“The Actual Harm Was Worse Than What Was Being Recorded”: Accounts of State Violence and Elite Capture in Fossil Energy Infrastructure Construction in a Sacrifice Zone

ABSTRACT Construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 42‐in. diameter, 303‐mile fracked gas pipeline through Appalachia, was mandated by the US Congress in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. The pipeline was completed despite numerous legal and regulatory challenges. Community members have argued that the MVP did not undergo sufficient regulatory review, primarily affects underserved communities, and is causing irreparable harm to their health and ecology. Based on 22 interviews conducted in 2023 in southeastern West Virginia and western Virginia, this article catalogs accounts of violence effected during MVP construction. Analysis building on the “violent transitions” framework argues that the impacts of fossil fuel infrastructure construction are not only harms enacted by the fossil industry, but acts of violence by the state in service to fossil capital against already‐overburdened communities to expropriate land and enable continued extraction.