page_title: Atlantic Coast Pipeline
section_title: Opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
hierarchical_section_title: Atlantic Coast Pipeline / Opposition to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
caption_attribution_description: Protest against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Staunton, Virginia
context_page_description: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was a planned natural gas pipeline slated to run 600 miles from West Virginia, through Virginia, to eastern North Carolina. It was cancelled in July 2020.
context_section_description: Plans for the pipeline led to protests from landowners in its path, largely in Virginia. An anti-pipeline group, "All Pain No Gain," raised money to run radio and television advertising in opposition of the pipeline, and dozens of landowners attempted to block surveyors from their property, though the pipeline's developers filed lawsuits against them, and Virginia law permits surveying on private property, as well as the use of eminent domain in construction. Local community groups, including Nelson County, VA-based Friends of Wintergreen, a not-for-profit group representing the largest residential and recreational communities in Virginia, retained national pipeline engineers and environmental specialists to demonstrate the technical infeasibility and inappropriateness of the project in western Virginia. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center (a Charlottesville, Virginia-based non-profit), and Appalachian Voices, also expressed opposition. After the issuance of the draft EIS, a Sierra Club official said that the developers had not proven the demand for the gas transported by the pipeline, as well as criticizing the EIS for not addressing the risks of building a pipeline through unstable karst terrain prone to sinkholes and landslides. An official at Dominion Energy, said that the pipeline route had been adjusted 300 times, for a total of 250 miles (400 km) of rerouting, since its original draft in order to accommodate "environmentally sensitive areas" and other concerns. Exaggerated claims of job creation were challenged by student reporters in West Virginia.
  Critics note that the proposed route disproportionately impacts Native Americans, including members of the Meherrin, Haliwa-Saponi, Coharie, and Lumbee Tribes of North Carolina. Data from the EIS show that Native Americans make up over 13% of the population living in census tracts located within one mile of the proposed route through North Carolina while constituting only 1.2% of the state's population. Although the EIS contained an environmental justice analysis as required by federal Executive Order 12898, the analysis failed to identify disproportionate impacts, leading an academic researcher to highlight links between the flawed analysis and the failure of regulators and developers to adequately consult tribal governments. The same researcher noted similarities between tribal consultation issues surrounding both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Individual tribal governments and North Carolina's Commission of Indian Affairs have raised formal concerns to federal regulators about lack of government consultation on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. The National Congress of American Indians also issued a formal resolution calling for permitting activities to cease until regulators engage in meaningful consultation with the Haliwa-Saponi and other tribes living along the proposed route. Overall, approximately 30,000 Native Americans live in census tracts located within one mile of the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
  Communities that would be affected by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline have begun direct, nonviolent action to oppose it. Bill and Lynn Limpert, who own 120 acres of property near the pipeline's planned route, organized a summer encampment titled "No Pipeline Summer: Camp to Save the Limperts’ Land.” The encampment, which lasted through the summer of 2018, was composed of visitors opposed to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline or the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
  One major lawsuit filed in opposition to the pipeline was due to permits granted by the United States Forest Service (USFS) to allow a 0.1 miles (0.16 km) run of the pipeline to cross about 600 feet (180 m) under the Appalachian Trail. A coalition of environmental groups filed suit against the USFS and the development group on several grounds, including that the decision to issue the permit was arbitrary and capricious and that the special use right of way authority for the lands of the Appalachian Trail, considered part of t
caption: Protest against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Staunton, Virginia, 21 October 2018
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