PART 1. Democracy Dies in Darkness ~ MVP Deal ‘left us to burn’

PEOPLE vs. FOSSIL ENERGY campaign is protesting large GHG projects!

From an Article by Ellie Silverman, Washington Post, August 23, 2022

Crystal Cavalier-Keck sat inside the home her grandfather built on rural land in Mebane, N.C., that now has been in her family for more than 300 years, since before the Declaration of Independence. She was thinking about all they could lose.

Democrats and many environmental groups have been celebrating the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate movement’s biggest legislative success, but Cavalier-Keck and many other people living in communities threatened by a warming planet said they feel this deal came at their expense. Once again, she said, she feels they were a bargaining chip and ultimately, they were sacrificed.

To secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) for the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate, energy and health-care package that President Biden signed into law last week, Democratic leadership reached a side deal with Manchin that would overhaul the process for approving new energy initiatives and expedite the Mountain Valley Pipeline project — which Cavalier-Keck has been opposing for years.

“They didn’t have all the players at the table,” said Cavalier-Keck, an enrolled citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation in North Carolina. “I went through the stages of grief — anger, sadness, depression, hopelessness, and then I was like ‘We’ve got to stand up. We’ve got to do something.’”

Cavalier-Keck, 44, is planning to rally in Washington on Sept. 8, recruiting other Indigenous, Black and Appalachian community members who are fearful of what this side deal could mean for their homes and the planet. Representatives for Manchin, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not respond to a request for comment.

Though the days’ details are still being planned, Cavalier-Keck said organizers hope to secure meetings with lawmakers during business hours and then rally at 5 p.m. at the Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon, north of the U.S. Capitol, on Constitution Avenue between New Jersey Avenue and First Street NW. There will be music, art and testimonies from people directly affected by the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, among others in communities affected by human-induced climate change, Cavalier-Keck said.

MORE … Parts 2 & 3 to follow on successive days. See also the Washington Post newspaper.