pipelines, fracking, natural gas

Appalachian Voices Calls on Governor Northam to Respect Citizen Boards and Environmental Justice

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, November 15, 2018

Contacts:
Peter Anderson, Virginia Program Manager, peter@appvoices.org, 434-249-6446
Lara Mack, Virginia Field Coordinator, lara@appvoices.org, 540-246-9720

Today it became public knowledge that Governor Northam will replace two members of the State Air Pollution Control Board and at least one member of the State Water Control Board. The decision comes one week after the Air Pollution Control Board voted to delay a final permitting decision on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Buckingham Compressor Station, which would site a 55,000 horsepower industrial facility in the center of a rural, majority African-American community if approved.

Both Samuel Bleicher and Rebecca Rubin, the air board members being replaced, had posed tough questions to DEQ staff and Dominion, the project developer, in a public meeting last week. Roberta Kellum, the water board member who was informed she will be replaced, had made a motion to revoke the certificates for the controversial Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines at a water board meeting earlier this year.

While two air board members and two water board members’ terms officially expired in June, Northam waited until this week to inform them that they will not be reappointed to their posts.

The boards make final decisions on a variety of air and water pollution permits and regulations. They are comprised of seven members apiece, with staggered appointments made by the sitting governor.

The timing of the Governor’s decision is an affront to the board, the citizens of the Commonwealth, and conceptions of transparency and good governance. Discussion at last week’s air board meeting made clear that the board had very serious environmental justice concerns about siting a compressor station so close to the African-American community of Union Hill in Buckingham. But now, with a final vote delayed until December 10, Governor Northam has informed two dedicated public servants who voiced those concerns that they will no longer serve on the board.

Peter Anderson, Appalachian Voices’ Virginia Program Manager:

“Governor Northam has repeatedly promised that the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines would not be built unless they meet the strictest environmental standards. By removing three citizen board members who appeared to be holding the projects to those standards, the governor has undermined his own promise. We are outraged.”

Chesapeake Climate Action Network

I [ lowkell November 15, 2018]  reported a little while ago on Del. Sam Rasoul announcing, at a press conference earlier this afternoon (on, appropriately, an expose about the corrupting power of Dominion Energy), that the Northam administration might dismiss two members of the Air Pollution Control Board, both of whom oppose the compressor station for Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Union Hill. Well, now it turns out they actually ARE replacing the members. Crazy! I mean, how is this not naked corruption by Dominion Energy and the other players involved – including the Northam administration –  rigging the process to get their way when they don’t have any facts on their side, when they likely would have lost a fair vote of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board on the compressor station? Recall that just a few days ago, the Air Pollution Control Board postponed making a final decision on the permit until its meeting on December 10. At the time, many of us were thinking that this was a ploy to buy time, for Dominion and its allies to pull whatever tricks out of their large bag of dirty tricks. Looks like they’ve done just that.

With that, here’s a blistering statement from Harrison Wallace, Virginia Policy Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network: