Panel to take closely watched vote on gas pipeline station
RICHMOND, VA. >> A massive winter storm delayed a closely watched vote in Virginia on a natural gas pipeline compressor station that’s been the frequent target of protests.
A citizen panel that votes on air pollution permits was set to decide Monday whether Virginia’s most powerful corporation can build a natural gas compressor station in a historical African-American community. But the state on Sunday announced the meeting was being pushed back to Dec. 19 because of a winter storm that has made roads dangerous.
Dominion Energy needs the State Air Pollution Control Board to sign off on a permit to build a station in Buckingham County to pump gas through the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
The upcoming vote has become a flashpoint in the yearslong fight over the pipeline and a political imbroglio for Gov. Ralph Northam, who has come under intense criticism for his recent removal of two board members ahead of the vote.
The proposed site is about an hour west of Richmond in Union Hill, a community founded by freed slaves.
Dominion, the lead developer of the pipeline and dominant force in Virginia politics, said it chose the location because it had sufficient acreage for sale and intersects with an existing pipeline. The proposed 600-mile (966-kilometer) Atlantic Coast Pipeline would carry fracked natural gas from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina.
Both Dominion and the Northam administration have said they’ve worked carefully to ensure the station will be as environmentally friendly as possible and won’t harm nearby residents.
“It is the strictest permit for a compressor station in the country,” said Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler.
But opposition has been fierce, both from groups that don’t want the pipeline built at all and by others who worry exhaust from the compressor station will hurt the low-income and elderly residents who live nearby.
Some opponents have accused Dominion of trying to take advantage of Union Hill’s black residents. Richard Walker, who says his greatgrandfather bought a 25-acre homestead in Union Hill for $15 in 1885 as a freed slave, said Dominion is engaged in “environmental racism.”
He said Dominion recently duped the state NAACP into sending a letter to public officials saying it was satisfied with the progress Dominion was making with Union Hill residents. The NAACP quickly reversed course and reaffirmed its opposition to the compressor station after the letter was made public. NAACP president Kevin Chandler did not return a request for comment.