On Tuesday, July 31, a West Virginia grandmother halted construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by blockading herself in a 1971 Ford Pinto elevated off the ground at a pipeline worksite.

The blockade is being carried out by 64-year old local resident, author, retired schoolteacher, and grandmother Becky Crabtree on the section of pipeline easement that is to be built on the land her family lives on in Monroe County.

“I have talked to elected officials, signed petitions, written letters, submitted reports, and gone to court. I have exhausted the ‘usual’ methods of fighting injustice and have gotten no relief,” stated Becky Crabtree. “Officials have failed us in this fight; we need to fight for ourselves and each other.”

The property that the Crabtree family inhabits and cares for is located at the base of Peters Mountain, just a couple miles from the site of a tree sit blockade located near the Appalachian Trail that prevented tree clearing for 95 days this spring.