by Alexandra Viera / Piedmont Earth First!
As an Earth First!er, I never thought I’d agree with anything that Mining and Energy Chairman Jim Womack had to say…until now. When interviewed by the Associated Press last week about why the Mining and Energy Commission held private talks with energy lobbyists regarding keeping fracking chemicals secret, he replied with “that’s just the way things are done.”
Eight Earth First!ers lock to the doors of NC DENR in 2012 after they release a report downplaying fracking risks and appointing former oil industry reps to the MEC. “We’ve learned that the legislature and regulators will not protect the water we drink and air we breathe. It’s time for the public to take other types of action to stop hydrofracking.”
I have to admit, Jim has a point. Here in the land of the pines, there are special sessions where “representatives” try to fast track dangerous forms of extraction such as offshore oil drilling. Regulators take tax-payer funded trips to PA and into Texas for fracking industry sponsored tours. NC Legislators travel to take votes on a corporate loyalty oath to ALEC. DENR makes deals with Duke Energy to prevent them from being sued by environmental groups to clean up their toxic coal ash pits. And, the mining and energy commissioners, appointed to create regulation for a dangerous and toxic industry that has shown itself immune to the idea of regulation itself, meet in secret with oil and gas lobbyists. That’s just the way things are done down here, and that’s exactly the reason Earth First! exists, and that’s the reason we support direct action. That’s why last summer hundreds of people blocked a fracking chemical shipment leaving Morganton, NC.
Let’s be clear, people like Jim Womack and corrupt boards like the MEC are the reason we would rather be arrested at a protest than pretend like we are part of this rigged process. At least we are not foolish enough to believe that we are part of a system that is already fixed. The only hope we have to stop fracking, offshore drilling, and coal disasters is if more people wake up and instead of choosing to” change the system from the inside”, or appeal to their their representatives, they decide to join those who are constantly disenfranchised, put their comfort on the line, and actually fight the system itself.
protesters stand atop tanker truck in Morganton, NC