Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, March 14, 2023 "No TVA Pipeline in the Upper Cumberland"

March 14, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“No TVA Pipeline in the Upper Cumberland”

Have any of you heard about the massive protests, led by Native Americans, against the expansion of the Line 3 oil pipeline in Minnesota (the same pipeline that, in 1991, had the largest inland oil spill in American history, owned by a company that had 808 oil spills between 1999 and 2010 alone)?

Do you remember the massive, Native American led protests in 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was being built on sacred lands along the border of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, passing underneath the reservation’s only water source? You know, the one where North Dakota militarized sheriff’s offices around the state and brutally beat indigenous protesters and their allies? The one where the term “water protectors” was popularized, as was the Lakota Sioux phrase mni wiconi, “water is life”.

Have you heard about the natural gas pipeline that the TVA is wanting to have built through the Upper Cumberland? The one that will impact dozens of private landowners in the region via eminent domain? Which passes through the Flynn’s Lick impact crater in Jackson County -the largest meteor impact crater in the world -which was also a Native American cultural and burial site? Most of the graves and mounds were looted years ago, but some no doubt remain, as does the cultural significance of the area.

Aside from the indigenous connection, all those examples have one thing in common: they are constructed, operated, and owned by Enbridge, Inc., a Canadian energy and pipeline company.

You’ve no doubt heard about oil spills and how common they are, and how damaging to the environment. Are you aware that natural gas spills are also becoming a big problem? Except, in addition to spewing methane into the air (and into drinking water), they are also known to explode, causing massive devastation.

Energy companies promote their pipeline projects by saying how safe the whole process is. Except it isn’t. They also talk about how their pipeline projects bring in jobs -that was the big argument in North Dakota -except the vast majority of those jobs are either highly specialized and require trained workers from outside the area, or they employ contract workers in the industry who travel the country from pipeline project to pipeline project. The small number of local jobs that might be created disappear as soon as the pipeline is finished.

One thing energy companies don’t want is public opposition. When such opposition reaches the level of on-site protests, such companies have utilized their political power to have state governments intervene (sometimes violently) on their behalf, and/or have utilized their financial power to control the media and ensure that either the situation does not get reported on or that it is extremely one-sided. Since 2017 (the year the Dakota situation ended in the pipeline’s approved completion), red states around the country (including Tennessee) have passed laws making it specifically illegal, sometimes a felony, to protest on the site of a pipeline, and in some cases to grant immunity to anyone who runs over protesters with their car.

But there are other ways to fight these things, including the one looming over the Upper Cumberland. Local groups like SAGE (Safe, Affordable, Good Energy for Tennessee) have joined forces with larger groups such as the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, and now the Tennessee chapter of AIM (American Indian Movement)-Indian Territory to organize peaceful campaigns putting pressure on the TVA to reject the Enbridge bid and go a different route. A similar campaign worked in West Tennessee not long ago.

If you are interested in learning more about all of this, and to participate in the effort to protect the Upper Cumberland from this pipeline, go online and search for the TVA’s Ridgeline Pipeline Expansion project. You’ll mostly get PR from the TVA and Enbridge, so also search for the organizations I mentioned above.

We can make a difference.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE