FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Cassady Craighill, Clean Virginia Communications Director
[email protected], 828-817-3328
Dominion and Duke Energy Cancel Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Strong Opposition Across Virginia and Legal Challenges Render Project Unviable
July 5, 2020
Charlottesville, VA — Dominion Energy announced today the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In response, Clean Virginia Executive Director Brennan Gilmore said:
“Today marks a huge win for Virginia. For years, communities across the Commonwealth have fervently opposed the unnecessary and dangerous Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the most acute manifestation of Dominion Energy’s commitment to putting its financial interests above the health and economic well-being of Virginians. We owe a debt of gratitude to the many Virginians, from community activists to environmental lawyers, who successfully fought this project. We also thank Virginia’s General Assembly, which unanimously passed a law this year that created serious obstacles for Dominion Energy to pass the ballooning cost of the pipeline onto Virginians.”
“As Virginia faces an unprecedented climate crisis and economic uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that our utilities put public service above maximizing profit. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was never in the best interests of Virginians. That it was allowed to fester as long as it did is evidence of a fundamentally broken utility system that will only be remediated through structural reform. While we welcome the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s demise, this only marks the end to one symptom of the structural problem of Virginia’s monopoly utilities–the problem itself remains. We must all remain vigilant and continue working towards the creation of a sensical utility system that prioritizes the public interest and prevents projects like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from ever seeing the light of day.”
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Clean Virginia is an independent advocacy organization with an associated Political Action Committee, Clean Virginia Fund. Clean Virginia works to fight corruption in Virginia politics in order to promote clean energy and community control over our energy policy. For more information, visit cleanvirginia.org.