Portending a potentially dangerous escalation of opposition by environmental extremists to fossil-fuel energy development, a radical group is boasting on the Internet that it will go beyond “legal means” to halt construction of two natural-gas pipelines.
A group calling itself “Its Going Down” (IGD) (it should be “It’s Going Down,” but we’ll leave the finer points of punctuation for another day) has posted on its website, www.itsgoingdown.org, an obscenity-laden tirade against the construction of two natural-gas pipelines, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Both pipelines will transport natural gas from West Virginia to the Mid-Atlantic region.
While debate over the pipelines, most of which run through Virginia, has been heated at times, both proponents and opponents have kept a largely civil tone. The Virginia Water Control Board Dec. 13 approved the ACP but delayed the final go-ahead for the project pending submission of environmental impact reports, a process that is expected to take another three or four months. Approval by the board for the MVP had been given the previous week.
Trespassing on Private Property
Fearing the decision on the APC might not go the way of the project’s opponents, someone identified by IGD merely as “Anonymous Contributor” quickly dispensed with any thoughts of 
civil discourse. Instead, Anonymous Contributor bragged about an effort to intimidate one of the board’s members, Heather Wood. In a brazen act of trespassing, eco-activists entered Wood’s Norfolk property and hung a giant banner on her home’s front porch. The banner read “Stop Poisoning Our Community! No ACP No MVP.” Sending Ms. Wood the chilling message that it knows exactly what kind vehicle she drives, the group identified it as a “blue BMW SUV.”
The action was clearly in line with what can only be described as Green ANTIFA tactics. Lest there be any doubts about the ends to which these people are prepared to go, Anonymous Contributor has this to say:
“When we have done everything we can to prevent this pipeline within legal means, we will resort to sabotage and we will defeat this symbol of domination, exploitation, global capital, global pillage and Bleep (not fit to be repeated).”
On the Road to Eco-Terrorism
This level of depravity doesn’t stop at pipelines. The anonymous author also calls for action against liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals along the U.S. coast. Whether its pipelines, export terminals, power stations or some other key component of our energy infrastructure, once the call for “sabotage” has gone out, we have entered the ugly world of eco-terrorism. People who work in and near these vital installations need to know that there are those out there who are willing to commit the most wonton acts in the name of saving the planet.