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🌸 Tensions still high over the Mountain Valley Pipeline as sabotage claimed
Plus, malaria in the US and a new Cop City lawsuit
There’s much talk of activism in this week’s newsletter, both nonviolent and potentially violent, depending on how you define it. The past two weeks were huge for climate news in the South, and unfortunately, I couldn’t cram everything into this issue. Notably missing today is news about an explosion at a chemical plant in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, which was a main subject of the last newsletter about the EPA closing investigations in Louisiana over chloroprene and ethylene oxide emissions.
There’s a lot to cover today, so without much further ado, let’s dive in.
- Forrest Brown
Spotlight • Fossil Fuels
Anonymous Statement Claims Sabotage of Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction Machinery
On Friday, the anarchist website It’s Going Down shared a statement posted online that claimed responsibility for an act of sabotage taken against construction crews working on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 300-mile pipeline being built to transport fracked fossil gas from West Virginia to Virginia.
The statement — originally posted on a “counter-information” website called Unravel — was purportedly submitted anonymously and stated that bleach had been used to sabotage the engines of construction machines, presumably by pouring it in their gas tanks. (When added to a gas tank, bleach can cause serious corrosion, eventually immobilizing a vehicle.)
The statement did not mention any further details, such as whether this was the work of an individual or a group, where it happened, or the type of machinery targeted. It did, however, state that “Protest alone is not enough,” and claimed that previous attempts at nonviolent direct action had failed.
Sticky Weather sent an emailed request for comment to the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Monday evening in an attempt to verify the claims and will report back as more details emerge.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline was first authorized in 2017, but a series of lawsuits and regulatory issues hindered construction before the project received final approval to move forward on June 29, 2023.
Once complete, the pipeline will produce an estimated 90 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — about the same as 26 average US coal plants or 19 million cars would produce in the same amount of time, per a report from Oil Change International. In July 2021, Mountain Valley Pipeline announced plans to purchase carbon offsets to make its first 10 years of operations carbon neutral.
This is a developing story. Check back in the next newsletter issue for updates.
In other news
Fossil fuels: Louisiana is about to get a lot of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Is that good? It’s complicated. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides incentives for carbon capture and sequestration — a process that effectively sucks carbon out of the air and stores it deep underground. The technology is now seen as necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but it remains highly controversial, especially in the Louisiana parishes where many residents feel development is being rushed unsafely.
Health: People are catching malaria and dengue fever…in the US. In June, the CDC issued a health alert warning about confirmed cases of malaria in Florida and Texas. Cases remain very low, but any cases at all are cause for concern considering there have not been confirmed cases of locally-acquired malaria in the US for at least 20 years.
✈️ Most cases of malaria in the US are usually acquired outside of the country and brought back home. The recent cases in Florida and Texas are different because they originated in the US.
🤒 Florida also reported cases of locally-acquired dengue fever, a vector-borne viral infection not uncommon throughout many subtropical and tropical countries but very rare in the US.
🗺 The UN has been warning for years that climate change will very likely cause increased prevalence of vector-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue, since a warmer world means more places for mosquitoes to live and breed.
Justice: An environmental group is suing the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Foundation to halt Cop City construction, alleging Clean Water Act violations. The plaintiff, South River Watershed Alliance, Inc., is requesting an injunction to halt construction of the highly controversial police training facility dubbed “Cop City” by opponents.
🛑 Announced in 2021, plans and attempts to start building the training center have been met again and again with fierce opposition from locals who do not want it to be built.
👩🔬 On Monday, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, a climate change activist, author, and Atlantan, published an opinion piece in CNN calling for city leaders to listen to those opposed to the center, citing a dramatic drop in the city’s urban tree canopy.
📝 Local opposition group Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition says it has collected over 104,000 petition signatures from Atlanta residents in an effort to put the training center to a vote on the next ballot. However, Stop Cop City leaders have delayed turning in the votes due to concerns about the way the city intends to verify signatures.
Bright spots
Nonprofit installs solar panels, plants flowers along 18 miles of west GA highway - Ledger-Enquirer
As Heat Waves Roast Texas, Batteries Keep Power Grid Humming - Scientific American