–Written by Pam Tinker, a recent visitor to “No Pipeline Summer: A Camp to Save the Limperts’ Land”
Greetings from Bath County Virginia!
Bruce and I are visiting the home and land of Bill and Lynn Limpert to see firsthand their land in the path of Dominion’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. We urge you to bring a group to “No Pipeline Summer” to see and hear for yourself how sinister this proposal really is! Bill and Lynn are gracious and knowledgeable hosts. You will learn so much and the drive is beautiful!
We went for a beautiful walk this Sunday morning along the steep ridges and in the old-growth forest of trees that are several centuries old. I tried to imagine how a pipeline could possibly be built along these steep ridges without causing grave damage to the ecosystems and the waterways that feed to the James River and then to the Chesapeake Bay. The idea that a for-profit company is given the right to force their way onto private land and our public lands for economic profit using eminent domain is abhorrent to me.
I am incensed that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) did not hold hearings in Northern Virginia and that
our local media is not covering the connection that this pipeline has to all Virginians. It has intentionally been framed a Southwest Virginia issue that does not concern us, although we will be the ones who pay the estimated $1.6 to $2 billion cost of pipeline construction in Virginia through increased utility rates. Our increased rates will pay for their stockholders’ profits. The existing underutilized pipeline system is adequate for Virginia’s future energy needs at a much cheaper cost with minor adaptations.
This project is not for the public good: Virginians already have an adequate gas supply, and increased fossil fuel transmission will result in increased CO2 production and increased global warming. Dominion has the expertise, money, and ability to turn the company toward the path of renewable energy if forced to do so by the public and/or by Governor Northam, the state Water Control Board, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), or DEQ.
Pipeline construction contributes to an existential threat to humans, and must be stopped. The expertise and knowledge of our scientific community must be respected and utilized.
Please call Governor Northam’s office at 804-786-2211 (during weekdays) and write to Honorable Ralph Northam,
Governor of Virginia, P.O. Box 1475, Richmond, VA 23218 and tell him to STOP the PIPELINES!
And click here to sign up for No Pipeline Summer. You won’t regret it!
