ELKINS, W. Va. — Those for and against a proposed project to construct a 550-mile pipeline that would transport natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina will have a chance to speak their minds at two public hearings this week.
As part of its environment review of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline proposal presented by Dominion, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and AGL Resources, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be on hand at Elkins High School Monday night and at Bridgeport High School on Tuesday.
Proponents of the project, including Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, believe pipelines are the key to bringing low-cost energy to the country, as well as within the state.
“We’ve got four counties in West Virginia, or five counties, that don’t have any natural gas utility,” DeMarco said. “Now that we have this supply that we have certainty in, we need to be building these pipelines as fast as we can.”
The ACP project would not directly transport gas for use commercial use in those counties, but Demarco said if pipeline projects can build a reputation for success, more will follow.
Opponents of the project have been vocal in their concens regarding impacts construction and placement of the pipelines could have on the environment.
DeMarco counters that pipelines in West Virginia are nothing new.
“People don’t understand that there’s 30,000 miles worth of pipeline under the state of West Virginia. It is the most efficient way to deliver natural gas to households and to businesses.”
The Pipeline Safety & Hazardous Materials Administration has been tracking these pipelines since 2003 and, as compiled by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 19 “significant incidents” have occurred through 2014, resulting in five fatalities, nine injuries and $13,728,650 in property damages.
Environmentalist groups would prefer the utilization of alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind.
However, DeMarco does not believe they can hold their own in the free market.
“I don’t want to discount [renewable energy sources, I just don’t believe, today, that in an unsubsidized market they could compete against the voluminous amount of natural resources this country has, especially in the Appalachian Basin.”
Outside of environmentalist groups, land owner rights groups have been opposed to the projects.
Organizations such as Appalachian Mountain Advocates have pushed back against companies threatening legal action if denied permission to survey land for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project by filing “declaratory judgment actions asking the circuit courts to declare that Mountain Valley Pipeline can neither survey nor seize property under West Virginia law because the pipeline is not a public use,” according to Derek Teaney, Senior Attorney with Appalachian Mountain Advocates.
While DeMarco understands wanting to guard one’s property rights, he believes these individuals are overlooking the greater good.
“We need to be tolerant and less of this ‘Not in my backyard’ and more of the optimism that goes with jobs, and future, and keeping our kids home and national security and all the ‘Mom and apple pie’ stuff that folks in West Virginians are accustomed to listening too.”
Monday’s meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Elkins High School and Tuesday’s meeting will begin the same time at Bridgeport High School.