The Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, a coalition of 51 organizations in Virginia and West Virginia, disputes the avowed need and appropriateness for the APC because it would:
- Threaten the integrity and safety of water supplies in the immediately affected communities and other communities that are dependent upon water originating in the Allegheny-Blue Ridge region;
- Present serious safety risks because of the proven instability of the karst topography which
these proposed routes would traverse, as well as the danger of pipeline failures; - Endanger the structural character and seriously increase the possibility of long-term erosion in the steep mountain terrain through which the routes would pass;
- Harm the habitat of many protected species of plants and animals unique to the region;
- Compromise the intended uses of public lands, particularly the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests;
- Degrade the usefulness of affected agriculture and forest resources;
- Lower the value of private property of land owners along the routes;
- Diminish the cultural and recreational attractions of the affected communities and the region as a whole; and
- Disrupt and adversely impact the economies and livelihoods of the people and communities affected by the proposed routes.
We are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider all of the
foregoing concerns as it evaluates the application of the ACP. Furthermore, we strongly believe that FERC must:
- Conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that assesses the need for and impacts of the ACP in the context of other natural gas infrastructure projects proposed for the region and consider the rapidly increasing competitiveness of clean, renewable sources of energy;
- Investigate the demand for more natural gas in the markets that the ACP would reportedly serve and the need for new pipelines to meet that demand, given that recent credible studies have concluded that the existing pipeline infrastructure may be adequate; and
- Evaluate the expected life of the Marcellus shale field since recent analyses have predicted that production from the field will soon begin to decline.
Find out how to join ABRA in communicating these and your personal views to FERC.