A
very telling scene occurs in the movie, Promised
Land---the film about two corporate
salespeople, Steve Butler (Matt Damon) and Sue Thomason (Frances McDermond) who
visit a rural town in an attempt to buy drilling rights from
the local residents. The two represent an energy company specializing in
obtaining natural gas through a process known as fracking, which critics claim involves
a variety of environmental hazards.
Butler and Thomason’s efficient record of quickly sealing the
deal for their company is jeopardized by an environmental activist, Dustin
Noble (John Krasinski), who has started a grassroots movement to derail the
corporation’s efforts.
The energy company tries to intimidate the activists, and
Thomason patronizes Noble: “Listen, you're just a kid who doesn't understand
he's in way over his head on this one. We've already signed more than enough
leases to start development in this town. You're too late.”
But Noble calmly responds: “I really wouldn't underestimate
these people.”
It’s a revealing comment because ultimately the future of the
small town lies in the citizen’s hands and not the energy corporation.
Hopefully, like the people in the movie, the citizens of
Kentucky whose land is in the crosshairs of a proposed pipeline carrying
natural gas liquid will have the opportunity to choose their own destiny rather
than having the government and/or pipeline companies determine it for them.
And perhaps Bluegrass Pipeline, which would build
approximately 500 miles of pipeline to transport natural gas liquids from sites
in Pennsylvania and Ohio to the Gulf Coast, should heed Noble’s words,
especially now that a group of nuns, The Sisters of Loretto, are among “these
people.” The controversial pipeline would slice through Kentucky, including
part of the land where the nuns’ Motherhouse is located.
At a meeting hosted by Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline
Partners on August 8 in Elizabethtown, Ky., the Sisters drowned out the
companies’ representative by singing “Amazing Grace.” Finally, the representative,
accompanied by the police, asked the Sisters to stop.
Note to company: Never ask the Sisters to stop singing. You
might just find yourself in the middle of a “Sister Act,” you didn’t bargain
for.
People who oppose the pipeline proposal are doing so for
several reasons. Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Natural Resources
Council, points out that the very fact that three companies are competing to be
the first to transport the natural gas underscores “why we need a certificate
of need processing, to assure that we don’t have more pipeline construction
than is needed, and more damage to land and water resources.”
Another objection has to do with private property and eminent
domain. Even though the pipeline companies claim that their projects would
create jobs, confiscating citizens’ private property to do so doesn't sit well
with independent minded Kentuckians.
James Bruggers, of Louisville’s The Courier Journal, voices another concern. He wonders if the
conversion of natural gas lines to natural gas liquids would leave Kentucky and
Indiana without enough natural gas. Bruggers notes that at least one utility
company, American Electric Power, shares his worry.
Then there is the matter of safety. The proposed pipeline
would carry toxic byproducts of fracking, and if one of the pipelines ruptured
or leaked, water in the area could be polluted. Bluegrass Pipeline contends
that pipelines
are “37 percent safer” than transporting natural gas liquids via truck and
rail. FitzGerald disagrees, maintaining that although the frequency of pipeline
accidents may be less, the damage is far worse. “Between 2002 and 2012… total gallons spilled from rail cars were
95,256 compared with 19,926,540 spilled by pipelines.”
It other words, Bluegrass Pipeline’s claim of
safety would be like saying automobile accidents occur less frequently than
bumper-car mishaps, making automobile travel safer---all the while ignoring the
fact that automobile wrecks result in a much higher loss of life.
The online source, LEO Weekly, raises another question about the
possibility of such an accident in Kentucky: “Hypothetically,
a large pipeline accident that cuts through the heart of the bourbon trail
could be devastating for the industry.”
It
may seem far-fetched, but it does point to another potential problem: A rupture
in the pipeline could damage Kentucky’s bourbon industry.
I doubt that the nuns are too concerned about the possibility
of danger to bourbon, unless of course the whiskey could be converted to holy
water---for holiness seems to be the motive for the nuns’ objection to the
pipeline.
The pipeline would impact three counties in Kentucky known as
the “Holy Lands of Kentucky.” They are referred by that name because the first
Catholics who came into Kentucky were among the first settlers from the coastal
colonies in 1775, and the three counties, Marion, Nelson, and Washington, not
only have significant Catholic populations, but the Catholic communities of the
Dominican Sisters of Springfield, the Cistercian monks of Gethsemani Abby, and
the Sisters of Loretto, are all located there.
Although Loretto member Susan Classen has indicated the
pipeline would desecrate “Loretto’s sacred land,” the Sisters also believe all land is holy. “This isn’t me standing with someone else who
is the victim of corporate greed. This
is us and the land entrusted to us that the corporation thinks can be gobbled
up at will,” said Classen.
The
Sisters would agree, I’m sure, that this world of ours is still, as another
Christian hymn says, “my Father’s world.” We have sullied it; we have abused
it; we have pillaged it. But it is still God’s creation, and the Christian
community, being the salt of the earth, should stand as a restraining force
against the further degradation of our environment.
And
so the nuns sang of amazing grace. Amazing grace will be necessary if the
proposed pipeline for natural gas liquids is halted.
The nuns may be too few in number and too short on financial
resources to successfully oppose Bluegrass Pipeline.
But they have another line to Another Source.
A truly Amazing One.
No, I really wouldn't underestimate these people.
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