by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Apr 19, 2019 | Newsletter
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Apr 14, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Pipelines, Spiritual Ecology
The Virginia State Conference NAACP once again has reaffirmed its longstanding opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In a court brief filed on April 12, the state NAACP has urged a federal appeals court in Washington to revoke the key federal permit for the...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Apr 6, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Fossil Fuels, Fracking
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal has just released its Advisory Opinion, recommending a worldwide ban on hydraulic fracturing, the extreme oil and gas extraction technique known as ‘fracking.’ The materials, and infrastructure of fracking inherently and necessarily...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 20, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Events, Politics of energy
Friends of Buckingham extends a warm and grateful thank you to Reverend Barber, Al Gore and Karenna Gore for accepting our ernest and urgent invitation to come to Union HIll, to draw and amplify ever widening attention to the injustices forced on the Union Hill...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 20, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Events
Former vice president Al Gore and the Rev. William Barber II, left, talk with local resident Ella Rose in front of her home in Union Hill, Va. (Steve Helber/AP) BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. — The little front porch seemed like a pulpit as the Rev. William Barber II outlined...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 19, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Events, Politics of energy
Black History Month is a time of remembrance – to remember and celebrate African American achievements and culture, but also to remember those parts of our nation’s history that we sometimes might like to forget. “Those who cannot remember the past,” as George...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 19, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Events, Politics of energy
Gov. Ralph Northam can’t escape the spotlight as former Vice President Al Gore and the Rev. William J. Barber II bring a racial and environmental crusade Tuesday to a little community in Buckingham County with a big natural gas pipeline planned at its doorstep....
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 16, 2019 | Newsletter
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 16, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Press Releases
In a surprisingly bold statement released to the press, Buckingham County Dems say that “Gov. Northam can cease the environmental racism and great injustice that is being besieged upon Buckingham County’s Union Hill Community.” Buckingham County...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 8, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Regulatory Permit Process
In a press release on February 8, 2019, the Southern Environmental Law Center announced their challenge of the Air Pollution Control Board on behalf of the Union Hill Community. The press release states: Today the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of its...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Feb 3, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Press Releases
Press Release February 2, 2019 For us who live or work in Union Hill, Buckingham, Virginia, the revelations that Gov. Ralph Northam engaged in racist behavior in medical school over thirty years ago are less troubling than his most recent actions, inactions, and...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 31, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Pipelines, Politics of energy
Members of the Lumbee tribe and other opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline marched through Pembroke in Robeson County in late 2016. The ACP would traverse through Native American lands along its route, including in Robeson County. (File photo: Lisa Sorg) [Editor’s...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 26, 2019 | Press Releases, Sustainability, Uncategorized
(LIVESTREAM VIDEO OF SPEECH BY FAMED ENVIRONMENTALIST AND IN-PERSON PRESS OPPORTUNITIES TO BE ANNOUNCED IN FOLLOWUP RELEASE) For Immediate Release January 25, 2019 Press Contacts: Sita Rose sitarose108@gmail.com 262 344 107 Mindy...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 25, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Regulatory Permit Process
A protester is removed from the Jan. 8 meeting of the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board. (Steve Helber/Associated Press) By Vivian E. Thomson January 25 at 4:06 PM Vivian E. Thomson, a retired professor of environmental policy at the University of Virginia,...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 18, 2019 | Health & Safety, Regulatory Permit Process
A portion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction site in Franklin County. (Roberta Kellam) Visiting the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction corridor in southwest Virginia was a promise I made to local residents while I was a member of the State Water Control...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 17, 2019 | Compressor Stations, Regulatory Permit Process
A member of a Virginia state permitting board who last week approved a highly controversial certification for Dominion’s planned Atlantic Coast pipeline has business ties to a company currently collaborating with Dominion on a related gas project, DeSmog...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 13, 2019 | Pipelines, Politics of energy, Regulatory Permit Process
A lobbyist for the natural gas industry told West Virginia legislators Tuesday that progress on a pipeline that stretches through the Mountain State was slowed because of “rogue environmental groups” challenging the project in the federal court system. In reality,...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 13, 2019 | Accidents, Health & Safety, Pipelines
Credit: FracTracker Alliance Oil and gas pipelines in the US are lacking adequate regulation, inspection, and enforcement. As one example, our colleagues at the FracTracker analysis recently published an alarming analysis of fossil fuel pipeline incidents from...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 7, 2019 | Environmental Justice, Regulatory Permit Process
Yes, the title is provocative, but its not entirely mine. I simply and liberally borrow from the classic Mark Monmonier primer entitled How to Lie with Maps. But the reality of this ‘case study’ is indeed provocative, and it amounts to nothing less than outright...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 7, 2019 | Newsletter
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 7, 2019 | Compressor Stations, Regulatory Permit Process
Opponents of a proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline compressor station in Buckingham County protested outside the General Assembly Building ahead of a State Air Pollution Control Board meeting. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury – Dec. 19, 2018) Is an African-American...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 7, 2019 | Compressor Stations, Regulatory Permit Process
This post is a work in process. More comments will be added when time permits. Lakshmi Fjord, PhD, Steering Committee Friends of Buckingham Lakshmi Fjord Air Permit Comm 1-4-19 Stephen Metts, The New School, NY, GIS analyst for policy issues relating to energy...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 2, 2019 | Compressor Stations, Health & Safety, Regulatory Permit Process
Lies are best told when there is no paper trail. And no Freedom of Information Act. Somebody should explain that to David Paylor, the deeply unpopular Director of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality. And someone should tell Dr. Ralph Northam that children’s...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 2, 2019 | Compressor Stations, Pipelines, Politics of energy
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline – Living on Borrowed Time?January 2, 2019 Forgive the imagery (and the irony), but the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is increasingly looking like an old automobile in need of a valve job – it is leaking serious oil, suffers by comparison to...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Jan 1, 2019 | Newsletter
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Dec 31, 2018 | Compressor Stations, Environmental Justice
This is what Environmental inJustice looks like. Read both reports. Lakshmi Fjord, PhD lays out the history of attack, omissions, falsifications surrounding the siting of the proposed ACP Buckingham compressor station [BCS] by local, state, federal agencies and...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Dec 30, 2018 | Compressor Stations, Politics of energy, Regulatory Permit Process
Richard Walker, an Atlantic Coast Pipeline opponent, raises his hands as he and other pipeline opponents turn their backs on a Dec. 19 meeting of a Virginia air pollution panel, which delayed a vote on a key permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. (Steve Helber/AP)...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Dec 26, 2018 | Eminant Domain, Pipelines
ROANOKE, Va – A lawsuit involving the Mountain Valley Pipeline may be headed to our nation’s highest court. Wednesday, Virginia landowners filed a reply arguing their case does have merit to be heard after non-decisions by lower courts. They want to...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Dec 26, 2018 | Compressor Stations, Events, Regulatory Permit Process
Dominion and DEQ have introduced new material to be considered in the Air Permit decision process. Consequently, DEQ has opened another Public Comment period for us to review and respond to the new material by Jan 4, 2019. AIR POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD (APCB) PUBLIC...
by Heidi Dhivya Berthoud | Dec 18, 2018 | Economic Impacts, Politics of energy
Costs to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are pegged at $7 billion. Partner Dominion Energy plans to charge captive electricity customers for the cost, regardless of whether the pipeline is needed. Image via the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Dominion Energy...
