years, engaging in government meetings, community forums, and an endless string of lawsuits. Both families are part of individual lawsuits against FERC and state agencies, as well as group lawsuits through organizations like Bold Alliance, the Sierra Club, and the Southern Environmental Law Center. The process is long and messy.

“Bringing these appeals is a relatively recent development,” said Carolyn Elefant, the pipeline lawyer for Bold Alliance. “There had always been a handful of challenges to certificates over the last 20 years, but generally parties didn’t have resources, or they just gave in to the project. It’s really only been in the past five years these cases have started to go forward.”

Many of these lawsuits have no precedent, making for a new legal environment. The process for companies is becoming more tedious since, in addition to receiving a certificate from FERC, the section 401 water quality test from the State Water Control Board, and approval from the Forest Service, they are being met with lawsuits from almost every impacted landowner.

While this may be a headache for companies like EQT Midstream Partners, partners involved with MVP; or Dominion, who controls the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project; it poses more serious challenges to rural landowners who lack the resources to fight back.

Elefant said the bias favors construction, since, “when a court looks at the decision, it presumes that the agency ruling is correct, and it tends to defer to many of the factual determinations that the agency made.” Even when alternate routes are proposed, she said, “the court is going to assume that FERC’s decision was probably right based on its expertise.”

In 2016, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation highlighted the power that corporations wield in these interactions. While the MVP does not disrupt Native American land, the proposed pipeline will cause irreparable damage to woodlands and historic farmlands, in an area as sparsely populated as Standing Rock.

“They had no right to come through here and pick land they knew they wouldn’t get much fight from,” Red Terry said. “Older people, retiring people. We’ve had this land pretty much natural for seven generations, and we want to keep it that way.”

Energy companies have continually targeted populations that lack widespread social power. They are small, agrarian communities that feel ignored by their political representatives and lack the resources to stop a project headed by large corporations, many of which donate to Virginia’s political parties. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Governor Northam has accepted over $199,251 from Dominion alone, something that critics say suggests government bias.

“DEQ has a history of aligning with industry over the public interest, and that was no more clear than in the agency’s industry-friendly handling of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipeline permits in 2017,” Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager with Appalachian Voices, said in a statement. Last year, former Governor McAuliffe signed a $58 million mitigation plan with Dominion, releasing them from any potential damages to Virginia’s forests by the ACP, while Governor Northam remains passive toward pipeline questions, and publicly reprimanded Red Terry for her protest.

Elefant predicts these cases will go to the Supreme Court. In addition to the constitutionality of a private corporation using eminent domain, several other new legal issues are introduced, such as the environmental impact inflicted by this project.

“This has been happening for generations,” Reilly said. “This whole country was founded on taking what belongs to other people. I feel like this is corporate colonization happening.”

In May, the Terrys had their court dates, almost a month after Red and Minor took to the trees.

“I don’t understand how industry can look at these plans, look at whatever information that’s been given to them, and thought this was a good idea,” Minor said. “They thought this was going to be safe, that the damage would be minimal. I’m angry. I’m so angry.”

The tree-sitters believe the lengths they have gone to protect the land are absolutely necessary. They have endured rain, high winds, freezing temperatures, snow, heat, constant interrogation, police surveillance, and really bad bologna sandwiches.

“We need to be clear with ourselves that this structure of law enforcement is to serve this company over the power of the people,” said a Reilly property tree-sitter, who went by the pseudonym Alex. “I know that this is a way, at least for a time, to stop the construction. They’re getting scared now.”

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon found the Terrys in contempt of court and ordered them to evacuate their trees by midnight the next Saturday. If they did not comply, they would be fined $1,000 per day – fines that would be given directly to MVP, LLC. Red’s husband, Coles Terry III, was fined $2,000 for being in contempt for supporting his wife and daughter.

MVP lawyers told the judge that the delays caused by the Terrys so far have cost the pipeline more than $15,000, and that security efforts around the tree-sitting zones cost more than $25,000. MVP’s construction manager testified the alleged financial damages would grow exponentially if crews could not finish tree clearing by the May 31 deadline.

“There are more ways to fight,” Alex said. “Determined people, organized people can still do something. We have our voice, we have each other, and if we wedge those things in the right places, new possibilities can be born.”

Even after the ruling was reached, Alex and the others remained on the Reilly property until the end of May.

“If you look closely enough, if you are really present, then you can find the whole world here,” Alex said. “Defending this place is about that, but there is a global context here. This is a farm and a family that have built their livelihood here.”

Carolyn and her husband have done everything they could to protect their land and their farm from a corporate enterprise, not only affecting their lives and their children’s lives, but the entire community around them. Eminent domain has stripped them of that right, while the Reillys have to worry whether they will be able to continue farming, out of fear for their soil and waterways.

Hundreds of miles away, men in a corporate office in Pittsburgh have permanently affected the way a little girl sees the world.

“It’s totally permeated every pore of our family,” said Reilly, mother of four, who now worries for her children’s future due to legal costs imposed by the court after a guilty ruling. “She’s eight, our youngest. She’s known this since she was five. This is all she’s known. Her whole perspective is based on, ‘Are you for or against the pipeline?’ She’ll ask me, ‘That person you were just talking to, are they for or against it? What do they think about it?’ Basically, are they for us or are they not for us? Where do they stand with us?”

The Reillys, the Terrys and hundreds of other landowners continue to fight both the ACP and the MVP. Both projects continue to face considerable obstacles, such as mid-May storms, which prompted DEQ to cite environmental violations and halt construction due to severe erosion that would pollute waterways. MVP predicts the project will be complete by the fall of 2018.

READ MORE: At the end of last month, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down two important decisions that allowed the Mountain Valley Pipeline natural gas line to cut through the Jefferson National Forest this past Friday.

New Henrico County Solar Farm to Power 5,000 Homes

John Donegan | July 27, 2018

Topics: Climate change, Governor Northam, renewable energy, solar farm, solar power, the environment, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Thursday afternoon, Gov. Ralph Northam announced the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued a permit for the construction of a new solar facility in Henrico County. The 20-megawatt project, Briel Farm Solar LLC, will cover approximately 230 acres and is estimated to power over 5,000 homes. The new facility is a major step Northam is taking towards a green energy core in Virginia.  

“The solar industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy and this announcement is a strong testament to the thriving solar energy marketplace in Virginia,” Northam wrote in a statement. “My administration remains committed to supporting projects like this one that will bolster our solar energy infrastructure and bring low-cost, emissions-free electricity to homes and businesses across the Commonwealth.”

The construction will be completed by Urban Grid Solar and will be one of the largest solar facilities in Virginia since the construction of the 9 MW solar facility constructed in Danville last year. “Urban Grid is excited to receive this critical regulatory permit and would like to thank all the agencies who collaborated on this permit, and we would specifically like to thank the individuals at these agencies that made this permit possible, therefore assisting Urban Grid in bringing utility scale solar to Henrico County,” President of Urban Grid Frank DePew stated in a press release.

The new solar project is expecting to “offset the generation [of] approximately 64,739,173 pounds of carbon dioxide, 43,978 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 51,091 pounds of sulfur dioxide.”

As of 2018, this solar project is one of seven permits issued for to be constructed, and is a key example of the expedited growth of clean energy in Virginia. Just since 2014, production has increased from 17 MW to more than 300 MW, according to the press release. The released stated that the project is part of Virginia’s ultimate goal of 3,400 MW in renewable energy.

Opinion: How to Kill the Democratic Party of Virginia

Cassie Jacobs | June 20, 2018

Topics: Corey Booker, Democratic Party of Virginia, DPVA, Governor Northam, Main Street Station, richmond, Tim Kaine, virginia

This past Saturday, I attended the Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond, the Democratic Party of Virginia’s (DPVA) signature annual event. As I sat there for three hours I couldn’t help but think that this was the way to kill the Democratic Party. Speeches for three hours, plates of gluten-free chocolate cake that had been resting on the table for hours, and a dinner costing $150 are not going to bring in the much needed 18 to 34-year-old demographic needed to vote.

According to Pew Research Center, as of November 2016, an estimated 62 million millennials (adults aged 20 to 35) were voting-age U.S. citizens. Yet a Brookings Governance Survey found that only 50 percent of millennials that are registered as Democrats self-reported to have voted in the 2016 election; up only 1 percent from the 49 percent that voted in 2012. This means only half of young people who identify as Democrats vote. 

Imagine if the other half voted in 2016?

As a 32-year-old woman who founded and now directs a progressive group in Hampton Roads called Peninsula Voices for Change, I frankly only attended this dinner to hear Cory Booker speak.

Like all of these events, I had to wait for two hours and listen to Dorothy McAuliffe (why? her husband is no longer in office), former-Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Congressman Donald McEachin, Congressman Bobby Scott, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Sen. Mark Warner, Gov. Northam, the governor’s wife Pam Northam, Sen. Tim Kaine and his wife Anne Holton, along with various state delegates before Sen. Booker even spoke.

I may be forgetting someone – it was a long night of standard stump speeches.

Nonetheless, every speaker said the same thing. “We finally passed Medicaid expansion!”, “We elected Governor Northam”, “We have women as delegates now”, “We need to keep Tim Kaine in office”, and  “The children at the border!”

And yet, I found it particularly interesting how politicians cited their accomplishments – many coming from the direct advocacy of the people who elected them – with the pronoun “we”.

I have always believed that even though politicians cast the votes, they represent the people that elected them. Wouldn’t that mean that the accomplishments that were touted would actually be those of the people they are supposed to represent?

The accomplishments are for every person who states their frustrations with politicians and the policies they are advocating. They are for those who donate money they don’t have to politicians who make promises to improve their lives. They are for the people who canvas and bring friends to the polls on election day.

The question then remains: Why were these accomplishments not mentioned by the Democratic political class this past Saturday?

I will tell you what I did not hear, though; and that spoke louder than what I did hear.

I did not hear what actionable things these politicians are doing regarding the children who are being ripped from their parents at our southern border. I did not hear about Trump’s attempts to repeal Title IX protections from women. I did not hear about the importance of voter registration; about how every single person should make sure they take at least five of their friends to the polls. I did not hear about voter suppression either. I did not hear about how every 18-year-old needs to be registered to vote so Corey Stewart, with his “bring back the Confederacy” pandering, does not continue to mainstream white supremacy. I did not hear about how Democrats were going to connect with communities of color and the LGBTQ community.

And most importantly, I did not hear about how the Democratic Party of Virginia was going to diversify and evolve into the 21st Century to address the complex challenges we now face.  

Speaking of DPVA, the only person in attendance that actually mentioned the pay gap experience was Sen. Booker (from New Jersey). He said that the Democratic Party is the one political institution which not only cares about the people sitting at the fancy dinner, but the people who clean up afterward.

And he should have. But why didn’t any of our own Democratic politicians from the Commonwealth bring this point up? Virginia is a state with incredible pay gaps. According to the National Education Association – estimates of school statistics from 2016 to 2017 – teachers face a 40.2 percent pay gap, as teachers on average are paid $51,049 and college graduates can make up to $85,432  – currently the largest in the country. A report produced in 2016 by the National Partnership for Women and Families showed that women in Virginia are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to an annual wage gap of $10,419.

Perhaps this is why the Democratic Party of Virginia is missing out on 50 percent of its millennial voter base. I am not the Chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia; yet if I was I would have designed this event differently.

Let me tell you what I would have done to engage the people who need to be brought into the party: I would have organized a meet and greet with a flat price of $20. I would have invited food trucks from all over Richmond to cater the event (isn’t Richmond known for its stellar foodie scene?). Prior to the event, it would be explained to all elected officials that no speeches would be given. Instead, politicians would be encouraged to mingle with attendees directly. For once, politicians should be in a position to listen and not speak.

Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond

The theme of the event would be: ‘How to Improve Engagement in Politics‘. Faced with the Trump insurgency and a candidate like Corey Stewart, who will use fear and hate to compel his campaign, we should not underestimate how effective this might be – therefore, the only question we must ask ourselves right now is: how can we engage the 18-34-year-olds, women, people of color, and LGBTQ community?

If this event was targeted to the people whose lives are being threatened by Trump and his administration – and the cost of this event was actually affordable – I believe the Democratic party could live up to its creed of being the party of the people.

If this party was truly representing educators who are barely making a living wage, and women that are earning significantly less than men then they would create an event that acknowledges pay gaps like these – not host an event that just congratulates each other in front of one another.

I am so disheartened after this event. I have considered the possibility of running for office, but I cannot imagine running for office with a party that does not include the people who need its help most.

Here is the bottom line: I believe that if Virginia is going to flip and if we are going to take back the country from Donald Trump and the worst of his supporters, it is up to us to engage with new demographics and new audiences. It is up to people like me and like you: young people who are angry, scared, and pissed off. People who are tired of waking up and seeing children living in tents, ripped away from their parents. People who believe that the taxes we pay mean that we are entitled to health insurance and someone in office who will fight to protect our rights – not the rights of people that can easily afford $150 dinners and the weekends that go along with them.

This is what the Blue Commonwealth Gala in Richmond this past Saturday failed to acknowledge and in doing so, failed to acknowledge what the next generation of the Democratic Party wants to see from its party and politicians.

An Open Letter to Gov. Northam on the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Margeau Graybill | May 7, 2018

Topics: Bent Mountain, Blur Ridge Mountains, Governor Northam, Mountain Valley Pipeline, roanoke, Salem, virginia

Dear Gov. Northam, 

I guess you could say that I am a fairly typical 27-year-old millennial. I went to VCU for Psychology and Environmental Science, and while my current job is not in that field I work very hard. Like a lot of millennials, I still live with my parents, yet I am desperately trying to save up for a downpayment on a house of my own. 

Where? I doubt you have ever visited the place. It is a haven of beauty, tucked away in the stunning Blue Ridge Mountains – only about 20 minutes from where I grew up in Salem, Virginia – known as Bent Mountain. I have felt a connection and a draw to that particular place ever since I discovered the winding road when I was 16 and started to explore my area on my own. 

Anti-Pipeline Sentiment near Bent Mountain

 But now, what happens if the Mountain Valley Pipeline succeeds? The unlawful destruction of land, private property seizures under ambiguous eminent domain laws, the blatant ignoring of environmental studies, and the apparent ignorance of the impact that such a project would have on our area makes this impossible. How can I make the life that I want on Bent Mountain knowing this?

Why would I want to even stay in Virginia and settle down if this is the reality of how the Commonwealth protects its natural environment? 

I ended up voting for you. What choice did I have in the last election? I even changed a staunch Republican’s mind, he voted for you instead of Ed Gillespie, thanks to my passion and knowledge of both candidates’ policies. However, I did my research and knew you were pro-pipeline, which is why I originally cast my primary vote for Tom Perriello. By the way, thank you, Mr. Perriello, for standing with most Virginians, and those who have taken to the trees in protest: Red, Minor, and Nutty against this travesty. 

Minor Terry

Many people my age voted against you in the primary because we know building these pipelines are not the way forward. Fracked gas pipelines are not the future of energy and will do nothing but make a few people rich, destroy waterways, leak into our precious ground, and make Virginia look like it doesn’t care about the future of the planet or our children. How can you have a platform that wants to preserve the Chesapeake Bay from off-shore drilling, but not our streams and waterways from fracked gas? 

I could provide you some studies of what a project like this does to land and water, but this letter is more from the soul. The soul of a heart-broken voter who believed when you said all environmental laws would be followed and all studies would be done before beginning these project. 

As I’m sure you know, nothing like this pipeline has ever even been attempted before in Virginia. Why risk this now? Who does it benefit, really? 

I want, so very badly, to make my dreams of living in Bent Mountain to come true. I want to marry and have children, a house, and a dog on a quiet, pristine piece of land in my own corner of Virginia. I can see my kids, playing in the forests and streams, as I did when I was a child. It made me who I am and I am so grateful for the experiences I had growing up in this area of Southwest Virginia.

But the question now becomes: Why would I want to have a family there now? Moving to another state has been in the back of my mind for a few years and now it may be my only option. Despite this, I will stand strong until the very end and fight this with every fiber of my being. I know this pipeline is wrong and will cause terrible damage to the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and with them, a piece of my heart. 

I can’t imagine that you would want young families moving out of the Commonwealth, but a lot of my friends have already done so because of these kinds of policies.

I also find it hard to believe that you would want to be on the wrong side of history. The time is not just now, the time was here 30 years ago to make the transition to alternative and clean energies. Please help us. 

This issue is more than just business, it is about people and the ability to live in a healthy way in safety and security. You took an oath to do no harm. As I see it, if you do nothing to help the people out west who are in the worst kind of desperate situation, you are genuinely breaking that oath. 

Sincerely, 

Margeau Holton Graybill

A concerned citizen of Virginia (for now) and voter in every election, 

p.s. People over profit. Virginia has always lead the nation. Jamestown is here! How many presidents have this great state birthed!? And now, our leader is going to back down to some out of state companies? How shameful and disrespectful. We, the people, put you in office, not the corporations. I have never seen a more bipartisan issues than land/ water rights and yet, you do nothing.

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