Water Safety Activism in Rural Red States Impedes Fossil Energy Development

Efforts in Kentucky to stop a hazardous liquids pipeline proposal reflect a movement across the country — encompassing tens of thousands of residents and many elected local and state officials who supported a pro-pipeline president-elect. In many cases the protests are assisted by state, regional, and national environmental advocacy organizations. Driven by convictions about water quality, public safety, and property rights, the rural opponents to big fossil energy installations are slowing development and are likely to defy any effort to quell them by the Trump administration.