Pressure from state lawmakers in both parties, as well as from hundreds of people who showed up at a series of public hearings this month, is mounting on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and state Water Control Board to slow or reconsider the water quality certifications it intends to issue for a pair of natural gas pipeline projects.
In a filing this month with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, an environmental law group contends that, contrary to the company’s claims that it will save ratepayers money, Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline could cost its captive Virginia customers more than $2 billion in unnecessary costs to benefit its shareholders.
And another environmental group has taken to the airwaves with an ad attacking Dominion’s safety record and urging viewers to call Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an early and enthusiastic supporter of both the Atlantic Coast and shorter Mountain Valley Pipeline planned for southwestern Virginia by EQT Midstream Partners.
The stepped-up offensive from pipeline opponents comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approves gas pipelines and has issued favorable environmental impact statements for both pipeline projects, has a quorum again for the first time since February. The commission could act on the two projects any day, said Mary O’Driscoll, a FERC spokeswoman.
When FERC, as many expect it will, approves the pipelines, the last hope for environmentalists, some landowners in the pipelines’ path and others looking to block the projects, will shift to the Water Control Board. That body is expected to vote in November on a recommendation from the DEQ that there is a “reasonable assurance” that the pipelines’ construction will not violate Virginia water-quality standards.
Richmond Times-Dispatch – Robert Zullo – 08.20.2017
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