So Long 2017, Hello 2018
OVEC’s staff and Board of Directors wish you much beauty, love, and joy this holiday season. We hope you have plenty of time to spend with loved ones! 

Even though this is always a bittersweet time of year for those of us who have lost people dear to our hearts, may we all find some comfort in cherishing memories of those who have passed on.

Here’s to offering one another—friends, family, community—support, strength, and resolve in the coming year as we work to protect all that we hold dear! Cheers to the New Year!

This time of year also has many of us thinking about tax-deductible year-end giving (although that may change next year if the tax bill passes!). Please consider donating generously to OVEC. You can make a donation here. If you haven’t done so already, you could earmark your donation for our $30 for 30 campaign; so far we’ve raised a little over $13,000.

Do have a glorious holiday season! We hope to see you out and about in 2018…

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Pipelines, Permits, People, Streams, and Forests: Comment!
Multiple high-pressure, high-volume (and therefore highly explosive should an accident happen!), fracked gas pipelines are in the works or proposed to cross several counties in West Virginia and neighboring states. Fortunately folks across the state and beyond are resisting! 

For instance, people are taking time to comment to the WV DEP on the stormwater permits for the Mountaineer Xpress Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. There were public hearings last week for the MXP stormwater permit and there are hearings tonight for the ACP stormwater permit in Buchannon, WV and on Thursday, December 21, in Dunmore, WV.

You can submit written comments on the Mountain Xpress Pipeline through Friday, December 22 and on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through New Year’s Eve.

Here’s an OVEC blog with tips for writing your own comments to DEP.

Although crafting your own individual comments is a preferred way to comment to DEP, we are thankful that our friends at WV Rivers Coalition have made it easy for you to comment online:

Comment to WVDEP on Water Quality Impacts of the Mountaineer XPress Pipeline

Comment to WVDEP on Water Quality Impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

To get a visual sampling of what pipeline construction can do to your neighborhood, check out this blog from an early-December OVEC trip to Tyler County, WV with Bill Hughes.If all these pipelines are constructed, there’d be more fracking for the gas that the pipelines would carry. More fracking means more intense traffic problems including accidents and ruined roads; air, water and noise pollution and associated health problems from large-truck traffic, drilling and radioactive waste “disposal;” as well as the end of a rural way of life. 

Fracking linked to low-weight babies

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#SaveNetNeutrality
Analysis and call to action: CREATING THE 21ST CENTURY INTERNET

Congress Must Step in to Save Net Neutrality

@fightfortheftr says: 
1) Congress can stop the FCC and overrule their vote using the Congressional Review Act

2) It only takes a simple majority in the Senate and House

3) 83% of voters support #NetNeutrality regardless of political party

We can do this. 

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New Year’s Thought: Visualize World PeaceArtwork by Karen Benoit.

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