There is no environmental justice in such a large diameter pipeline on extremely steep mountain terrain

Update from the Southern Environmental Law Center, June 15, 2020

Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that limited the U.S. Forest Service’s authority to issue a permit to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The original ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stated the Forest Service lacked authority to grant approval for Dominion and Duke Energy’s pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail on federal land. The Fourth Circuit also vacated the Forest Service permit on other grounds not addressed by today’s decision, and the pipeline still lacks that permit in addition to several other approvals required for construction.

“While today’s decision was not what we hoped for, it addresses only one of the many problems faced by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This is not a viable project. It is still missing many required authorizations, including the Forest Service permit at issue in today’s case, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon consider the mounting evidence that we never needed this pipeline to supply power. It’s time for these developers to move on and reinvest the billions of dollars planned for this boondoggle into the renewable energy that Virginia and North Carolina customers want and deserve,” said DJ Gerken, Southern Environmental Law Center Program Director.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes at the same time that the purported need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, proposed in 2014, is receiving renewed scrutiny, as states are steering their energy economies away from fossil fuels. In March, Dominion Energy told Virginia regulators that the build out of new gas-fired power plants is no longer “viable” in the state, and the Virginia Clean Economy Act signed into law in April requires that the utility shut down all of its existing gas plants by 2045. North Carolina’s Clean Energy Plan calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants of 70% over 2005 levels by 2030 and total carbon neutrality by 2050.

“It’s been six years since this pipeline was proposed, we didn’t need it then and we certainly don’t need it now,” said Dick Brooks of the Cowpasture River Preservation. “Today’s decision doesn’t change the fact that Dominion chose a risky route through protected federal lands, steep mountains, and vulnerable communities.”

“This pipeline is putting our farmlands, our water and the livelihood of Virginians in jeopardy,” said Nancy Sorrells with Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, “And all for a pipeline that isn’t even in the public interest of Virginians.”

Meanwhile, the exorbitant price tag for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline continues to climb because of Dominion’s insistence on a harmful and risky route. Under these circumstances and at a time when the region is moving rapidly to 100% renewable energy, it’s unreasonable to expect customers to pay for this obsolete $8 billion fracked gas pipeline.

“With the ACP still lacking 8 permits, this decision is just plugging just one hole on a sinking ship,” said Kelly Martin, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign. “Nothing in today’s ruling changes the fact that the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous threat to our health, climate and communities, and nothing about the ruling changes our intention to fight it. From the day the ACP was proposed, the smart investment for Dominion and Duke would have been clean, renewable energy sources, and with the project billions of dollars over budget, that’s even more true today. Despite this ruling on one narrow question, economics, common sense, and public opinion are still squarely against the ACP.”

Among the permits in question for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are:

@ — Endangered Species Act permit (Biological Opinion) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

@ — Special use permit and right-of-way grant from the U.S. Forest Service

@ — Right-of-way permit from the National Park Service

@ — Virginia air pollution permit for the Union Hill compressor station

@ — Four Clean Water Act authorizations from the Army Corps of Engineers for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina

@ — The Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s central permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is under review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and arguments are expected later this year. The case will determine if FERC correctly determined that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was needed to fuel gas-fired power plants when it approved the project in 2017.

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About the Southern Environmental Law Center

For more than 30 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center has used the power of the law to champion the environment of the Southeast. With more than 80 attorneys and nine offices across the region, SELC is widely recognized as the Southeast’s foremost environmental organization and regional leader. SELC works on a full range of environmental issues to protect our natural resources and the health and well-being of all the people in our region. For more info see the following: www.SouthernEnvironment.org

About the Sierra Club of the United States

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.

Appalachian Trail parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway here

From the Update #260, Allegheny – Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA), January 23, 2020

A new request to halt construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) was made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in a January 14 filing by the Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Chesapeake Bay Foundation on behalf of their respective client groups.

While construction on the ACP ceased more than a year ago in the wake of the project losing its Biological Opinion and Take Statement, as required by the Endangered Species Act, the project’s managing partner, Dominion Energy, has indicated its intention to resume construction as soon as a new Biological Opinion and Take Statement is issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The FWS has not announced plans for reissuing a revised permit.

The request to FERC points out that with the recent loss of the Buckingham compressor station air permit – struck down January 7 by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (see ABRA Update #259, January 9 for details) – there are 8 missing permits for the project:

1. Nationwide Permit 12 Verification, Pittsburgh District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: suspended by Pittsburgh District, Nov. 20, 2018.
2. Nationwide Permit 12 Verification, Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: suspended by Norfolk District, Nov. 20, 2018.
3. Nationwide Permit 12 Verification, Wilmington District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: suspended by Wilmington District, Nov. 20, 2018.
4. Special Use Permit and Record of Decision, U.S. Forest Service: vacated by Fourth Circuit, Dec. 13, 2018 Cowpasture River Pres. Ass’n v. Forest Serv., 911 F.3d 150 (4th Cir. 2018).
5. Right-of-Way and Construction Permits, National Park Service: remanded by Fourth Circuit, Jan. 23, 2019, to be vacated by Park Service. Order (Dkt. 51), Sierra Club v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, No. 18-2095 (4th Cir. Jan. 23, 2019).
6. Nationwide Permit 12 Verification, Huntington District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: vacated by Fourth Circuit, Jan. 25, 2019. Order (Dkt. 67), Sierra Club v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs, No. 18-1743 (4th Cir. Jan. 25, 2019).
7. Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: vacated by Fourth Circuit, July 26, 2019. Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Dep’t of
the Interior, 931 F.3d 339 (4th Cir. 2019).
8. Article 6 Permit, Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board (implementing federal Clean Air Act requirements): vacated by Fourth Circuit, January 7, 2020. Friends
of Buckingham, 2019 WL 63295 (4th Cir. Jan. 7, 2020).

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State AGs File Briefs Backing 4th Circuit on Forest Service Permit Case

From the Update #260, Allegheny – Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA), January 23, 2020

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline “threatens Virginia’s resources without clear corresponding benefits,” so stated a brief filed January 22 with the U.S. Supreme Court by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.

The amicus brief was filed as part of the appeal brought by Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC and the U.S. Forest Service of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision in the Cowpasture River Preservation Association, et. al. v. U.S. Forest Service case. The Fourth Circuit’s decision vacated the Forest Service’s permit issued for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP).

The permit was rejected by the Court on several grounds, including holding that the agency did not have the proper legal authority to authorize the ACP to cross the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

In addition to the Virginia AG brief, the Attorneys General of 13 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief in support of upholding the Fourth Circuit’s decision.

Attorney General Herring was unequivocal in his criticism of the ACP project:
………. The pipeline company (Atlantic) claims the project is necessary to address an unmet and growing demand for natural gas in Virginia and North Carolina. But that claim does not withstand scrutiny. Indeed, recent analyses indicate that the demand for natural gas will remain flat or decrease for the foreseeable future and can be met with existing infrastructure.
………. Beyond offering dubious benefits, the pipeline unquestionably threatens some of Virginia’s most valued natural sites. The George Washington National Forest, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Appalachian Trail are woven into the fabric of Virginia’s history, offering solitude and recreation to Virginians and visitors for generations, bringing tourism and its corresponding benefits to the neighboring communities.
…………..the United States Forest Service failed to conduct the meticulous review of Atlantic’s permit application called for by the Service’s governing statutes and regulations. Instead, the permitting process was rushed and slipshod and driven by Atlantic’s arbitrary deadlines. Given the chaotic nature of the agency proceedings, it is unsurprising that the Fourth Circuit invalidated the permit on three separate grounds that are entirely independent of the question whether the Forest Service has authority to grant Atlantic permission to cross the Appalachian Trail.

The amicus brief filed by Vermont Attorney General Thomas Donovan, on behalf of his state and 12 other states and the District of Columbia, stressed that the Appalachian Trail is a vital part of the National Park System and that “existing Appalachian Trail pipeline crossings and utility easements will be unaffected” by the Fourth Circuit’s decision.

The AGs’ brief also notes that the “availability of adequate energy sources or even this particular pipeline project” are not imperiled by the Fourth Circuit decision, noting that the project could be built on non-federal land to cross the Trail.

Seven of the 13 states filing amici briefs in support of the Fourth Circuit decision encompass 58% of the total length of the Appalachian Trail. Of the 18 states whose Attorneys General filed briefs in support of the Forest Service/ACP appeal, only 2 are states traversed by the Trail – Georgia and West Virginia – and their total of 80 Trail miles represents less than 4% of the Trail’s 2200-mile length.

Other amici briefs filed this week in support of the Fourth Circuit decision include those by: John Jarvis, former Superintendent of the National Park Service; Natural Resources Defense Council; Wintergreen Property Owners Association; and a joint brief by Nelson County, VA and the City of Staunton. A link to all of the briefs filed is available here.

The Supreme Court is scheduled here arguments on the case on February 24.

Map from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 18, 2015

From the Allegheny – Blue Ridge Alliance, ABRA Update #257, December 19, 2019

Efforts by Dominion Energy to convince Congress to approve having the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) cross the Appalachian National Scenic Trail have not yielded results.

For most of the past year Dominion has been seeking to have a rider added to other legislation that would, in effect, overturn the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that vacated the permit for the ACP issued by the U.S. Forest Service.

Within the past week, two prominent bills that were believed to be possible vehicles for the Dominion amendment – the National Defense Authorization Act and the continuing resolution funding the Federal Government –passed without language addressing the AT issue.

For now, the issue remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is scheduled to hear arguments on an appeal of the Fourth Circuit decision on the case (U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, et. al.) on February 24. A decision on the case is anticipated to be announced in June.

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Dominion still sees U.S. Atlantic Coast natgas pipe online in 2022 despite Morgan Stanley’s doubts

From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Reuters News Service, December 16, 2019

(Reuters) – Dominion Energy Inc said on Monday it was confident it will complete the proposed $7.3-$7.8 billion Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to North Carolina by early 2022, in response to a prediction by investment bank Morgan Stanley that a court decision would likely scuttle the project.

“We remain committed to completing the project for the good of our economy and the environment,” Dominion spokesman Aaron Ruby said, noting the company expected to complete construction in late 2021 with final in-service in early 2022.

Dominion made its comments after Morgan Stanley said in a report that “Atlantic Coast will likely not be completed given the Fourth Circuit’s likely (in the bank’s view) rejection, for the third time, of a newly issued Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement that we expect to come by the first quarter of 2020.”

In July, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) second Biological Opinion because the court found the agency’s decisions were arbitrary and would jeopardize the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee and other endangered species.

Federal agencies use Biological Opinions when authorizing projects that could adversely affect threatened or endangered species or critical habitats, and issue take statements to limit the number of those species that could be harmed. Ruby said Dominion expects the FWS will issue a new Biological Opinion in the first half of 2020.

Dominion suspended construction of the 600-mile (966-kilometer) project in December 2018 after the Fourth Circuit stayed the FWS’ second Biological Opinion.

Dominion and its partners, Duke Energy Corp and Southern Co., are also working through a dispute over where the pipeline can cross the Appalachian Trail. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up the Appalachian Trail case, which is also important for the construction of EQM Midstream Partners LP’s Mountain Valley gas pipe from West Virginia to Virginia.

The Supreme Court may issue a ruling in May or June 2020. So, the Appalachian Trail dispute may be resolved by a Supreme Court decision or an administrative or legislative solution.

A route revision was the likely compromise for the endangered species dispute but noted that could boost the project’s costs to around $8 billion and push completion into 2022.

When Dominion started work on the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day pipe in the spring of 2018, the company estimated it would cost $6.0-$6.5 billion and be completed in late 2019.

ACP path thru mountains to cross Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.

From an Article by Sarah Vogelsong, Mercury News, October 4, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will review a decision by a federal court of appeals that threw up a major barrier to construction of a 600-mile natural gas pipeline being developed by Dominion Energy.

The order by the court consolidates two cases brought by environmental groups against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the U.S. Forest Service. No date has been set for oral hearings.

The cases had been appealed to the nation’s highest court after the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals revoked a permit previously granted by the U.S. Forest Service to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline allowing it to cross the Appalachian Trail.

In a lengthy December 2018 ruling that quoted Dr. Seuss, the 4th Circuit declared that “the Forest Service abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources.”

That finding, said the court, “is particularly informed by the Forest Service’s serious environmental concerns that were suddenly, and mysteriously, assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines.”

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the development of which is being led by Dominion Energy in partnership with Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas, disputed the appeals courts’ conclusion in asking the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit decision.

The 4th Circuit, ACP claimed, “ignores key provisions in several statutes, contradicts the longstanding views of every agency involved, and converts a special rule about National Park Service lands into an impregnable barrier dividing energy sources west of the (Appalachian) Trail from consumers east of the Trail.”

Furthermore, the pipeline company complained that the ruling “will stymie this and other needed efforts to serve the Eastern seaboard’s growing energy needs.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has argued the environmentalists’ case in court, has disputed the contention that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is necessary to meet energy demands.

“One issue regulators and the public and decision makers shouldn’t take their eye off is we still don’t have a clear answer on whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a public necessity,” said SELC attorney Greg Buppert.

A statement by Dominion Energy quoted by WBOY called the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case “a very encouraging sign.” (Dominion officials have said in the past that the company has a policy against speaking with the Mercury.)

“More than 50 other pipelines cross underneath the Appalachian Trail without disturbing its public use. The public interest requires a clear process for the issuance and renewal of permits for such pipelines, and other essential infrastructure. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline should be no different,” the statement read.

Buppert, however, disputed that the court’s decision to review the 4th Circuit ruling was a victory for the pipeline.

“The fact that the court is taking this case up doesn’t mean Dominion wins,” he said. “This issue is not resolved, and it won’t be resolved until the Supreme Court decides this question.”

Legal Brief: FERC’s Flaws Endanger Communities of Color in Atlantic Coast Pipeline Path

PRESS RELEASE. Contact: Jake Thompson, jthompson@nrdc.org, (202) 289-2387, Fabiola Nunez, fnunez@nrdc.org, (646) 889-1405; Elizabeth Heyd, eheyd@nrdc.org, (202) 289-2424

WASHINGTON (April 15, 2019) – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission broke the law in two key ways that discounted and endangered African American and American Indian communities in Virginia and North Carolina in approving the proposed Atlantic Coast gas pipeline. That’s what environmental, civil rights, faith-based, and other groups contend in a brief filed in federal court.

“The Atlantic Coast gas project is controversial for many reasons—it’s costly, unneeded, and could endanger drinking water and pollute other natural resources while fueling climate change,” said Montina Cole, senior attorney in the Sustainable FERC Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Tragically, it’s also a prime example of FERC effectively facilitating environmental injustice. We’re calling on the court to right this wrong and help protect communities of color in Virginia and North Carolina from environmental hazard and harm.”

NRDC and nine other groups filed an amicus brief on April 12 challenging FERC’s approval of the Atlantic Coast pipeline on environmental justice grounds before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The groups want the court to declare FERC’s approval of the pipeline null and void or order FERC to conduct a new environmental justice review.

The other signers are: Center for Earth Ethics; Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice; North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign; Repairers of the Breach; Satchidananda Ashram – Yogaville; Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church; Virginia Interfaith Power & Light; Virginia State Conference NAACP; and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

The brief details how FERC failed to serve the public interest in evaluating, and approving, construction of the proposed 600-mile, $7.5 billion Atlantic Coast project. Dominion Energy is seeking to build the pipeline to transport gas through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

“If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission conducted a thorough public interest analysis, as it should, a balanced and accurate environmental justice review would further demonstrate what is already known: that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not needed to meet our energy needs, is environmentally unjust, would cause permanent environmental damage, and should be rejected,” said William Barber III, Co-Chair, Ecological Devastation Committee, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign.

FERC’s most egregious error was relying on a deeply flawed methodology to identify environmental justice communities affected by the Atlantic Coast project and failing to address the adverse impacts of the project.

First, FERC relied on three large census tracts to analyze the potential impact of a planned gas compressor station for the pipeline in Virginia’s Buckingham County. Because the census tracts covered 500 square miles and included largely white rural areas, FERC found no environmental justice communities were near the compressor site.

That’s even though the compressor site would be in Union Hill—a largely African American community founded by freed slaves. Through its flawed analysis, which included another error that ruled out identifying an environmental justice community, FERC essentially erased or buried Union Hill.

The end result: FERC cooked its analysis and found no harm would come from the air pollution generated by the industrial compressor facility on a community of people who would be disproportionately impacted by air pollution. A map of this issue with further explanation is here.

Second, FERC lumped all “minorities” together, which led it to overlook the fact that 25 percent of North Carolina’s American Indians, about 50,000 people, live along the Atlantic Coast route. The end outcome: FERC offered no analysis of the impacts of the pipeline on American Indians.

Because FERC failed to identify these communities of color in Virginia and North Carolina, it didn’t analyze the health and environmental risks they face from the pipeline and its compressor stations, the groups charge. It’s well documented that pollution emitted from compressor stations exacerbates health issues like asthma and cancer risks that disproportionally affect communities of color.

Incredibly, even when FERC did identify a minority community—like the one near another planned compressor site in North Carolina—it dismissed the disproportionate health risks, saying that pollution levels would be within legal limits. But that doesn’t constitute an analysis of the impact on the community—it’s a dodge. Further, the Environmental Protection Agency has found the pollutants present health risks at any level, the groups note in their brief.

Others who signed onto the brief weighed in on the issue:

>>> Rev. Paul Wilson, Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church said: “Dominion is following a playbook utility companies often use: ram a risky project through a marginalized community, like Union Hill, because they can’t stop it. They treated us as though we didn’t even exist for a while. But we refused to be treated that way. Our community will keep on refusing to be treated as though we don’t matter, because we are strong, we are united, and we are convinced that this this pipeline, and its compressor station, pose a risk to us that we should not have to bear.”

>>> Rev. Kevin Chandler, President, Virginia State Conference NAACP, said: “The Virginia State Conference NAACP continues to stand strongly in opposition to any project that presents disproportionate impact to the health and safety of African-American, communities of color, and low-income communities. African-Americans are exposed to 38 percent more polluted air than Caucasian Americans and are 75 percent more likely to live in fence-line communities than the average American. Furthermore, the pollution emitted by compressor stations, like the one proposed for Union Hill, is linked to increased risk of cancer and respiratory disorders, not to mention the pollution the compressor station will cause to our lands and water bodies. This project should never have been approved. Now is a golden opportunity to right a wrong, and protect our air, water, lands, and people.”

>>> Karenna Gore, Director, Center for Earth Ethics, said: “Every American has an inalienable right to breathe clean air, drink safe water, be protected from poisons and live free from environmental injustice. We are honored to stand with the too-often marginalized people on the frontlines of ecological devastation, like those in Union Hill and Indigenous families along the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast pipeline, who are fighting for their rights, and our future.”

>>> Kendal Crawford, Director, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, said: “This is what environmental injustice looks like, and Virginia is not alone. It’s sobering, clear and disturbing to see that fossil fuel infrastructure—from power plants to pipelines—is too often placed in communities of color across our country, and FERC is guilty of promoting this environmental injustice. It shouldn’t be allowed to continue operating this way, putting people at grave risk, if we are striving towards a just society.”

>>> Cecil Corbin-Mark, Director of Policy Initiatives, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, said: “Low-income and people of color are more likely to live closer to sources of pollution, leading to unfair health outcomes. We hope that the court will undo FERC’s too-hasty approval of the Atlantic Coast pipeline and the compressor facility that would emit unhealthy air pollution in Union Hill. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air and we need action in our most vulnerable communities to ensure that right extends to all Americans.”

The groups argue that in its environmental justice review, FERC violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). They hope the court agrees and decides to take action against FERC.

The legal brief is here.

A blog on the issue by NRDC’s Montina Cole is here.

A map showing one way FERC evaluated whether an environmental justice community exists near the proposed pipeline’s compressor facility in Virginia is here.

Terry McAuliffe is way too close to Dominion Energy

From an Article by Jon Sokolow, Blue Virginia, April 13, 2019

For at least eighteen months, and perhaps longer, the office of former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe engaged in secret discussions to absolve Dominion Energy and its partners of liabilities associated with their $7 billion, 600-mile-long Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). According to documents obtained exclusively by this writer, negotiations over the $58 million agreement started long before the ACP had received a single approval from state or federal authorities. In fact, Governor McAuliffe’s office participated in these discussions while permit applications were pending, and state officials deliberately kept those discussions secret.

In early February, we broke the story about the secret ACP immunity deal that McAuliffe signed in late December 2017, just before he left office. We noted that the agreement included waivers for any damages greater than $58 million to Virginia’s forests and water resources, as well as a catch-all waiver that said the payment represents “the full extent of natural resources-related mitigation measures and investments contemplated” for the pipelines. And we noted that “McAuliffe did this before the pipeline has even been approved – it still has not been approved – much less built.”

In March, we reported another shocker: the liability waiver that Virginia gave to Dominion and another set of waivers for the Mountain Valley Pipeline companies, contrasted sharply with another $58 million agreement that North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The North Carolina deal included no waiver provisions. Instead, it said that “nothing in this Memorandum shall be construed as precluding or otherwise barring the State of North Carolina from recovering damages or equitable remedies from Atlantic for spills or leaks stemming from the ACP.”

And now, according to internal DEQ communications, it turns out that McAuliffe’s office was negotiating the waiver deal with Dominion as far back as June 2016, a full eighteen months before the agreement was signed.

In an email published here for the first time, a DEQ employee asked Bettina Sullivan, a DEQ manager, how DEQ might respond to “citizen concerns about how we are going to permit them re: wetlands.” Sullivan responded by saying: “it’s my understanding that the Governor’s office is working on a larger mitigation agreement with ACP.” Sullivan then told the DEQ employee that “I’m sure we can come up with some language that addresses it without divulging those negotiations.”

And there’s more.

It appears that David Paylor, recently reappointed as head of DEQ by Ralph Northam, knew that DEQ had participated in the liability waiver negotiations while his agency was “reviewing” Dominion’s permit application. Within an hour after our February 2 liability waiver story went on line, DEQ’s Public Information officer Ann Regn, who was juggling multiple press inquiries, suggested to Paylor that DEQ deny any prior knowledge of the waiver deal by telling reporters that “DEQ did not participate in the agreement process.” Paylor told her not to say that.

Instead, Paylor told Regn to say “the elements of the mitigation agreement are largely outside the purview of DEQ.” In dictating that response, which is exactly what Regn told reporters, Paylor apparently wanted to convey the impression that DEQ was not involved with the waiver agreements (because they were “largely outside the purview of DEQ”) without outright denying involvement, as his press officer had suggested. It is a fair inference that Paylor did this because he knew of DEQ’s involvement. It is no wonder that Ralph Northam’s decision to reappoint Paylor to head DEQ has been described as a raised middle finger to Virginia’s environment. Paylor showed that same finger to member of the Virginia press corps.

Paylor’s dissembling was not the only time that day that Virginia officials tried to mislead the press about the Dominion deal. While Paylor was telling his press officer how to carefully distance DEQ from the Dominion deal, Ralph Northam’s spokesman, Brian “DeCoy” Coy was telling reporters that the waiver provisions in the Dominion deal were not a waiver after all.

It is bad enough that the Governor’s Office engaged in secret discussions with Dominion that ultimately led to agreements with liability waivers that even the Governor of North Carolina – a supporter of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline – could not stomach. What is worse is that Terry McAuliffe was negotiating these waiver agreements at the same time that DEQ, led by his appointee David Paylor, was deciding whether or not to approve Dominion’s permit application. The less worse deal signed in North Carolina has been called a pay to play scheme and a slush fund. It has led to constant press coverage and legislative investigations. But in Virginia, with liability waivers in place, there seems to be a bi-partisan conspiracy of silence. Maybe silence whenever Dominion is involved is the “Virginia (Look the Other) Way.”

It now is clear exactly why Terry McAuliffe wanted to keep his Dominion negotiations secret until after he left office. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of the Governor, we were referred to the Library of Virginia, because, as McAuliffe no doubt knows, all records from his office were transferred to the Library of Virginia the day he left office. The Library of Virginia has a policy of not releasing any records from the governor’s office until all records of that governor have been “catalogued,” a process that can take a decade or more. The Library still is “cataloguing” records from the administration of Tim Kaine, who left office in 2010.

So some of Terry McAuliffe’s Dominion immunity deal secrets are safely hidden away. For now. Or are they? Stay tuned.

University of Richmond protest of Dominion Energy — No ACP

From an Article by Gabi Telepman, University of Richmond Collegian, April 5, 2019

PHOTO: Two protesters from The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition stand outside the Jepson Alumni Center.

As business people from both the University of Richmond campus and Richmond community made their way into the Jepson Alumni Center to hear Thomas Farrell, the CEO of Dominion Energy, speak, they passed two protesters standing in the parking lot, holding a banner that read, “Tom Farrell — Why do you put profit over people?”

Farrell engaged in a conversation with Richard Coughlan, associate professor of management, at this semester’s final C-Suite Conversation on Thursday, April 4.

C-Suite is a complimentary E. Claiborne Robins School of Business signature speaker series for students, alumni and the Richmond community, where a distinguished guest sits through an unscripted interview on-stage.

Before the conversation began, Nancy Bagranoff, dean of the business school, announced to the crowd that this C-Suite Conversation welcomed the largest audience to date, which is why the event was relocated from its usual Ukrop Auditorium to the more spacious Jepson Alumni Center.

About 10 minutes into the conversation, after Farrell discussed Dominion’s recent efforts in renewable energy, a loud, alarming noise startled the sizable crowd, and several protesters rose from their seats.

“I was sitting with my friends, and we were all so shocked, ” junior Rachael Glackin said.

“You should not be listening to this man!” one protester shouted. “He’s poisoned our waters, he’s poisoned our air. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Union Hill Compressor Station, The Navy Hill Development project, exploit communities of color for profit.”

According to the Dominion Energy website, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is a proposed 600-mile interstate natural gas transmission pipeline that would serve multiple public utilities and their growing energy needs in Virginia and North Carolina.

Environmental organizations and justice groups like Sierra Club oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and other fracked gas pipelines for reasons including that such pipelines can damage water quality, increase dependence on fracked gas, fragment more than 50 miles of National Forest Property and are subject to leakage and explosion causing further pollution, according to the Sierra Club website.

“The only people who benefit from the pipeline are Dominion shareholders and executives,” Caroline Bray, one of the protesters who disrupted the talk, said. “The most volatile and dangerous part of the pipeline is planned to be constructed in a historically black, elderly community called Union Hill.”

“Do not aspire to be like Tom Farrell,” another protester continued. “He does not care about the people of Virginia.”

The protesters, who are part of a group called The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, were escorted out of the event. As they were escorted out, they chanted, “No coliseum, no pipeline, people’s lives are on the line!” Note, “Coliseum” refers to The Navy Hill-Coliseum project, which Bray said was a plan to redevelop downtown Richmond to benefit businesses.

The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition is a grassroots organization of young people fighting for social justice in Virginia, Bray said. “We organize to stop construction of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines, confront the rise of fascism and white supremacy, help to provide aid to immigrants, work towards food security, and more,” said Bray, who is also an action organizer at the organization.

Samantha Moore, Dominion Energy communications specialist, responded to an emailed request for a comment about the protest. “Today’s C-Suite Conversation provided the opportunity for the University of Richmond community to hear from our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Farrell, about Dominion Energy’s sustainability goals and our commitment to reducing carbon and methane emissions-goals that are important to many in our society,” Moore wrote.

Glackin said she was shocked because she does not think UR’s campus is one where she sees people actively protesting. “This isn’t a very politically active campus,” Glackin said, “so I was just surprised to see people standing up for a social issue so publicly. It was really refreshing.”

Farrell and Coughlan, who responded to the protesters directly by calling the C-Suite Conversation an educational event, resumed their conversation immediately. The two did not appear to be distracted as the protesters continued to chant outside of the building.

Although Farrell did not mention the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, he discussed his civic engagement in the Richmond community, and talked about working closely with non-profits and the city of Richmond to continue developing the city center. “I believe strongly that you have to have a strong central urban core to make a region function,” Farrell said.

Farrell also said his key priority going into the next few years was to continue carrying out his company’s core values: safety, ethics, excellence, teamwork and embracing change.

At the end of the hour-long session, as is the case with most C-suite Conversations, the floor was not open for questions.

“We do not believe someone who perpetuates violence such as Farrell,” Bray said, “should have a platform to spread their ideas, which is what U of R gave him. That is why we felt the necessity to disrupt the event.”

Dominion Energy has paid a few million dollars to influence public opinion and political activities for the ACP

From: Atieno Bird, Crozet Gazette, March 12, 2019

PHOTO: Drone photograph of pipeline construction in West Virginia.

I want to alert you to a threat faced by our neighbors south of us in Buckingham County that will affect our children, too, and ask you to write to Governor Northam, who has been siding against us.

You might think of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline as a necessary and safe way to transport gas. Perhaps other forms of energy are cleaner, you say, but maybe we need this for now and better to pipe than truck.

I’d like to share some details that show the ACP is unnecessary, damaging, a scam, and a threat to our health. Even if fracking weren’t creating unacceptable contamination in West Virginia, where it would increase if this pipeline is built, this pipeline would be a catastrophe for Virginia. I am using facts from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Friends of Buckingham websites as sources, but I urge you to research this yourself.

1. It’s not safe.

• There have been many explosions and leaks at compressor stations since companies started doing in-ground gas transportation.

• Mountain ridges would be razed and some of the steepest slopes in the eastern U.S. would likely landslide, ruining forests, waterways, and even homes.

• Spills always happen with pipelines, though the news rarely covers them; contaminated water cannot be un-contaminated.

• Compressor stations along the line regularly release toxic emissions with extremely noisy “blow-down events,” sickening everyone for miles. One study of compressor stations in New York State found that “Exposure to these chemicals can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, neurological and developmental diseases and cancer.”

2. It’s not fair.

• Farmers would have their land confiscated.

• The community targeted for the compressor station happens to be African-American and low-income, a typical choice for locating these projects, because low-income communities do not have the resources to fight back. In North Carolina, the pipeline cuts through Native American communities.

• The ACP gas would be sold to affiliates that will pass on costs to their customers. So Dominion will reap the profit, but we will bear the additional $1.6-2.3 billion passed on to our electricity bills. Dominion can make us pay for the project even if we never use the gas.

• Compressor stations cost the regional economy. A report in 2013,by the RAND Corp. estimated the dollar cost “to health and the environment from shale gas development emissions in Pennsylvania at $7.2 million to $32 million in 2011, with up to 75 percent of it related to compressor stations.”

3. It’s unnecessary.

• The pipeline investors say affiliates need the gas. But the affiliates have not needed new gas in recent years, and they estimated needing even less in future! So why would they now ask for more gas? Because they are owned by Dominion!

• Existing pipelines only use about half of their capacity, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave the green light to 38 major pipelines in 2016. This one isn’t needed for the public good, only for the profits it provides Dominion.

• When considering these the pipelines, the ONLY options FERC entertained or investigated were old, dirty energy options. And in doing so, they didn’t look at what it would mean to have billions of dollars tied up in dirty energy infrastructure far into the future. How will this harm the development of clean energy options? How will it increase the production and burning of dirty fuels, accelerating global warming?

Why would Governor Northam side against Virginians? Well, Dominion has basically paid him to. You and I cannot hope to buy him back, but we can ask him to show some integrity. Please write to him now at: Governor Ralph Northam, P.O. Box 1475, Richmond, VA 23218.

Atieno Bird, Local Resident
Crozet, Albemarle County, Virginia

#########################

Contact the Governor of Virginia electronically

or by telephone at 804-786-2211.

ACP not properly evaluated by FERC, by US Forest Service, by US Army Corps, by WV-DEP

From an Article by Kate Mishkin, Charleston Gazette, January 8, 2019

Construction on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been halted because “rogue environmental groups” are getting in the way, an energy lobbyist told lawmakers Tuesday. “It’s on hold because the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a rogue environmental group to contest various permits that we have on the project,” Bob Orndorff, state policy director for Dominion Energy, said to the Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development on behalf of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, during a presentation of various facts and figures about natural gas jobs in West Virginia.

The natural gas pipeline being built by Dominion Energy voluntarily halted construction along the project’s 600-mile-long path in December after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement. The next week, a panel vacated the Forest Service’s Special Use Permit and Record of Decision, required to build the project through the George Washington and Monongahela national forests.

In the opinion, Judge Stephanie Thacker, of West Virginia, quoted Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax.” “We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,’” the opinion says. Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Judge James Wynn, who also heard oral arguments in the case in September, joined.

“It’s the federal agencies who went rogue here. They ignored the law, they ignored warnings from their own experts to approve a destructive and unnecessary pipeline,” said DJ Gerken, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which argued on behalf of conservation groups in both legal challenges.

The halt has cost thousands of jobs, Orndorff said. Some people can continue to work because the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is required to maintain erosion and sediment control, he said. There’d be even more jobs if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission allows the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to “button things up,” he said. That would mean at least putting the pipe in the ground, welding it and re-vegetating the land around it.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is one of many pipelines being built in the region to tap into the booming Marcellus Shale formation. Many pipelines have similarly faced legal challenges and environmental violations. A joint review last year by the Charleston Gazette-Mail and ProPublica showed that, as pipelines continued to break environmental rules, state and federal agencies continued to clear roadblocks for the projects.

Also on Tuesday, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Pollution Control Board unanimously approved a compressor station permit needed for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Buckingham Compressor Station.

In West Virginia, Orndorff urged lawmakers to “stand up to these rogue environmental groups” and pass a resolution to condemn them.

But the groups that the SELC represent have members, Gerken argued. One woman named in a lawsuit lives near the Appalachian Trail and takes her Sunday school group to the trail to be outside in nature. “These groups have members, and that’s who has the right to challenge cases, it’s the people who live nearby,” Gerken said. “These people are committed to these places, and they’re the people who live here. They’re not rogue groups.”

SEE ALSO: Risky and Unnecessary Natural Gas Pipelines Threaten Our Region | Southern Environmental Law Center

Time Out to protect our environment

From Lew Freeman, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, July 5, 2018

A motion was filed late today with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, asking that construction activity on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) be halted until the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) complies with the particulars of the Court’s May 15 order vacating the FWS’s Incidental Take Statement for the ACP. The motion was filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and Virginia Wildlife Committee.

The 4th Circuit’s Order had stated:

” . . . we conclude, for reasons to be more fully explained in a forthcoming opinion, that the limits set by the agency are so indeterminate that they undermine the Incidental Take Statement’s enforcement and monitoring function under the Endangered Species Act. Accordingly, we VACATE the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Incidental Take Statement.”

While it has been over 7 weeks since the Order was issued, the 4th Circuit has yet to issue an opinion explaining the reasons for its decision and the actions that FWS should take.

Today’s SELC motion argues that notwithstanding the May 15 4th Circuit Order, ACP “is racing ahead with construction, including
within habitat of endangered species. An injunction is necessary to stop the potential take of species and to prevent foreclosure of reasonable and prudent alternatives that FWS may require to satisfy its ESA obligations, following the Court’s opinion. An injunction will ensure FWS can appropriately respond to this Court’s instructions and will prevent unnecessary, imminent, and irreparable harm.”

SELC, on behalf of the same three clients, on June 11 requested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoke its May 11 authorization for construction of the ACP in West Virginia given the 4th Circuit Order. To date, FERC has not responded to that request, and in fact has authorized on two separate occasions further work and construction waivers for the ACP.

A copy of the SELC motion filed today with the 4th Circuit is available at: https://www.abralliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Motion-for-Injunction-4th-Circuit-on-ESA-issue-7-5-18.pdf

>>>>> Lewis Freeman, ​Executive Director, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance​, lewfreeman@gmail.com

See also: Virginia officials quietly weakened pipeline standards protecting water