West Virginia Record

"Our View" by The West Virginia Record

Have you ever heard protesters chanting chants like these: “What do we want? Scarcity!” “What do we want? High prices!” “What do we want? Deprivation!”

No? Neither have we, but that’s because protesters are not always honest about their ultimate goals, much less who’s funding their protests. Still, we’ve heard plenty of chants that could be accurately translated this way. That, in fact, is what people are really saying when they express opposition to reasonable development of natural resources. They’re not trying to protect the environment. They’re trying to control you by limiting your choices. Or, at the very least, they’re trying to maximize the market share and profits of sponsors invested in rival resources.

Keep that in mind when reading updates on the status of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the 600-mile conduit of natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The pipeline is good for them and good for us. For whom could it possibly be bad? Who could possibly want to perpetuate scarcity, high prices, and deprivation?

Do your own research and draw your own conclusions. Whoever they are and whatever their motivations, their front groups managed to persuade an appeals court to halt construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

You might not know, but because they have poor access to pipelines, Americans living in the northeast pay more to heat and power their households than anyone else in the U.S.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island families pay twice as much for natural gas access as do those living in Michigan, Minnesota or Illinois. It all adds up to hundreds, even thousands more per year.

Patrick Morrisey and other AGs petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that decision, arguing that the lower court was wrong in ruling that the U.S. Forest Service lacks authority to grant rights-of-way through forestland beneath the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Morrisey is optimistic that the Supreme Court will green-light the pipeline.

“The appeals court decision put thousands of men and women out of work,” Morrisey lamented at a recent press conference. “Our broad coalition and state leaders are unified in hoping the Supreme Court will overturn that devastating decision. A sound court ruling,” he predicted, “will lead to a stronger economy, more residents gainfully employed, and more tax revenue for our communities.”

No doubt. Most important of all, it will also result in lower home energy prices for tens of millions of Americans across the Atlantic Coast.

Read more in The West Virginia Record.