Authorship

Atlantic Coast Pipeline

One. Singular. Pipeline. That’s it. That’s everything. Just one pipeline. And it can change
everything for the worse. It’s threatening. It’s perilous. And it’s outright ruinous.

Senators, it’s for the following reasons that I give you today that I urge you to vote in affirmation
of my legislation for the following two reasons: One, the pipeline’s harm to our environment,
and two, the societal effects.

Firstly, Senators, harm to our environment. According to the West Virginian Department of
Environmental Protection, the pipeline will impact our public lands by causing permanent
deforestation, impact threatened and endangered wildlife, result in lower air and water
quality and has already caused slope failures. In addition, the pipeline would lock the
Southeast into fossil fuel-based energy for decades.

This is expanded on by the Southern Environmental Law Center who states that greenhouse gas
emissions from the pipeline are estimated to be 29.96 million tons per year, resulting in a
complete loss of over 4,100 acres of interior forest and convert another 25,000 acres of
interior forest into an “edge” habitat. And the pipeline would likely adversely affect one
threatened species and seven endangered species.

And this doesn’t come close to the damage to the largest estuary in the United States, the
Chesapeake Bay. Morgan Butler, an environmental attorney who spoke at the University of
Richmond School of Law, confirmed that over 200 miles of the pipeline route in Virginia,
including more than 800 stream and wetlands crossings, fall within the Chesapeake Bay
watershed, which is already in part polluted with nutrients and sediment. Construction of
the pipeline would result in increased sedimentation, as well as potential pollutant runoff causing
more harm than good. The impact of this is as clear as day, by affirming this legislation we could
be preventing what would possibly be one of the largest environmental dystrophies.

Secondly, Senators, the societal effects. According to Emily Wyche, an associate attorney states
that Dominion and Duke utilities will pass the costs of the Pipeline’s construction and operation
to their customers. This will increase Dominion’s Customers’ bills by more than 2-billion-

Interior Forest: large unfragmented forest habitat

dollar and Duke’s customers’ bills by 2.7 to 4.1 billion dollars. Senators, Dominion Energy is
forcing their own customers to pay for their 7.5-billion-dollar pipeline that destroys the sole idea
of the pipeline to provide natural-free energy that will benefit thousands.

It won’t benefit thousands because we must focus on the long-term and short-term effects. In an
interview with the Southern Environmental Law Center, The short term effects of the Atlantic
Coast Pipeline would include degradation of air and water quality, loss of important public lands,
harm to threatened and endangered species, and loss of landowners’ private property. Some of
these impacts have already resulted from minimal construction in West Virginia and North
Carolina.

The long-term effects would include increased electricity bills for customers, even if the pipeline
is never used, and locking the region into fossil fuels for decades while delaying the transition to
renewable energy. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is nothing more than a boondoggle, according
to Billy Davies of the Virginia Sierra Club Chapter.

Senators, the scales of justice tips, not for the better, but for the worse. One. Singular. Pipeline.
We must affirm my legislation for the future of Virginia.