Former Vice President Al Gore will be in Memphis on Sunday, 
Former Vice President Al Gore
March 14th, as special guest at a rally of the Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP). The rally will be held at Mitchell High School, 658 W. Mitchell Road, and will be streamed live on the MCAP Facebook page.
The proposed Byhalia Connection pipeline project was approved last month by two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices (Memphis and Vicksburg). The 49-mile crude-oil line, if constructed, would go from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi, and would cross the well field connecting to the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
A joint venture of Valero Energy Corporation and Plains All American Pipeline, the proposed underground structure would be safely above the drinking-water portion of the aquifers, say company officials. But environmentalists and political figures see the pipeline as potentially hazardous and as disruptive to the predominantly Black populations in the area to be covered.
The project is opposed by 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen and is the subject of preventive legislation both in the General Assembly and the Memphis City Council.
Gore attended classes at the University of Memphis and was a U.S. Senator from Tennessee before his vice presidency. He was the Democratic nominee for president in 2000. He is a recognized authority on environmental hazards and is the author of several books on the subject — including Earth in the Balance and, notably, An Inconvenient Truth, which, in its various multimedia forms, resulted in numerous plaudits, including the Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award.
