Fighting the (gas) power: Activists' experiences of injustice shape tactics to resist fossil hegemony along the United States Mountain Valley Pipeline

Construction of the Appalachian Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), like other fossil fuel infrastructure projects, has ignited sustained frontline resistance. This paper considers: what keeps activist communities engaged in resisting fossil infrastructure despite seemingly unaccountable and insurmountable hegemonic power? And, what impact do these efforts have on the potential for sustainable transitions? Inductive coding of 22 semi-structured interviews reveals the experiences, concerns, and tactics of resistance described by people engaged in resistance along the MVP. Discussion of participants' experiences of fossil infrastructure construction is structured by Fraser's categories of experiences of injustice, and description of their resistance tactics is organized based on Hess' coalition-based strategies for just transition. The analysis suggests that resistance to the injustices of fossil infrastructure construction is initiated by place attachment and sustained despite countervailing hegemony by community relationships. Although their interests are obstructed by fossil hegemony, frontline communities in Appalachia draw on local relationships to resist the violence and political alienation of fossil infrastructure construction in efforts to create a more just future.