Eighteen members of the Virginia General Assembly – 4 Senators and 14 Delegates – wrote the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late last week asking the Commission to issue a stop work order and revoke the Certificate of Public Convenience that was issued to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The legislators’ June 11 letter stated:
The ACP was first announced in 2014, and approved by FERC in 2017 with the issuance of the Certificate. The pipeline developers have never demonstrated public need for the ACP. Falling renewable energy prices, a growing body of evidence that the developers have overstated the demand for gas, and recent upgrades to existing pipeline infrastructure that have increased total availability capacity, further indicate the lack of need for the ACP. At a time of rapid climate change, it would lock not just Virginia but the entire Southeast region into decades of climate-disrupting fossil fuel use. Additionally, Virginia ratepayers would be on the hook for these decades-long unnecessary costs.
The letter was spearheaded by Sen. Creigh Deeds, whose 25th District includes Highland, Bath and Nelson County, through which the ACP route prominently passes. A similar letter to FERC was sent April 12 by 22 members of the North Carolina General Assembly.