To: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Secretary Kimberly Bose
Help Stop the Fracking Industry’s Pipeline Race Across Appalachia
We demand a single, comprehensive, regional review of the impacts of all four fracked gas pipelines proposed for the Blue Ridge and Appalachian regions of Virginia and West Virginia: the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Appalachian Connector, and the WB Xpress project.
The only way to understand the true cost of these projects -- to our climate, our health, our safety, or our land and unique natural resources -- is to evaluate them together. Anything short of a single regional review, or Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, would shirk FERC’s duty under the law and endanger the safety of our communities and climate.
Why is this important?
In their rush to extract every last drop of gas from the shale fields of West Virginia, Dominion and their allies have kicked off a race to build four new pipeline projects across the Blue Ridge and Appalachian regions of Virginia and West Virginia.
Each of these projects would trigger more fracking, destroy our neighbors’ lands, require dangerous new compressor stations, and unleash a new pulse of greenhouse gas pollution. Together, these projects -- Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Appalachian Connector, and the WB Xpress Project -- would be an absolute disaster for our climate and communities.
That’s why the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, alongside allies like the Appalachian Mountain Advocates, the Virginia Sierra Club, the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, and dozens of local groups, is calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to complete a single, comprehensive regional review of the impacts of ALL FOUR fracked gas pipelines.
Left to its own devices, we know that FERC will evaluate these pipelines in a vacuum. But the only way to understand the true cost of these dangerous projects is to evaluate them together. In fact, FERC has a legal obligation to do a single, comprehensive review of ALL related projects in a single geographic region.
Dominion filed its federal application to build the 564-mile, $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline in mid-September. A joint venture of companies led by EQT Partners filed their application for the second major pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, in mid-October. We need to speak out now. This is our chance to hold FERC accountable, and derail an unprecedented expansion of fracked gas infrastructure across our beautiful region.