It's the Real Thing: August 7 on the Capitol Steps

Think genuine grassroots action is extinct? Come see the real thing next Wednesday afternoon.

Hundreds of people from every county along the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline route have been working for months to educate themselves, their neighbors and their elected officials about the lethal dangers of the pipeline.  Now they have more than 1,500 signatures on a petition to Governor Beshear, and they're ready to tell him to his face what he needs to do.

From Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline:

Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline Rally at the Capitol - Come Out and Show Your Support!  Everyone is invited, regardless of where you live!

Opponents of the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline will visit the Capitol 3 p.m. Aug. 7 — the same day (pipeline company) Williams plans a 5 p.m. open house at the Paul Sawyier Public Library — to deliver a petition for the governor to place the issue on the special session.  Please join us!

We will gather on the capitol front steps between 2:30 and 2:45 to organize and prepare for the presentation.

Even if you can’t attend, you can help us!  You can call and send emails any time and as many times as you like.  We would especially appreciate calls and emails on Wednesday, August 7, 2013.  Tell the governor you do not want this pipeline.  Ask that he include the legislative changes we are requesting on "the call" for the upcoming special session of the General Assembly in August. Here's how:

• Call Governor Beshear at (502) 564-2611 or  by TDD at: (502) 564-9551. Call as many times as you like. 
• Email the governor here: http://governor.ky.gov/Pages/contact.aspx
• Email your representative here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
• After you call or send an email please, let us know here: http://signon.org/tools/call.html
• Send a letter to the editor of your local paper and national newspapers here: http://signon.org/tools/lte.html
• Share our petition with your friends, neighbors, family, and other social connections! http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/governor-beshear-stop?mailing_id=14340&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=2414510
• Stay in touch at our website at www.stopbluegrasspipeline.us.

This is a statewide issue.  The proposed pipeline route changes daily, as more and more landowners refuse to give permission for surveys that could lead to the company taking land by eminent domain. Refusenik landowners have forced the pipeline out of northern Nelson County and into Washington County, and refusals in Anderson County could force the pipeline into Shelby County.

Porous limestone bedrock in the area means that a pipeline leak could send toxic chemicals flowing dozens of miles away per day and contaminate drinking water sources for tens of thousands of people long before anyone notices a leak.

Not to mention permanent damage to the reputations of three of Kentucky's biggest industries: horses, bourbon and tourism.

Be at the Capitol steps next Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. Call the governor. Talk to your neighbors. Stop the Bluegrass Pipeline.

Forty years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers was getting ready to build a hydro-electric dam on the Red River in Powell County, thus drowning and destroying one of Kentucky's most spectacular natural areas: the Red River Gorge.

A small group of Dirty Fucking Hippies set out to stop them.  I remember the bumper stickers: "Save the Gorge Dam the Corps."

Everybody said it couldn't be done.  The Corps always wins. Through 200 years of project great and terrible, no one had ever stopped the Corps.

Until then.

It can be done. The motherfuckers can be stopped. Kentuckians have done it before.