Pipeline developers in Tennessee have announced they are pulling the plug on the Byhalia Pipeline, a proposed pipeline that would have gone through communities across the South to transport crude oil to the Gulf Coast. 

The pipeline posed a threat to predominantly Black neighborhoods in southwest Memphis that already face disproportionate health burdens.

According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, “This is not the first time that southwest Memphis residents have been forced to bear the risks of environmental pollution. A 2013 study identified the area as an air pollution hotspot due to the quantity of industries and emission sources.”

This win highlights the extraordinary outcomes communities can achieve when fighting together against unjust projects that threaten the health and wellbeing of people and our shared natural resources.

For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth Show, this is Theresa Church from Global Justice Ecology Project.