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LTE in Loudoun Times

The Governor has removed two members of the Air Pollution Control Board after those members voiced unfavorable views of the Buckingham Compressor station planned for the town of Union Hill. VA League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club have been quite vocal about it, Jennifer Boysko has tweeted about it, and so has Al Gore referencing an article in the Washington Post.

You, dear reader might have heard that those members had expired terms, which is true, but there are currently 235 other appointees with expired terms who didn’t seem set to exercise their authority to stop a massive pollution source. This is a clear abuse of power on the part of the Governor. Northam might think we’re all stupid, but we aren’t.

Most of our legislators up here are Democrats lately, and I’m a Democrat as well. So far it seems that only Jennifer Boysko and Mark Keam have said anything publicly about the Governors subterfuge. I would love to know what Delegates John Bell, David Reid, and Wendy Gooditis think about this whole matter of the Governor so clearly putting his thumb on the scale to ram through Dominions compressor station. Mark Keam put it quite elegantly: “To me, the decision by Governor Northam to fire appointees of the State Air Pollution Control Board who disagree with him right before they were about to vote on a major environmental racial justice issue is absolutely wrong, and there simply is no way to explain it away.”

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Despondence and the Anthropocene

There are so many ways to start this initial blog post I’m not even sure where to begin. My husband is the great communicator of our pair and has so many blog posts ready to go. I have half drafts of multiple ideas started in my head for the positive things that normally swirl through my optimistic head. It’s unexpected to me personally, then, that it’s despondence that is the motivator to start.

It has been a real month. Between the horrors happening to children at the United States border, the erosion of faith in our democratic system, climate change, plastic in the oceans and the suicide of Anthony Bourdain triggering reports that suicide and depression has been up among Americans for well over a decade now because of rot in our culture, I am currently feeling like no amount of effort I make as an individual is going to make a dent in this mess. In response to all of that, I just had a really good sob into my bathrobe while wondering to myself if that is what a healthy person would do. I decided that it was and feel better for having done it and better for having just cried typing about it.

I suppose from there I have a couple of options (in no particular order other than the one that my brain is coming up with them):

1) Wallow.

I don’t know how much value this has a an option. Psychologically, it seems like it must be part of the healing process necessary to move forward. A quick search of “can wallowing be helpful” does indeed turn up a few articles on the subject. This one was very helpful. This one was also not too bad.

Ok, wallowing noted to keep in the toolbox. Also, it makes me think I should really look into the psychology helpline I pay for as part of my insurance instead of feeling that odd stigma of needing help working through what I believe is a rational response to the current state of the world. I’ll let you know how that goes.

2) Disconnect from the Source of Distress

There are a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head on this one. I’m sure watching the nightly news, too much consumption of social media in the form of Facebook and Twitter and feeling like my every action has to be a net positive one (along with the feelings of guilt when they are not net positive) are all piling on and helping with the despondence.

After Chris and I got married and we had decided we weren’t going to have kids, we wondered what to do with ourselves and our time. Getting involved with our community seemed like the obvious answer. So, we engaged with our local environmental organizations, our county level political party, the county chapter of the NAACP and Chris even became a leader in our HOA. Once there, we’ve found amazing people and connections to our community that I don’t think either of us realized were available to anyone willing to show up. Humans, apparently, get enjoyment out of engaging with each other and solving problems together! Who knew!

Lately, however, it feels like the only things we’re doing revolve around community organizing, activism, staying informed and interacting with other people in the same boat. We are at the point where we’re scheduling fun and relaxation and I’m not sure that’s entirely healthy or helpful.

In the last week no less than three people I have talked to have said to stop watching the news every night. All of the corruption and awful violations of our country’s norms will be there on Monday.

Do I have it within me to do what I see many coworkers and neighbors doing and just be as blissfully ignorant as they can be? I don’t think so, but I also don’t think being hyper-engaged is moving the needle as much as I would like. So, maybe Maddow doesn’t get watched this week, again.

A quick search of the interwebs pulls up many articles on activist fatigue and how to address it. I like this one, which talks about one person’s experience after Charlottesville, and this one, which has some good insight into activist group dynamics and tips.

3) Take Half Measures

For this one, what I think I’m trying to say is that just because an opportunity for an action comes up doesn’t mean I have to help organize or participate. I am allowed to make judgement calls on the best use of my time and energy and not organizing or participating doesn’t make me a traitor to others or what we’re trying to accomplish. On this one, I am very lucky in that Chris is very honest with himself and others about boundaries and what he is and is not willing to do.

4) Practice Self Care

This is more of a list that I think needs to be fleshed out and perhaps added to with future examples or a separate post (also, I’m getting bored of writing and think you may be getting bored of reading).

  • Recognize when you need a break
  • Exercise
  • Eat right
  • Make a point of putting your own oxygen mask on first.
  • Give yourself a break. Find something that is disconnected from the shit swirl, whether that’s gardening, dancing, vacationing, reading a romance novel, taking up guitar, playing Cards Against Humanity or whatever else you may need, but make time for that.

5) Share the Burden

If you’re burnt out, let others know. Actually, going back to 1, be honest with all of your emotions. You’re worth it. Also recognize that you aren’t cleaning up the whole ocean by yourself. You aren’t stopping 45 and his assembled team of the worst people in the U.S. and their enablers all by your lonesome. Tell people how much this means to you and tell them how they can help.

6) Celebrate victories and notice the progress, too.

Yes, it’s shitty out there. There have been worse times in history and people got through those. We’ve never gone through an anthropocene, but I can’t believe we’re actually going to let the human species go extinct so fossil fuel executives can all have yachts at the end of history.

Yes, there is plastic in every bite of seafood now. Yes, the corals are bleached perhaps beyond resuscitation. Yes, the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are part of boiling life alive across the globe.

On the positive side, shitheads like David Koch are reaching the end of their mortal coil and are not being replaced. Kids are realizing that they have the power to effect change and are actually doing it. Women are taking hold of the power we have let sit dormant for so long. There are reasons to be hopeful. Frankly, if we can beat the Nazis and make it into space, I am hopeful that we can do just about anything we set our collective minds to.

This may all be trite and repetitive, but I wrote this for me. If it was helpful for you, I am very glad. If it was not helpful for you, that’s ok, too.

Peace.

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Tim Kaine, Ralph Northam, and FERC, What’s going on?

After the Federal Energy Regulatory Authority (FERC) approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Senator Tim Kaine had some interesting comments on the matter. He called the approval “very suspicious circumstances”, and added “If you do not like this decision there are other agencies that still have to weigh in,” he said. “If you are active about this, please do not stop your activism. Please let these other agencies know what you think about it.”

http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/roanoke_county/politicians-react-to-ferc-pipeline-certifications/article_f9cbecc5-26a6-54b7-98d2-4f773e2ba8de.html

And recently, Senator Kaine has suggested that the permits on those two pipeline projects be reviewed again, now that FERC has a full complement of commissioners.

http://www.richmond.com/news/kaine-supports-reconsideration-for-controversial-virginia-pipelines/article_739962da-673d-5f2e-8a02-d19928457f07.html

Governor-elect Ralph Northam apparently supports Senator Kaines idea of revisiting the FERC approval.

Northam says he supports a proposal from Senator Tim Kaine for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider its vote on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

http://www.nbc29.com/story/37210640/governor-elect-ralph-northam-attends-sunday-service-in-charlottesville

I love that Senator Kaine is talking about this. Frankly, having an elected official of Senator Kaine’s visibility talking about his concerns with the approval process is something I see as helpful for the movement against the pipelines, and I’m glad he’s paying attention. His questions about tolling orders are apt, as there is a lot of funny business going on w/ the FERC approvals.

That said, Senator Kaine’s letter is not an official request for rehearing, as the second link says. Another factor here is that even if the projects got their rehearing, 4/5 of the FERC commissioners are Trump appointees, and 3/5 are Republicans. Neither factor inspires confidence that a rehearing would result in a different outcome on the MVP or ACP. The ACP is high priority for the current president, and FERC has a long history of shady behavior anyway. It evaluates pipeline projects in sections, seemingly to avoid evaluating the full impact of an entire project as a whole, and ignores the climate impact of transmission projects.

Due to the outcome of some court cases, there might be cause for hope that those factors change in the future, but I’m not terribly optimistic. So I wonder, why are Senator Kaine and Governor-elect Northam talking about FERC instead of Virginia’s own DEQ? Either elected official could simply ask the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to either vacate their permits, or to revisit them and include a stream-by-stream water crossing evaluation. If that ask wasn’t legally binding, as I suspect it wouldn’t be, similarly, asking FERC to do a new assessment isn’t legally binding either.

I’m looking at this with a degree of hopeful skepticism. It’s helpful to have more conversation on the issue, but the FERC route has a lot of potential to mislead people. Governor-elect Northam, and Governor Terry McAuliffe have been fond of suggesting in the past that Virginia has no role to play in the approval process, which is simply false. Virginia can and should deny certification under section 401 of the clean water act. Pointing to FERC seems like it could be a political move to deflect attention away from the states responsibility to protect water quality.