Hello Openhand Community

I wanted to update you on a post I made back in the early spring, "Tree Sitting Protest", but was not able to find the old post......so here is the update in this thread.....

In March or April I posted and asked for supportive vibes to be sent to rural Appalachia in our resistance to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a huge transport company for fracked gas, that is taking our land through misuse of eminent domain and threatening our water and other natural resources by building a 42" gas pipeline through the Appalachian Mountains.

I posted today to let you know our resistance is succeeding. Over the past months, through protests, tree sits, lock downs, and courtroom battles, we have made it clear to our representatives, that we will not sit idle in the face of this corporate bully. We've had a 26 year old woman, who blocked MVP by being perched on a pole for almost two months, two tree sits that went for almost three months, young people who have locked themselves to machinery (including a professor from Virginia Tech), and a grandmother who got in her old pinto (that she took on her honeymoon a zillion years ago) and locked herself in front of the machines that threaten her farm. This is not a full account, but these are the things that have been going on "in our backyard" this summer.

I am happy to announce that currently, (maybe temporarily), MVP construction has been halted. Our voices against MVP were heard loudly enough that the ACP (Atlantic Coast Pipeline) has also been halted as well (both pipelines are owned by corporate giant EQT). This means that every day, millions of dollars of machinery and worker contracts sit idle, until our representatives figure out what to do with this ecological nightmare. It would have been nice if they could have done this four years ago, but better late than never.

Just wanted to pass along the good news. The pipeline may still be built in the end, but when folks pull together, amazing changes can happen. Here are a few links if you are interested (I was honored to be interviewed in the Rolling Stone article listed below.)

https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/

https://soundcloud.com/pipelinepodcast/episode-22-stop

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/pipeline-protesters…

Thanks for your support!

Keep sending the good vibes our way.

Tasha