On Friday April 12, 2019, a group of ten religious, social justice, and civil rights organizations filed a “friend of the court” brief urging the Federal Court of Appeals in DC to revoke the key federal permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

The ten groups are Center for Earth Ethics (headed by Karenna Gore); Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, Repairers of the Breach (led by Rev. William Barber III); Satchidananda Ashram – Yogaville, Inc.; Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church; Virginia Interfaith Power & Light; Virginia State Conference NAACP; and WE ACT for Environmental Justice. All we reaffirming long-standing opposition to the ACP.

Jonathan Sokolow, writing in Blue Virginia on April 15, 2019, explains that, “The 50-plus-page court filing states that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) violated federal law and ‘ignored significant minority populations that live along the proposed route.’ It argues that the permit issued by FERC should be revoked because FERC ‘did not take a hard look at the health and environmental effects of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’ on ‘environmental justice communities.’ It points in particular to FERC’s failure to consider the disproportionate effect that the pipeline would have on the historic African American community of Union Hill, in Buckingham County, as well as on Native American communities along the proposed route. As the brief points out, Dominion Energy seeks to build three compressor stations to transport fracked methane ‘natural’ gas along a 600-mile route from West Virginia through Virginia and North Carolina. ‘All three compressor stations would be located in census tracts where the minority population, or the population under the poverty level, is higher than the state average.'”

Martina Cole, writing for NRDC, cites examples of FERC’s flawed analysis:

• Misguided use of census tract data masks communities of color
• Failure to assess adverse, disproportionate impacts on communities of color

She notes that FERC’s actions are a model of environmental injustice. “In the first instance, FERC’s gerrymandered analysis led to the erasure of communities of color, which led to it not analyzing the ACP’s unique effect on these communities, which led to its faulty conclusion that the ACP would have no disproportionately high and adverse impacts on African American communities. Then when FERC did acknowledge the existence of a minority environmental justice community, its striking disregard of the clear health risks to the community amounted to the same erroneous conclusion of no impact. In each case, FERC’s flawed analysis helped produce FERC’s faulty approval of the project. This is what environmental injustice looks like.”

Cole finishes by saying, “It is soberingly clear how and why polluting fossil fuel infrastructure is disproportionately placed in communities of color, and FERC’s permissive and inappropriate approach to reviewing these projects facilitates this environmental injustice. The D.C. Circuit can prevent imminent harm to environmental justice communities along the ACP path by vacating FERC’s undue approval of the ACP. Alternatively, the court could remand the case back to FERC for a real analysis that is consistent with the law’s requirements. Such an analysis would not obscure the facts. It would recognize environmental justice communities and the threats they face. It would reveal the disproportionate burden the ACP would have on vulnerable communities. It would thoroughly review project alternatives. It would demonstrate that environmental justice communities matter. As part of a fulsome public interest analysis, a reasoned environmental justice review would further demonstrate what is already known: that the ACP is not needed, is environmentally unjust, would cause permanent environmental damage, and should be rejected.”

Read Jonathan Sololow’s full Blue Virginia column here.

Read Martina Cole’s full NRDC post here.

Read the full Amicus Brief here.