Richmond Times-Dispatch
by Editorial Staff

The ink hadn’t yet dried on federal approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline before furious condemnations rained down. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had simply “rubber-stamped” the applications, critics complained.

Really? Because at 157 pages, that’s one heck of a big stamp.

To the contrary, FERC delves deeply into the arguments presented by critics of the pipeline. Two of the three commissioners found those arguments wanting. (E.g., “to the extent a ratepayer receives a beneficial service, paying for that service does not constitute a ‘subsidy.’” Combining the two pipelines would “triple air quality impacts” in the staff’s estimation. Etc.)

The storm and strife over the ACP and MVP obscure the fact that more than 23,000 miles of gas pipelines already crisscross Virginia, and nobody gives them a second thought. Not everything Dominion wants merits approval — the rate-freeze law looked dubious from the outset, and hasn’t aged well — but the case against the pipelines rests more on hysteria than fact. FERC’s latest decree is simply further proof.

Read the full editorial in Richmond Times-Dispatch.