Brig
It’s all connected
“The TVA for so long has worked from a specific business model, and that’s why they lean towards these infrastructure plans like the methane gas buildout. But we’ve got to look at this from a different angle. That model is not working.”
Cookeville resident and land advocate Brig believes the people of the Upper Cumberland region will experience the effects of Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Ridgeline Pipeline whether or not they own land in its path.
“I hike in Cummins Falls State Park, and the big waterfall there is very close to where this pipeline would cut through,” Brig shares. “And even if we put the environmental and human health impacts aside for a moment to talk about money and tourism, Cummins Falls is it for this whole region,” they say, highlighting some of the ways they and many in their community appreciate the exceptional landscapes around the area.
There are countless places of immeasurable beauty throughout this region, a diverse landscape that has supported human societies for many thousands of years. Brig is grateful to learn about the unique flora and fauna and worries about the harms a new pipeline transporting methane gas would inflict.
Indeed, delicate ecosystems abound. Brig says that Wash Morgan Hollow is a particular place they think about. Brig says they have learned from local naturalists that there are species in that valley that are likely unique to that valley. They elaborate that if those microsystems are damaged, rare species could be lost. “If there is a salamander in a cave,” Brig suggests, “that salamander species could be unique to that cave.”
“And I mourn for the trees,” they say. “Every large tree that is taken needlessly is a huge grief and loss for me.”
Brig has called Cookeville home for eight years, briefly leaving in 2019, but returning six months later — partly pulled back due to the strong sense of community.
“I fill a lot of roles depending on the day and time and hour,” Brig says. “Teacher is one role. Cook is another. Jester might be another. Organizer is another… There are a lot of different roles I fill depending on who I’m talking to, but they all feel equally me and equally valid.”
“Related to this work [fighting the pipeline] specifically, I feel like a bell ringer. Like I’m just trying to let people know about this pipeline,” they add. The 122-mile Ridgeline Pipeline is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority's plans to replace its Kingston coal plant with a new methane gas power plant.
Brig first heard about the pipeline in September of 2022 when they noticed a “No TVA Pipelines” sign along the road on their way to go hiking. “A quick internet search taught me this was a gas pipeline rather than oil. And I started researching and learned that gas is … at least equally destructive. I had to do something.”
They went to a town hall meeting and have been involved in fighting the pipeline ever since.
Brig poses under a tree in Cummins Falls State Park.
Brig is one of the founders of a grassroots organizing group that formed around opposition to TVA’s planned methane gas buildout called Safe Affordable Good Energy for Tennessee, or SAGE TN.
The group has been working hard to reach the hearts and minds of TVA board members. Brig has experience bringing the community’s concerns directly to TVA, submitting written comments and attending multiple board meetings and listening sessions.
“It feels like [TVA board members] tell us they’re listening and on paper they’re listening, but it isn’t easy to get access to them … so it feels a little bit like gaslighting or at least like they’re engaging in double-speak,” Brig says. “And it’s so disheartening to go through this enormous process just to achieve a meeting with the board and then for the needle of our agenda to move exactly zero, you know?”
They point out that TVA can source its electricity from clean energy like solar rooftops and can incentivize people to put solar on their homes through “solar buyback” programs. They noted concerns related to power surges during extreme weather events as well as energy-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence and cryptomining, which they are critical of.
“And then there’s the issue of fighting climate change and meeting our goals there, and this pipeline feels like a huge step backwards.”
Brig says there are ways to reduce energy demand through efficiency strategies and that renewable, cleaner energy is more reliable than fossil fuels. “TVA wants to argue about reliability with solar and wind, but you have these rolling blackouts we’ve experienced precisely because of coal and gas unreliability,” they say.
A beautifully clear pool in Roaring River, a waterway in the route planned for the Ridgeline Pipeline, in Jackson County, Tennessee.
When asked about their motivations for this work, Brig explained, “I have a deeply spiritual connection to the land … And so the land is both a relative, mother or grandmother, but is also worthy of being worshipped and is divine. Nature is my church. I go out there to think and to seek answers, to pray.”
Brig states that there is not enough attention paid to the ways people are coming together in these moments. “There’s a lot more like-minded folks than you think, more than the powers that be want us to think … And so there’s this delicate sense of solidarity alongside this omnipresent push to keep us isolated,” they offer.
And on a broader scale, Brig points out that this gas buildout has connected them with like-spirited people across the valley, like advocates in Cheatham County fighting a proposed methane gas plant and people in northern Middle Tennessee fighting the replacement of the Cumberland coal plant with another methane gas plant and pipeline.
Given so much disheartening news in the world, Brig shares that they find hope in the little things, in gathering with neighbors and loved ones, in sharing a meal and in that feeling of togetherness. “In those moments,” they offer, “we’re all here, and we’ll live for another day.”
Reflecting a sentiment echoed by many others engaged in this fight, Brig says, “If the Earth is sick, then we are sick because we are part of nature and part of the Earth. Too, too often people have this false notion that we are separate from these things.”
“All of our water is connected. All of our land is connected. This is essentially our shared enclosure, and we are creatures inside a really complicated aquarium. If something goes wrong with our ecosystems and our atmosphere, that amounts to an existential threat to all of us.”
By Holley Evergreen Roberts, based on a 2024 interview with Brig (they/them)