For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019
Contact:
Lee Francis | Deputy Director
Virginia League of Conservation Voters
(804) 225-1902 | lfrancis@valcv.org
RICHMOND – Today, the State Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-0 to approve an air permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s Buckingham Compressor Station. The vote brings to an end a highly controversial and tumultuous process, marked by the removal in November of two dissenting board members in the middle of an important regulatory decision, who voiced concerns about the Buckingham Compressor Station’s disproportionate impact on the majority African-American community of Union Hill.
In response to today’s vote, Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, offered the following statement:
“We are disappointed in today’s outcome. This flawed process has exposed the evil-handed tactics Dominion Energy will employ and the communities they are willing to destroy to secure billions of dollars in profits. We stand with the Virginians who demand leadership from our elected officials to hold this corrupt electric monopoly accountable.
Dominion’s compressor station continues to present a significant and toxic threat that will fall unfairly on the people of Union Hill, and marks perhaps the electric monopoly’s most egregious disenfranchisement of any impacted community along the route of their unnecessary and destructive pipeline.
But an important fact remains: though Dominion has a permit in hand for the compressor station, their flawed Atlantic Coast Pipeline does not currently have any way to connect to Buckingham. At every turn, this pipeline has failed to pass legal muster, and while Dominion might be able to game a regulatory process, they can’t game the judiciary.”
About us:
The Virginia League of Conservation Voters serves as the political voice of the state’s conservation community, working to make sure Virginia’s elected officials recognize that our natural heritage is an environmental and economic treasure for all. Virginia LCV works with conservation leaders across Virginia and strives for a conservation majority in state government. We secure good public policies on the state level and hold public officials accountable for their positions on environmental issues. For more information, visit www.valcv.org.
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