No SSEP: An Action for Summer!
An Action for Summer!
Please reach out to the elected officials in the NC General Assembly (State Senate & State House of Representatives) listed below. *Please prioritize contacting the GUILFORD Officials.* If you are feeling ambitious, I have included Forsyth officials to reach out to as well. These officials have not made their stance on SSEP public and known. It is our job to convince them that they should oppose the project.
Take some time to craft these emails. Meet up with friends/neighbors and do it together! Be specific and intentional with what you include. Personalize your message. How will you be affected? How will your neighbors? These are Guilford County and Forsyth County Representatives and Senators, so they will be dealing with directly-impacted landowners and environmental harms. These folks represent YOU and US.
For context, there have been sign-on letters (one “For” SSEP and one “Against SSEP) that went through the General Assembly (GA) and were submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). These are not formal decisions from the state GA, just ways to gauge the group's interest in an issue and make one’s opinion public (and in this case, submit their opinion to FERC). Often, these are put forth by specific key players in the GA as power moves to build supportive coalitions if issues come to be voted on.
For more detailed information, please direct message Aidan!
NC General Assembly Representatives
Amber M. Baker ~ Forsyth
Amos L. Quick, III ~ Guilford
Cecil Brockman ~ Guilford
NC General Assembly Senators:
Paul A. Lowe, Jr. ~ Forsyth
Dana Jones ~ Forsyth/Stokes (Notes for Dana specifically below!)
Michael Garrett ~ Guilford
Some guidelines for structuring the email (or if you’re bold, you can call them)
Please use this as a ~template~ do not simply copy and paste (we don’t want the poor Legislative Assistants to sift through dozens of the same email, and if you’re calling, still write out a helpful script/guideline for yourself)
Email them each separately and cc their Legislative Assistants (LAs) - The links above take you to their individual General Assembly pages. You can find the LA's email by going to this page and right-clicking the LA's name to copy the email.
Subject: “Say NO to SSEP: No Benefits, Only Risks”
Use the language “As a North Carolina citizen, I am your constituent and I am writing to you to share my concerns about the proposed Southeast Supply Enhancement Project.”
As Guilford residents, if writing to Forsyth officials (Baker, Lowe, & Jones), highlight the shared impact on Triad Park, which includes the Carolina Field of Honor veterans memorial. It's located near the Guilford/Forsyth County line on West Market St / East Mountain St. (directly impacted land on the route proposed for SSEP)
FOR DANA JONES ONLY: Please email Senator Dana Jones and highlight the bipartisan support for this issue. (Include the Ron Ray & Pricey Harrison Op-Ed, “What it’s like to have a natural gas pipeline on your property”, attached) If you have a history of conservative/Republican voting, please share that information with Senator Jones.
Angles to take we know are successful at convincing for our targets:
Health/safety
Lack of a warning system
Corrosion of pipes that we don’t know the materials of
Co-impact of multiple pipelines on property
Other landowner impacts
Transco’s record/lies
List of Williams-Transco safety incidents (attached, include when sending to electeds)
Examples of Asks for all Elected Officials:
Please read the attached Guilford County resolution on the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project.
Please read the following media reports, which detail my community’s concerns with the project.
Please oppose the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project by submitting a comment to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voicing your concerns.
Please reach out to Haw River Assembly if you have further questions: aidan@hawriver.org