The pipeline companies are invading insurgents, acting against the stated directions of local elected governments. Pipeline opponents, fighting for their land, water, air, safety, and children, are patriots.

Merriam Webster defines insurgent as:

a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government

Five Six counties and two cities in Georgia and Florida have so far passed resolutions against the Sabal Trail pipeline, and four state representatives have complained to FERC about it: here’s a list. That’s in addition to the other state and federal agencies that have complained to FERC. And in addition to the hundreds of individuals who have spoken at Sabal Trail’s Open Houses and FERC’s Scoping Meetings, overwhelmingly opposing the pipeline. And in addition to the numerous landowner, environmental, and political organizations that have passed resolutions, filed with FERC, and in many cases intervened with FERC against Sabal Trail’s application for a permit.

So if you see the people willing to put their time, money, and in many cases their freedom on the line; when you see the media call them insurgents, you know it’s a lie. Like Americans against invading redcoats, pipeline opponents are patriots.

One of many lies deliberately promoted by the fossil fuel industry. Eamon Javers wrote for CNBC 8 November 2011 Oil Executive: Military-Style ‘Psy Ops’ Experience Applied,

CNBC has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. (Click below to hear the audio.) That’s because, he said, the opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.”

Another told attendees that his company has several former military psychological operations, or “psy ops” specialists on staff, applying their skills in Pennsylvania.

Follow the link to hear the audio. Sabal Trail has its own PR and marketing staff, called “stakeholder outreach”, that plants op-eds saying things like “the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline is moving forward” and claiming all those Open Houses and Scoping Meetings as support, despite almost everyone attending them being against Sabal Trail’s pipeline. And the CEO of FPL, with an op-ed claiming New gas pipeline is vital for state. That’s Florida, the Sunshine State! Florida, which probably would be getting on with solar power if not for vested interests in fossil fuel companies by elected officials. Again and again Sabal Trail has been caught saying things that don’t match the public record.

Don’t buy fossil fuel company psy-ops framing. Don’t fall for Sabal Trail’s marketing, which is for the profit of Spectra Energy and FPL and Williams Transco and their investors, at your expense. If they want to play military jargon, the fossil fuel companies are the redcoats.

We the opponents are patriots. That’s also spelled environmentalists, parents, children, citizens, students, teachers, and elected officials.

As Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014 item #9 says, opponents are

fighting an invader —one every bit as worrisome as the boll weevil that destroyed cotton harvests in the 1900s, except this one takes farmers’ land as well as crops.

Like the Texians at Gonzales, the Georgians at Fort Morris, and the Spartans at Thermopylae, we can stop an invasion, this time by peaceful means. Pipeline opponents will continue to fight through the FERC process, even knowing FERC is funded 100% by the same companies it “regulates”, attempting to hold FERC to what its own regulations require it to do: deny this unnecessary and environmentally damaging pipeline! We will continue to fight through lawsuits, through actions of our elected officials, and through other peaceful means, especially including the court of public opinion. Come and Take It!

-jsq

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