Subtitle: The Seventh Generation: Survival, Sustainability, Sustenance in a New Nature — Paperback – Published on September 24, 2015

New Book by Jimmy Guignard (Author), M. Jimmie Killingsworth (Foreword)

Book Summary:  Setting of Tioga County in Northeast Pennsylvania

“Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone: Teaching, Writing, and Living above the Marcellus Shale”

Before the dust settles, as many as 100,000 natural gas wells may be drilled into the Marcellus Shale on more than 20,000 well pads in Pennsylvania. Living on seven acres above the shale, Jimmy Guignard tells his story as an English professor grappling with the meaning of place and the power of words as he watches the rural landscape his family calls home be transformed into an industrial sacrifice zone.

From the vantage point of an avid and experienced cyclist, Guignard tracks the takeover, chalking up thousands of miles pedaling through Tioga and surrounding counties. Encountering increased truck traffic on the roads, crossing pipeline construction on the trails, and passing a growing number of flaring gas wells, the author’s rides begin to shape his academic work in ways he found surprising and sobering.

Juggling his roles as disinterested professor, anxious father and citizen, and reluctant activist, he reveals how the rhetoric of industry, politicians, and locals reshaped his understanding of teaching and his faith in the force of language.

Comments on “Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone”

“Navigating terrain, cresting hills, glimpsing wildlife at one turn and drilling rigs at another, Jimmy Guignard literally and figuratively cycles the reader through the fraught landscape of his family’s life in the ‘sacrifice zone.’ This is an essential and approachable book for understanding the impact of the natural gas industry on a place as well as on a people. Emphasizing the power of rhetoric as a tool for understanding the industry, Guignard offers an honest and searching account of what it means to live consciously, energetically, and passionately in a place wracked by technological change, uncertainty, and corporate power dynamics.” —Eileen E. Schell, coauthor of Rural Literacies (Studies in Writing and Rhetoric) and coeditor of Reclaiming the Rural: Essays on Literacy, Rhetoric, and Pedagogy

“In Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone, Jimmy Guignard leads us on a nuanced journey through the hard truths and complex narrative frames of Marcellus shale production in rural northeastern America. “Contact! Contact!” Henry Thoreau advised us about our relationship to landscapes. Guignard pedals right up close to the solid earth, the actual world, and where he lives it now sadly smells more and more like cheap gas and high corporate profits.”—John Lane, author of Circling Home

“Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone reads like a mystery novel, replete with fully fleshed out characters who may or may not be guilty of crimes against humanity, a compelling dramatic time line, a hard-boiled, beer-drinking, bike-riding environmental detective, and richly drawn sense of place. So engrossing is the story Guignard tells we almost don’t notice how much we’re learning about fracking, environmental rhetoric, and the coming of age—no, the maturing—of a man who cares deeply about the physical world and what we are doing to it. A lovely mix of scholarship and personal narrative, this book should be required reading for anyone interested in nature writing and the frustrating world of fracking.” —Sheryl St. Germain, author of Navigating Disaster: Sixteen Essays of Love and a Poem of Despair and Swamp Songs: The Making of an Unruly Woman.

Alternatives for 42" ACP in Virginia

Wild Virginia Rallies Opposition to Dominion’s Federal Filings of Pipeline Plans

From a Report by WVIR, NBC News 29, Charlottesville, VA, September 19, 2015

The non-profit environmental group Wild Virginia is rallying supporters to keep the 42 inch diameter Atlantic Coast Pipeline proposed by Dominion out of the George Washington National Forest.

This latest push comes a day after Dominion filed its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC.

Wild Virginia has teamed up with environmental groups across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina to spread the word about how they say this pipeline could destroy the land. The organization has been involved in several public events in the region and has even sponsored a film about the pipeline’s potential impacts.

Activists say Virginia’s forests are very sensitive environments and that there is no way to avoid the destruction that would occur if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves Dominion’s natural gas pipeline.

Wild Virginia say it will continue to do what it can to protect the community. “We’ll continue in every way possible to oppose this because we think it’s just bad for Virginia, it’s bad for our forests, our ecosystems and it’s bad for communities … because communities rely on the good environmental factors that we’re trying to protect,” says David Sligh.

Community members have the option to become intervenors – which will allow them to submit comments to FERC, file briefs, and appear before a court. Wild Virginia says it plans to roll out a guide early next week that will help people register as official intervenors with FERC.

NBC29 has reached out to Dominion for comment, but has yet to hear back from them. This story will be updated with Dominion’s response, should we receive one.

NOTE:  BXE — Beyond Extreme Energy has drawn a Line in the Sand, saying  “No New Permits” at FERC.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also:

>>> The Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) Fast at FERC

>>>  No Homes Safe of Sacrifice Zones in USA

Current fracking practices are unsafe & unhealthy

Subject: Ban Fracking in West Virginia

Petition at Move-On.org: Created by Tina Del Prete, Doddridge County, WV

Background: I live in the middle of the fracking frenzy in Doddridge County, WV. We are the true sacrifice zone folks keep hearing about.

That’s why I created a petition to The West Virginia State House, The West Virginia State Senate, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama, which says:

“New York has banned fracking and West Virginia should too.”

We already have over 2,000 signatures and I am seeking 3,000 or more. As Neil Young asks in his new song, “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?”  He is also concerned about the frack sand open-pit mining in Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as the tar sands open-pit mining in Alberta, Canada, both of which are destroying the land.

Regardless of where you live, will you sign this petition? Click petition here.

Thanks, Tina Del Prete, Doddridge County, WV

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net