“Day after day, the women could hear the chain saws getting closer.”
April 23, 2018 7:49 AM   Subscribe

61-year-old Theresa “Red” Terry has been camped in a tree for more than three weeks. [WP]. She is protesting of the clearing of trees on her property for the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Police are preventing friends and family from bringing her food or water.
posted by slipthought (11 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
I just became aware of this story and it's heartbreaking. These two women - mother and daughter - are incredibly brave. That the government can simply 'decide' to take your property is outrageous. Government is not for the people.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:55 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]


Roanoke County PD statement. They claim that "Roanoke County will ensure their physical needs are being met" without actually saying exactly what that means re: food, water, etc. I wonder if it's possible to circumvent the police barricade using recreational drones.

I note that both in the WP article quotes and in the official statement, they go on about how it's ~not their job to contest court decisions~ while assiduously avoiding the direct statement of saying "it's our job to uphold court decisions", which is what they are doing with their actions regardless of whether it should be true or not.
posted by inconstant at 8:02 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


I don't know any of the details, but having lived in Pittsburgh and paid for utilities I say anything that makes Dominion Gas' profit margin worse is a-okay with me.
posted by daisystomper at 9:47 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


That the government can simply 'decide' to take your property is outrageous. Government is not for the people.

The dubious merits of this use of eminent domain aside, it's a very important tool to have available. There are definitely situations where the use of one person's property for the public good outweighs the consideration of their continued private use.

Hell, some folks would argue that private ownership of any property should be abolished.

I don't like how eminent domain is used all of the time, but the concept isn't inherently outrageous. One person shouldn't be able to hold up public works just because they happen to own the plot that gets in the way.

That said, Red appears to be in the right. The governor promised that the state regulators would assess the situation, that promise was broken. I wouldn't trust federal regulators under this administration, either.
posted by explosion at 10:27 AM on April 23, 2018 [7 favorites]


The dubious merits of this use of eminent domain aside, it's a very important tool to have available. There are definitely situations where the use of one person's property for the public good outweighs the consideration of their continued private use.

The problem here is that this is entirely for the private good of EQT Midstream Partners and its partners, who will be the only ones profiting from this pipeline. Arguably even a state-operated pipeline project would also not serve the overall public good because of the harms involved in extracting, transporting, and burning natural gas, but this doesn't even have that. The land is going to be directly expropriated to a private company to use for its own purposes.
posted by Copronymus at 10:59 AM on April 23, 2018 [8 favorites]


Agreed. My pushback was simply that "eminent domain is outrageous" is wrong. "This use of eminent domain is outrageous" is right.
posted by explosion at 11:52 AM on April 23, 2018 [5 favorites]


Nice story.
What an inspiring pair. I hope she can beat the nicotine whispers...This however does seem like one of those situations that could be a perfect storm for quitting and not really having too much of a choice about it...Stay strong ladies!
posted by Dillionaire at 2:42 PM on April 23, 2018


Drones were the first thing to come to my mind too.
posted by Megafly at 3:04 PM on April 23, 2018


Regarding the food situation, from the WP article: "They haven’t denied the women food and water, Whittaker said; it’s available at the base of the trees if they want to come down and get it."
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 5:17 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


So they're using the threat of starvation and dehydration to get them to leave their stations? That... doesn't sound better.
posted by inconstant at 5:24 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


This both breaks my heart and inspires the hell out of me.

I really don't think a lot of folks realize how hog wild the oil and gas industry is going in the Marcellus Shale region (roughly the gas play between Eastern Ohio, most of Western PA, and a huge part of West Virginia). The Marcellus Shale play is the largest natural gas reserves in the United States, the US now produces more natural gas than Russia, and yet it constantly stuns me how little fracking is a part of the national conversation.

Pipelines are being built all over Ohio right now, and state politicians are literally talking about us being the next Gulf (which of course means we'll be the next cancer alley). The Democratic establishment in this region is all in on fracking, in the Ohio Democractic gubernatorial primary 3 out of the 4 candidates are 100% on board with fracking (of course Kucinich is the only one opposed to it).

It is depressing and scary as fuck and god bless these women trying to fight the mighty Goliath.
posted by mostly vowels at 6:05 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


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