Last week, 30 students began an unusual protest – riding bicycles along the path of a proposed natural gas pipeline.
Kendall King with the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition says protesters wanted to increase public awareness of plans for the 550-mile underground pipeline that would link fracking sites in West Virginia to customers in North Carolina.
“In Augusta we had a film screening. In Nelson we had a community potluck. We had a program at Yogaville, and now in Richmond we just had a press conference in Monroe Park. We’re about to have a critical mass bike ride throughout the city and an action at Dominion’s River Rock Festival.”
King said the group encountered little opposition along the way.
“We see a lot of cars with no pipeline bumper stickers, and we see a lot of signs throughout these country roads. One of the really great signs by Wintergreen was, ‘Would you put a pipeline through Mt. Rushmore?’”
Meanwhile, plans for the pipeline are moving forward – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejecting a request by Virginia’s Senators Kaine and Warner to hold additional public hearings on the project.