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After Duke Energy and Dominion Energy announced they were cancelling their 600-mile, $8 billion fracked gas pipeline, reactions poured in from around the country. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was originally proposed in 2014 and was slated to pump fracked gas from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, if not further. It was even one of the Trump administration’s top infrastructure priorities, and the poster child for the type of pipeline construction that recent regulatory rollbacks were designed to facilitate. However, massive grassroots opposition, legal challenges, and ever-increasing controversy led to it being years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. It’s cancellation is a historic victory for the environmental movement. Here is a sampling of the reactions:
This is a monumental, historic victory and will have far-reaching implications.
Bloomberg News called the announcement “possibly the biggest victory yet for an environmental movement targeting the conduits carrying fossil fuels,” in a story headlined “Demise of Gas Project Shows U.S. Pipelines Becoming Unbuildable.” The story also noted that the ACP is “the third such project this year to be sidelined or canceled altogether amid mounting opposition to development of coal, oil and gas. Armed with experienced lawyers and record funding, environmental groups are finding enormous success blocking key pipeline permits in court.”
Impacted landowners and communities in the path of the project are thrilled, inspired, and relieved. The Buckingham County, Virginia community organization Friends of Buckingham said they were, “overjoyed with this incredible news” and that the cancellation “was a hard won victory and worth every moment of showing up for hearings, writing letters, marching, legal battles, meeting after meeting and consistently and persistently never giving up.”
Marvin Winstead, a farmer from Nash County, North Carolina fought the seizure of his land by the pipeline developers, saying “[a]s an impacted farmer whose property was in the crosshairs of the route of this unnecessary, unneeded,dirty and dangerous project, this was the best news that I have received since it was announced in 2014.” As far as the impact beyond his farm, he noted that “[t]he environment and the entire planet will both be saved from great damage as a result of the successful actions to stop the ACP!”
Remarkably, the Trump administration also felt the need to weigh in with statements further demonstrating they only want to do the bidding of corporate polluters. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette was unambiguous in ascribing credit to the efforts by environmentalists, failing to acknowledge the efforts by communities along the path of the now rejected project. Not to be outdone, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a tweet that read like an apology to the developers.
The cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a watershed moment in the fight for climate action, and is yet another indicator of the end of fossil fuels.
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.