Residents of a small town in West Virginia are approached by land agents for a gas pipeline company. The residents are told that unless they sign over their property rights to the pipeline company, the company will use eminent domain to take it.

The residents begin to organize to defeat the pipeline. Mainstream environmental groups hear about the fight and latch on. Just before one of the first meetings between the local organizers and the mainstream groups, a young lawyer for one of the groups says — “We were told by one of our funders that we can’t work on fossil fuel issues. Instead we should concentrate on storm water runoff issues.”