1 year ago
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As lawmakers push through the bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit, it is being called a “dirty debt ceiling deal” by opponents because it includes language meant to speed completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The controversial $6.6 billion pipeline would go through Virginia and West Virginia and carry 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas across more than a thousand streams and wetlands in Appalachia. Over 750 frontline communities and environmental justice organizations oppose its construction, but the project has long had the backing of powerful West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the biggest recipient of fossil fuel money in Congress. “They can’t build this pipeline and follow the law,” says Maury Johnson, a West Virginian who lives in the path of the massive pipeline and says approval of the deal would show corporations they can simply “throw a bunch of money to politicians” in order to overcome environmental concerns and local opposition from residents.
