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Controversy and Condemnation Surround the Lead-Up to a Crucial Pipeline Vote

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In the coming weeks, Virginia’s environmental and political future is set to see a potential shift. The past weeks were marked by upsets, confrontations, and accusations of corruption surrounding the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines, and as a crucial vote approaches, the future is decidedly uncertain.

The path to this moment began on November 10th, when the Virginia Air Pollution Control (VAPC) Board delayed a vote to approve construction on an ACP compressor station in the historic, majority-black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County. The decision followed two days of public deliberation over the negative impact the pipeline infrastructure could have on the region, and represented one of the first major halts in the ACP’s progress. Previously, the pipeline has sailed through the approval process despite repeated objections and concerns from within and without the Northam Administration.

“We are thankful that the Air Pollution Control Board has decided to take additional time to consider environmental injustice, site suitability, and cumulative impacts of the entire pipeline by deferring their vote on the air permit,” Virginia Interfaith Power & Light said in a statement released following the delay announcement.

This nonprofit has been one of several groups opposing the construction of the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines. They shared their concerns in a September meeting with Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, whose position on the ACP and MVP has conflicted with those of members of the administration, including Governor Ralph Northam, as far back as the 2017 gubernatorial election.

In the days following the decision, however, anticipation for the impending vote was replaced with a chorus of condemnation. This was a reaction to the dismissal of Rebecca Rubin and Samuel Bleicher from the VAPC Board by the Northam administration last Thursday. According to several environmental groups, their dismissals occurred after both raised concerns about the effect the compressor station would have on the Union Hill community.

Though both of their membership terms had expired in June, the nature of their membership (which allows them to stay on the board until resignation or removal), along with a lack of explanation from administration officials, only further incensed those opposed to the compressor station, who have since called for Bleicher and Rubin’s reinstatement. The administration later named Gail Bush of the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and Kajal B. Kapur of Kapur Energy Environment Economics, LLC as their replacements.

“We believe that Governor Northam owes the people of Union Hill, and all Virginians, an explanation of this timing, clearly interfering in the deliberation and process of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board’s permitting decision on the Buckingham compressor station,” Virginia Interfaith Power & Light said.

Denouncing the administration’s move as “a stunning assault on the regulatory process,” the Virginia Pipeline Resisters took to the streets outside the Governor’s Mansion in the Virginia State Capitol earlier this month to protest the decision, joined by members of the Union Hill community.

“The Governor’s decision has done harm to my family,” said Richard Walker, whose genealogy and landownership in Union Hill stretches over a hundred years, back to former Virginia slaves in the late 19th century.

“The governor, who I campaigned for, has flipped the script on what’s being done with this air permit decision,” Walker said. “Anything that opposes Dominion, he seems to be speaking out on… I thought he was a fair and a good person, but as far as I can tell, the decision he made yesterday is no more than a ‘Donald Trump’ move.”

Adding to the voices of disapproval was Representative Sam Rasoul, D-City of Roanoke. Rasoul’s criticism was an unplanned addition to a press conference that focused on a report from Food and Water Watch on the “outsized political power” Dominion Energy holds over both chambers in the Virginia General Assembly, and Virginia politics in general.

While the removal of Rubin and Bleicher from the VAPC Board hadn’t been fully confirmed by the administration at that point in the conference, Rasoul did champion the efforts of citizens in challenging the pipeline’s construction, calling the possibility of “the voices of the people” being ignored as a result of this decision “an injustice and an outrage.” Rasoul joins a number of General Assembly members who have praised those opposed to the pipelines and scrutinized Dominion’s operations in the state, including Mark Keam, D-Fairfax, and Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax.

“I know that this administration and whoever else is behind it – Dominion Power, etc. – you will hear from us,” Rasoul said.

Rasoul, along with Rep. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Dale City, has also introduced a House bill for consideration in the 2019 General Assembly session that would put a “moratorium” on approving energy facilities that use fossil fuels in the state, with an eye towards requiring 100% use of clean energy sources by retail electricity suppliers in the Commonwealth by 2036.

Considering the extent of Dominion’s presence in Virgina, and how easily previous pipeline permits have been approved by administration officials, the December 10 vote on the ACP compressor station will likely set the tone for future deliberations on many aspects of Virginia’s environment and politics, regardless of outcome.

Photos provided by Virginia Pipeline Resisters

“Pumpkins Not Pipelines”: Activists Stage Halloween Parade Outside the Governor’s Office

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Richmond residents from Broad Street to North 9th were witness to a parade of costumed protesters Wednesday, warning of “a place where the air is so polluted it causes headaches, nosebleeds and illness. A place where your water is the color of toxic mud.”

“On this Halloween day, you may think we are giving the details of a horror story,” said Stacy Lovelace of the Virginia Pipeline Resisters, speaking through a megaphone. “But sadly this is, and will be, the reality for those along the path of the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines.”

The activists marshaled outside the Governor’s Office at the Virginia State Capitol, as they have every week since early February, in protest of the Northam administration’s continued approval of the Mountain Valley (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipelines (ACP).

Following a brief demonstration and recognition of the lives lost from hate crimes at a Kroger in Kentucky and the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the group marched several blocks west to the Office of the Attorney General, chanting all the way. Their protest was joined by unexpected “guests”: life-sized props of Governor Ralph Northam and Secretary of Natural Resources Matthew Strickler, hands stuffed with cash, with cardboard rods sticking out from their noses.

“They dressed as Pinocchio, which is fitting, because they’ve been telling lots of fibs lately,” Lovelace remarked. For her own costume, she wore posters with quotes from multiple studies about the pipelines’ potential to negatively impact the region.

Dominion Energy was recently permitted to begin its 300-mile construction of the ACP, which will stretch across the Commonwealth and includes a compression station. The placement of that station in Buckingham County’s historic and majority-black Union Hill community has made it a particular focus of criticism for those opposed to the projects. 

Activists in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina have taken a variety of measures to stem the pipeline’s progress across their states, from tree sit-ins to chaining themselves to equipment and more. Authorities have responded with arrests and the monitoring of activist groups by anti-terrorism agencies. 

These actions to stop construction have continued even as members of Northam’s own administration show their opposition to the pipelines. The Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice called for a halt to permit approval days before the APC was given the green light, while Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax has continued to lend an open ear to the concerns of the community, along with other public officials who have challenged the developments surrounding this issue. 

Speaking outside the the entrance to the Office of the Attorney General, Lovelace made an appeal to Attorney General Mark Herring, including a letter addressed to him personally, asking him to invoke the power granted to him by Section 401 of the Clean Water Act against the pipelines.

“While we are grateful to your resistance to Trump’s deregulation and other abhorrent policies,” Lovelace said, “we must ask: why are you ignoring these pipeline projects, supported by Trump, here in Virginia? We ask that you immediately take action against these projects, which are true terrors and real life monsters, and stand with the impacted Virginians.”

Along with their weekly protest, the Pipeline Resisters plan to stand with the Union Hill community during the public hearing on the ACP compressor station on November 8 and 9, alongside groups that include Water is Life and Friends of Buckingham. 

“We will be in solidarity with them and helping them with what happens that day,” said Jessica Sims, who leads the Pipeline Resisters with Lovelace.

Photos by George Copeland

NAACP Condemns Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Governor, and Secretary of Natural Resources

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The Virginia State Conference NAACP took state regulators to task for their recent approval of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). In a press statement released Saturday, the group expressed its concerns with the state’s “refusal to protect our land, water and communities,” with a particular focus on environmental and social costs. The group also focused on specific condemnation for the actions of Governor Ralph Northam and Secretary of Natural Resources Matthew Strickler.

“It is well-documented that the permitting processes are flawed, and yet the projects are being allowed to move forward with reckless abandon to our natural environment and communities,” the statement reads.

This criticism came a day after the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality approved a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, giving the go-ahead to Dominion Energy to begin its 300-mile, state-crossing construction. The ACP will join the already-in-progress Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), and will include a compressor station in Buckingham that has seen specific focus and disapproval for its placement in the historic, majority black Union Hill.

In a statement acknowledging the opposition brought against the pipelines’ completion, Strickler said, “We remain dedicated to holding them to the highest environmental standards possible pursuant to state authorities.”

The VSC NAACP weren’t the only group to call out the Northam administration’s actions. The Virginia Pipeline Resisters released their own statement Monday that followed a similar track in their messaging. Along with disapproval for the statements Northam has made through Strickland, both the Pipeline Resisters and VSC NAACP highlighted the negative impact the MVP and ACP’s construction would have on Virginia’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities — with the latter citing a report conducted by the NAACP and CleanAir Task Force on the wide discrepancies in those at risk to toxic chemical emissions in the United States.

Deriding statements from the Governor and Secretary as “riddled with falsehoods,” the Pipeline Resisters wrote that “despite deceptions from the Northam Administration, the State of Virginia’s regulatory entities can and should prevent any further work on the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines.”

Northam’s approval of the pipelines has proven to a frequent issue, stretching from the gubernatorial campaign trail to the day of his inauguration and well into 2018.

This year has seen both the pipelines and Dominion Energy facing steady criticism from a wide spectrum of voices, from established Democrats like Mark Keam, D-Fairfax, congressional candidates that include Jennifer Lewis, 6th District, and community pushback that extends beyond Virginia state lines.

Northam himself has seen opposition to the pipelines’ construction from within his own administration. The Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice called on the suspension of permit approval for the MVP and ACP in a letter to Northam in August, citing the potential negative consequences for poor, indigenous, brown and black communities in the Commonwealth. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, meanwhile, has been open on his antipathy to the pipelines, meeting with religious and community leaders to discuss the matter in mid-September.

A public hearing on a permit for the ACP compressor station is set for November 8 and 9 in Union Hill, Buckingham. 

Community Leaders Ask Fairfax to Halt the Pipelines

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Storm clouds gathered around St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as faith and community leaders prepared for their press conference on Tuesday following an earlier meeting with Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his staff on the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines. When the cameras started, though, the mood of the press conference was sunny.

“It was a very positive meeting,” said writer and attorney Jonathan Sokolow, who opened the press conference flanked by a dozen members of a variety of local activists, religious, and environmental groups, under the church’s exterior hallway.

“They were all very attentive, they took notes, they listened very carefully, seemed impressed with not only the factual information, but the human element that folks who are in the frontline communities fighting these pipelines brought to the table.”

Fairfax’s stance on the MVP and ACP has often stood at odds with Gov. Northam’s, who has continued to allow Dominion Energy’s construction work across multiple state lines and over a thousand rivers and streams, despite increasing outcry from the public, state lawmakers, and his own policy on renewable energy.

The meeting, organized by Beth Deel of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee and Preserve Bent Mountain, wasn’t solely focused on convincing Fairfax to take greater action against the pipelines. Among the topics discussed was a planned natural gas compressor station for the ACP set to be constructed in Union Hill. The Buckingham County district was founded in the 19th century by former slaves, and maintains a majority black population to this day. While Northam has not addressed this controversy, he had voiced concerns about a compressor station to be built near Mount Vernon in Maryland, which was later canceled by Dominion.

The cancellation of the Union Hill compressor station was one of three detailed requests made by the delegation to Fairfax, alongside further appeals to Northam and immediate, public condemnation of the pipelines. That delegation was led by Pastor Paul Wilson of the Union Hill and Union Grove Missionary Baptist Churches, and included Deel, Swami Dayananda of the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville, Trish McLawhorn of NRV Land, Air and Water Watch and Union Hill landowners John and Ruby Laury, who farm on their property.

“We definitely have concerns about emission controls and the contamination of our air and water and ground,” said John Laury, who lives “three-quarters of a mile” from the proposed location for the compressor station. While he admitted that the question of how Union Hill was chosen for this project remains unanswered, Laury said he appreciated the chance to have his voice heard by Fairfax.

“We’re taking time because we do cherish the air that we breathe, and also the water that we drink,” Ruby said.

The Laurys were two of several speakers to stress the racial implications of the pipelines, in addition to their social and economic costs. Special attention was made during the conference to the continued role of indigenous populations in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina in “environmental justice,” as well as the tree sitting protests along the planned paths of construction that have been the subject of scrutiny from local law enforcement and anti-terrorism agencies.

Noting Union Hill’s historic significance to the state, Chair of the Environmental Climate Justice Committee of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP Karen Campblin said: “This intrinsic value in our state is being overlooked and just being tossed aside for the sake of private capital gain.”

“We have communities that are being unheard and we ask that our elected officials listen to us and do what is right.”

As it turned out, Fairfax wouldn’t be the only political figure to be involved in the day’s events. House Representative Mark Keam, D-Fairfax, would make a surprise appearance near the conference’s end, disputing the “incorrect facts” provided by Dominion and other groups on the pipelines’ effects, and the population size and racial makeup of Union Hill’s residents.

Congressional candidate Jennifer Lewis was also in attendance, and shared her experience as President and founder of pipeline opposition group Friends of Augusta, her work documenting the effects construction has had on four potential stream crossings, and how this activism has shaped the public’s response to her campaign in Virginia’s 6th district for the better.

“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, this is a life issue,” Lewis said. “This is their livelihood, they wanted to pass this on to the next generation and now they can’t.”

Members of the delegation and speakers at the press conference will be attending an event held by The Poor People’s Campaign at the First Universalist Unitarian Church in Richmond on September 26. Registration is free and open to the public.

Press conference video from David Martin’s YouTube page.

Government Agency Denies Seasonal Tree Cutting Extension for Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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In a rare turn of events, last Wednesday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied Dominion Energy’s request to extend seasonal tree cutting along the Atlantic Coast Pipeline path (ACP), the proposed 600-mile natural gas line running from West Virginia through North Carolina.

Dominion Energy was originally given until March 14 of this year to cut trees due to time-of-year felling restrictions intended to protect migratory bird species and endangered species such as warblers, owls, and the Indiana bat. FERC determined that “it would not offer an equal or greater level of protection” to extend their allotted time for tree felling, according to the letter sent to Dominion by FERC’s Division of Gas Director, Richard McGuire.

“FERC made the right decision [Wednesday] by holding ACP developers to their promise to protect migratory birds. Tree-cutting restrictions are a critical part of the measures FERC required to minimize the harmful effects of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Greg Buppert said in a statement. “Dominion’s last-minute request to renege on its commitments to environmental protection is another example of the company’s attempt to flex its political muscle for quick rubber-stamp approvals.”

Legal teams and environmental groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Voices, and the Sierra Club have spent the past several years fighting the pipeline construction. Despite these efforts, Dominion predicts the project’s completion by 2020.

“For any large infrastructure project, we have to plan for contingencies,” Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said. “By rearranging some of our construction plans and shifting some work to 2019, we’ll keep the project on track for completion by the end of next year.”

Back Creek Mountain, Highland County. Photo: The Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative

Thus far, Dominion claims to have cut over 200 miles of trees on the projected pipeline path. This rejection to extend tree felling follows another blatant negligence from Dominion, as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) cited 15 violations of State Water Control laws and regulations that occurred during the felling along the ACP last month.

“It’s just criminal that they get permission to do this… They just dropped the trees,” said David Seriff, a Virginia landowner. “They got permission to cut the trees, but they don’t actually have permission to start the pipeline yet. It’s a horrible scar across the land.”

Dominion’s sister project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), has also met resistance from landowners and environmental groups. Similarly to the ACP, locals fear sediment pollution in waterways, unstable conditions due to a karst landscape, damage to private lands and to local endangered species, among other concerns. Last month, MVP began tree felling in the Brush Mountain Wilderness area in the Jefferson National Forest, land that is normally protected by the Department of the Interior.

The United States Forest Service granted MVP the permit required to build through the national forest, roadless land normally reserved for wildlife and outdoor recreation.  

“Normally, the Forest Service is on our side,” said Kirk Bowers, pipelines program coordinator at the Sierra Club. “When Trump came into office, the entire political situation changed and they caved in to pressure from the oil industry and political interests to approve the permits.”

Groups like the Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center continue to take legal action against ACP and MVP. Dominion has permission from FERC to continue tree felling in the fall, once the migratory bird species move on for the winter.

Protesters Call Attention to Sexual Assault on the Pipeline Outside Governor’s Office

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In a continuation of weekly protests outside Gov. Ralph Northam and the Attorneys General’s offices, about 10 anti-pipeline protesters gathered Wednesday morning to voice concerns over the possible increased sexual violence toward women during the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP).

The group, organized by local advocates Stacy Lovelace and Jessica Sims, delivered a series of letters both to Gov. Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, including their concerns over an increase of male pipeline construction workers.

“The first impact that would disproportionately affect women would be the arrival of ‘man camps’ in the areas,” Lovelace said. “The vast majority are male workers. They work 12-hour days, they’re socially isolated, and they end up becoming centers for these men to start sex trafficking. Violence and rape go up, violence against women increases, and this has predominantly affected Native women and girls up to this point. These are the camps that will be coming to Virginia.”

Jessica Sims and Stacy Lovelace

Writers and feminists like Gloria Steinem have written editorials for several publications, including The Boston Globe, citing an increase of sexual violence and sex trafficking due to the large concentration of isolated male pipeline construction workers along these paths.

These workers live in temporary trailer parks often in abandoned or rural areas. Housing is not provided by the companies, and workers are instead charged a monthly rent in addition to the cost of parking the mobile home. Money is tight, which leads to less than ideal living conditions, which according to Vice, contributes to the increased sexual violence. Working conditions are also poor, as the likelihood of death increases seven times when working with oil rigs or natural gas.

The correlation between increased rape and oil fields became so pertinent, the Department of Justice began soliciting grant research in August of 2016 to study the impact. In a statement, the Department of Justice theorized, “oil industry camps may be impacting domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the direct and surrounding communities in which they reside.”

Protesters outside the Governor’s Office

When construction work occurred in the Bakken oil fields, local victim advocates from the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations reported a doubling in the number of hotline calls to victim-service providers for sexual assault, sex trafficking, and domestic violence. Virginia advocates like Lovelace and Sims fear this type of violence may come to the counties along the ACP and MVP.

“Northam ran his campaign claiming to be a strong advocate for women’s rights,” Sims said. “This is a way for him to prove that. He is a doctor and his oath, ‘to do no harm,’ needs to sway his decision and his understanding that this [pipeline] is immediately doing harm.”

Sims said the women plan to continue holding these protests every Wednesday until “the pipeline project is shut down.”