A grandfather named Jerome was arrested and charged with four misdemeanors in West Virginia after locking himself to a Mountain Valley Pipeline drill, which shut down construction on the fracked gas project for over three hours on Thursday, according to a protest group.
"Jerome's bail was set at $35,000—an astronomical amount for misdemeanor charges!" the anti-MVP group Appalachians Against Pipelines said on social media, also confirming he was released.
"I am a retired white male with lots of privilege. Today, I am using that privilege to fight back."
"I am the father of three daughters and the grandfather—soon—of five grandsons," Jerome said in a statement. "I am horrified by what climate change is already doing to all life here on Earth. And I'm even more horrified that we still envision and construct projects like MVP which will only worsen the warming and deepen the chaos."
"To me, this project marks a watershed moment—a tipping point. All the powers of the federal government (executive, congressional, and judiciary) are aligned to support the fossil fuel industry in this catastrophic project," he continued. "If we, as caring humans, let that effort prevail, we invite more ram-rodded fossil fuel projects and generations of continued entrenchment in global warming emissions and deepening social distress."
The debt ceiling deal negotiated earlier this year by congressional Republicans and President Joe Biden—who campaigned on a pledge to tackle the climate emergency—included a section intended to thwart legal challenges and fast-track construction of the MVP, which is set to cover over 300 miles in Virginia and West Virginia.
One of the key congressional advocates of the project has been Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a right-wing coal baron.
"I am a retired white male with lots of privilege. Today, I am using that privilege to fight back," said Jerome. "Together, we say, 'Nope!' to Joe Manchin, the debt deal extortionist. 'No way!' to MVP and their doomed pipeline. 'Yay!' to the resistance."
Armed with a "Doom to the Pipeline" banner, Jerome protested at Elk River, one of the hundreds of MVP water crossings.
In addition to sounding the alarm about how MVP will contribute to the global climate emergency—pointing to scientists and industry experts' warnings that the world must rapidly shift away from fossil fuels—Appalachians have long expressed concerns about what its construction and operation will do to the region.
"The destruction wrought by this pipeline on our planet and communities is President Biden's climate legacy," Russell Chisholm, an impacted community member and managing director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition, said this summer, after federal regulators gave the project a green light.
"The gas from the pipeline is unnecessary, the permanent local jobs provided are minimal, the endangerment to precious species is irreversible, water sources will be polluted, and earthquake- and landslide-prone areas stand in its wake," he added. "We are devastated but we will never give up on protecting our home."
