Environmental activists barged in on an interview with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Thursday during the Politico Energy Summit in protest of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a planned 303-mile gas pipeline stretching West Virginia and southern Virginia.
Security guards were seen scurrying to grab the protesters, who were with a group called Climate Defiance, as they shouted “No MVP, No LNG, Granholm you are killing me.”
Two activists who attempted to mount the stage with Granholm were dragged off by the officials and forced out of the event space.
In its live feed, at the 7 min 50 mark, the feed disappears with a message that says the “program will resume shortly.” It returns two minutes later.
After event, a statement from Climate Defiance said “the militarized response was unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” and alleged that “multiple vulnerable people were carried out, almost completely upside-down, suspended in the air by their feet, one misstep away from a catastrophic injury.” It also claimed one activist was “besieged to the point of vomiting.”
At the summit, the energy secretary doubled down on her support for the gas project, which she recently endorsed in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The pipeline could pump nearly two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, and it continues to face backlash for its potential environmental impacts.
“To the point of the protesters here, these are really hard decisions. We are in this transition. We want to be able to ensure that our allies can turn on the lights,” she said, partly in reference to Ukraine.
