The McAuliffe-Northam Administration made a pretty big mistake this week related to permitting requirements for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). This spells trouble for Lt. Governor Northam and Congressman Perriello who have hinged their positions, or Northam’s non-position, on a special permitting process.
Lt. Governor Ralph Northam announced his harmful environmental agenda in March, saying:
Lieutenant Governor Northam has recommended to Governor McAuliffe and the Department of Environmental Quality that the permitting processes for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipeline projects be as thorough and environmentally responsible as permitted under state and federal law.
He later announced a previously unreleased letter he supposedly sent in February calling on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to require individual water-quality certifications for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, this letter was conveniently sent one week before Congressman Perriello launched his anti-pipeline message.
As the Washington Post explained, Lt. Governor Northam didn’t hesitate to take full credit for directing DEQ to require individual permits:
“I was the one who stepped up and wrote a letter and communicated with the DEQ and recommended that rather than a blanket permit, that we have site-specific permits and because of that, they have decided to do that,” Northam said at a May 2 candidate forum in Arlington.
So what went wrong? As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
When the state Department of Environmental Quality announced in April that it would require individual water-quality certifications for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline projects, environmental groups applauded what they thought would be an exhaustive, stream-by-stream review of the pipelines’ potential construction implications.
The DEQ confirmed Wednesday, however, that it will rely on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers national permit for the hundreds of spots where the pipelines will cross waterways — a “blanket” permit for utility line activities that pipeline opponents say doesn’t do enough to safeguard some of the pristine streams along the routes from sediment that could be dislodged via construction, leveling ridgelines and tree removal, among other effects.
That’s at odds with what DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said April 6, when Hayden told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the DEQ would require certifications for each individual segment that crossed or affected a waterway.
…
Rather than duplicate the Corps’ work, Golden said the state’s individual certifications will focus on “upland areas” not covered in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ process. Those spots, such as ridgelines and hilltops, are outside of the corps’ jurisdiction, but could affect water quality in valleys below.
On May 24th, an advocacy organization opposing the pipeline sent a letter to Governor McAuliffe saying,
We must know – why has the public been misled about your administration’s intentions? If DEQ’s false public statements were due merely to miscommunications amongst agency staff, why has the Department taken six weeks to alert the public to that fact? Will you now ensure that your officials live up to their words and act in a way that fulfills your promises?
In the Northam-Perriello Race to the Left, this ignites another interparty war. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported:
The pipelines have loomed large in the June 13 Democratic gubernatorial primary, with the split between Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam and former Rep. Tom Perriello one of the few areas of daylight between the candidates.
Northam, who has avoided a yes-or-no answer on the pipelines, has fallen back on calling for a “robust and transparent” approval process, taking credit for spurring the DEQ to assert more oversight over the contentious projects.
“I was the only one on this stage that actually wrote a letter to the DEQ and had communication with the DEQ to do what I could as lieutenant governor through the executive branch to make sure that we changed from blanket permitting to a site-specific permitting, which they followed my lead on,” Northam said at a Roanoke debate this month.
If Lt. Governor Northam is going to continue to avoid taking a position on the pipelines, fine, that is his prerogative, but that doesn’t excuse sloppy, politically-motivated actions. And worse, don’t scapegoat the Department of Environmental Quality!
Ed Gillespie has been clear, he supports the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Virginians should know if their candidate for governor opposes affordable, reliable energy that will help spur job creation and economic growth.
Quite simply Lt. Governor Northam refusing to answer if he supports the pipeline is getting old, fast.