Coercion via Eminent Domain and Legal Fees: The Acceptance of Gas Extraction in West Virginia

Abstract

Residents in Central Appalachia face the emotional, physical, and financial impacts of the energy independence goal that the United States has been pursuing for the past several decades. In this region, extractive industries have historically been supported by powerful energy lobbies, tax breaks, and legislation that disregard environmental protections, resulting in the construction of a reticular energy infrastructure across Appalachia. We investigate this neoliberal policy environment by sharing the experiences of West Virginian residents living along gas pipelines, gathered via walk-along interviews and photovoice. Two main legal and economic pressures, the extensive legal fees needed to fight efforts to build natural gas pipelines on private land and the threat of eminent domain, emerge from our findings. Using the lens of environmental justice, we show how neoliberal policies strongly endorsed and supported by the state, combined with a deeply rooted nostalgia for energy development, have positioned West Virginia as a site of acceptance for unconventional energy extraction. Ultimately, we argue that neoliberalism has brought about legal and economic stressors that force many West Virginia landowners to accept extraction and its many byproducts.