Opponents suspect environmental racism in pipeline project
ADRIAN SAINZ,
Associated Press
March 7, 2021
Updated: March 7, 2021 2:14 p.m.
Clyde Robinson, 80, speaks with a reporter while standing on his acre-sized parcel of land on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn. Robinson is fighting an effort by two companies seeking a piece of his land to build part of an oil pipeline that would run through the Memphis area into north Mississippi. The Byhalia Connection would link two larger U.S. oil pipelines.Adrian Sanz/AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Clyde Robinson treasures the acre of land he inherited, a verdant space tucked into a cul-de-sac in a south Memphis neighborhood, surrounded by houses and trees beside a railroad track.
For more than five decades, he nurtured it while his relatives lived in a home on the property, then maintained the land after a fire destroyed the house. The 80-year-old retired cement mason pays the taxes and cares for the property in Boxtown, a neighborhood that began as a community of freed slaves in the 1860s.
Now he finds himself defending it.
Robinson's land is coveted by Valero Energy and Plains All American Pipeline, and their joint venture, the Byhalia Connection. They want to build an underground, 49-mile (78-kilometer) pipeline to carry crude oil to the Gulf Coast, which they say will bring jobs and tax revenue to the region. The pipeline would run through wetlands and under poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods like Boxtown, named after residents used material dumped from railroad boxcars to fortify their homes.
Robinson isn't alone in thinking it's a bad idea. The land sits over an aquifer that provides drinking water to more than 1 million people. Environmentalists and the local Democratic congressman see an opportunity for the Biden administration to reverse the industry-friendly policies of former President Donald Trump.
More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Black-landowner-digs-in-against-land-grab-for-oil-16007101.php
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