Community Rallies Against Pipeline After Transco's "Unsatisfactory" Answers to County Commissioners
Hi folks!
Starting today’s post with a check in. (A little bit for me, a little bit for you.) Take a deep breath, feel grounded on Earth. We’re here. And if you’re here, reading this in this current space/time, it’s because you care. Care and empathy and love is what we must fill our organizing and activism with. Okay, down to business:
This Thursday at 4pm, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners met with representatives and employees of the Transco-Williams company to get answers to questions they have about the proposed Southeast Supply Enhancement Project. While they had answers, none of them were satisfactory. Commissioners Mary-Beth Murphy and Frankie Jones Jr. both asked hard-hitting questions about the impact on our water quality, stream crossings, and environmental impact. Transco reps couldn’t answer or deferred to the FERC process. FERC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is the agency ultimately in charge of approving the project and determining environmental impact. The project manager for this district even commented that he does not know how many streams are crossed.
Greenwashing, manipulation of data, and lack of answers categorized the BOCC work session with Transco - and community advocates responded accordingly. An impacted landowner from Oak Ridge, a concerned UNCG professor, several local activists, and yours truly all used public comments at the following 5:30 BOCC meeting to refute false statements made by Transco reps and to reinforce to the Guilford Commissioners in their important role in representing the will of their constituents.
We are at a critical part of the process. We need all hands on deck in these next two weeks to urge the Guilford County Commissioners to pass a resolution opposing SSEP. Write letters, post on socials, get creative! Now is the time to tell your friends and family in Guilford County to call their commissioner to voice their opposition to SSEP. If you need resources or aid in doing this, please reach out to me at aidan@hawriver.org and check out https://nossep.org/
Be on the lookout for upcoming engagement opportunities on Haw River Assmebly socials!
A recording of the work session with Transco can be found at this link: https://guilford.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx (Guilford County has a history of being slow to upload videos so it may be a week or so).
As always, this is Aidan wishing community care, light, and love.