Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) joined fellow environmental leaders on Thursday to demand that President Joe Biden cancel the Mountain Valley Pipeline that will be completed as part of a debt ceiling plan provision.
“It’s time to say no more,” Tlaib, a member of the liberal "Squad," said in front of a group of protesters in Washington, D.C. “Mountain Valley Pipeline should’ve never been part of the debt deal, ever.”
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Protesters descended on the White House under smoky skies polluted by Canadian wildfires to argue the 300-mile fracked gas pipeline should not be fast-tracked under Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-WV) provision. Manchin had advocated for the resources necessary to complete the pipeline from Biden, and he achieved his goal last week with the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
“What the hell does a pipeline have to do with reducing the deficit?” Tlaib said. “It’s bulls***. Bulls***. Bulls***. I call bulls***.”
The pipeline will bring fracked gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia and is expected to exceed $6.5 billion in finishing costs.
“Don't tell me this is about the deficit,” Tlaib said. “This is not about reducing. This is about making more money. Corporate greed is a disease in our country, and you all [are] on the front lines of making sure we can stop it.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) has strongly supported the provision, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) brought an amendment to the Senate to scrap the provision, but it failed on the floor.
The pipeline was proposed in 2014, but it faced construction and operation delays after repeatedly facing problems in court. Challenges by local interest groups, environmental organizations, and activists fought against the completion.
“We can't normalize indigenous communities literally being wiped out again because of people sitting there wanting to open up pipelines and destroy communities.”
Tlaib addressed the wildfire smoke affecting millions, accusing those on the right of pointing to countries such as China and India, which have the lowest air standards in the world, in justifying the current air quality.
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“This is a global crisis. If anything, many of those countries have shown us what doing nothing looks like,” Tlaib said, adding that her community, which is centered on the cities of Detroit and Dearborn, has not met clean air standards in a long time.
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones was among those at the rally. So were Virginia landowners and indigenous-led environmental justice organizations. Hundreds of protesters gathered to express outrage toward the Biden administration and lawmakers moving the pipeline forward.