C'VILLE - July 8, 2020

As activists around the region celebrate the news, a tune dances through my head. "We don't want your pipeline, we don't want your pipeline/ We'll take the sunshine, the water and wind,' sing Middlebrook, Virginian residents Robin and Linda Williams, plucking a bright guitar and banjo line. "We're gonna put a stop sign on Dominion's pipeline/ Go tell your neighbors, go tell your friends."

The couple wrote and recorded the song in 2014, when the pipeline fight began .

As the backhoes rolled in, and the clearcutting and construction began, the tune's steely optimism seemed almost delusional. Dominion had billions of dollars to spend. Dominion always got its way.

But, in retrospect, the Williams' plan worked to a T. "Go tell your friends"-- The pipeline drew opposition from all corners of the state. Yogis in the free-spirited Yogaville commune. Baptists in the historically Black Union Hill neighborhood, upscale brewery entrepreneurs in scenic Nelson County, even Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman all voiced their opposition to the project.

So did the Southern Environmental Law Center, whose steady stream of litigation helped slow Dominion's construction.

The victory belongs to these activists, people of every persuasion who created a true grassroots movement to protect the environment and their neighbors. David beat Goliath.

There's little rest for the weary, though. Many of the ACP fighters say theyÕ'll turn their attention a little further west, to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, proposed to run just on the other side of the Blue Ridge. It's a different invasive project in a different set of circumstances. But the "No Pipeline" crowd has the wind in its sails. -- Ben Hitchcock

C-VILLE Pipeline Voices -- Activists look back on a historic victory

Alice Clair Alice is a local musician who grew up in Nelson County. Her childhood home is less than a mile from where the pipeline would have run.

C-VILLE: You're a musician. You wrote some songs about the pipeline. What roll do you think music played in the effort over the last six years?

ALICE: Robin and Linda Williams are songwriters in Middlebrook, VA, and they wrote "We Don't Want Your Pipeline." And that has become a classic for us in Virginia, and maybe across the U.S. fighting pipelines. When I was in high school, Dominion Power would set up information sessions for the public in our gym. We would go I and be protesting in my high school, people would bring their guitars and play that song. I think music, it motivates in every kind of wy. If you can get a bunch of people together singing a song, that's a great way to energize people towards a common good.