Dear Editor,
It is my observation that neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party is waiting for the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Results before implementing the 2025 Republican Plan for the United States of America. U.S. Senator Manchin pushed the Mountain Valley Pipeline through by pressuring President Biden to guarantee MVP completion or Congress would shut down the U.S. Government. The U.S. Supreme Court defied the will of our people by overruling the U.S. Fourth District Court decision to deny this debacle of a fossil fuel project a permit and then went on to further decree that the U.S. Supreme Court has the right to overrule all lower court decisions.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is nominating candidates to fill two vacant seats on the Commission. President Biden has named three candidates, two of whom are experienced, educated and well qualified, while one candidate is the lawyer who defended the MVP corporate backer, Equitrans, against many environmental organizations in the 2023 Fourth Circuit Court and lost the MVP permit. Ms.See’s only qualification for this position is that she is a lawyer and associated with the Federalist Society. Six of the nine U. S. Supreme Court Judges, who also have ties to the Federalist Society, voted to overturn the lower court’s decision and along with U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV who has received the most political campaign money from Fossil Fuel Corporations), are backing the nomination of an unqualified lawyer to FERC. Why does FERC need a lawyer for a commissioner? With Judge Roberts Supreme Court overruling Judge Wynns of the Fourth Circuit Court, March 28, 2024, is the current completion date set for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to transport Natural Gas to market for sale and transportation to International Markets, the gas is not for use in our USA homes and communities but the process of Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas will pollute our water table with radioactive and toxic fluids designed to fracture the crust of our Earth and release the gas into our atmosphere. After the industrial process is completed, the once life-supporting habitat is full of deadly toxic waste fluids and our land wrought with sinkholes, earthquakes, uncapped gas wells and the oxygen-producing, carbon-sequestering balance of forests and mountains is gone and our homelands destined to become unlivable wasteland. The Fourth Circuit Court based its refusal of the Mountain Valley Pipeline on this and on the effect that the burning of this fossil fuel is projected to have on Climate Change through global warming. Ban Fracking Now! Water For Life!
It is my fervent prayer that our life-supporting habitat on Earth is protected and preserved and that these natural gas pipelines never function as such but rather become utility trunk lines for remote estate and suburban housing development. If we, the living people of our Country give our U.S. Government and Supreme Court a good shot of common sense over dollars and cents, then we may continue to enjoy a livable planet, as there is no Planet B.
DON’T DUMP ON ME!
Linda Emrich, Hinton, W.Va. USA
