A dirty debt ceiling deal

• By Eric Engle
• Jun 8, 2023
• Charleston Gazette Mail

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Many Democrats in Congress, along with the Biden administration, have sacrificed the safety and well-being of West Virginians and Virginians by acquiescing to the whims of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and economic hostage-takers in the Republican Party with the recent debt ceiling legislation. This dirty deal, now signed into law, sacrifices our water, soil and shared global climate on the alter of fossil fuels industry greed and Manchin’s self-enrichment.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline project has been cited for numerous water quality standard violations and fined to the tune of at least $550,000 for failure to control runoff in an adequate and timely manner along its construction route.

The pipeline has failed since its inception in 2014 to obtain all needed permits from regulatory agencies and has had approvals tossed out in court under half-a-century old environmental statutes meant to protect and give voice to communities impacted by monstrosities like MVP. Manchin, President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led the way in circumventing duly passed laws and regulations set down to carry those laws out, helped along by many Republicans and members of their own party.