Poll: Majority of likely Virginia voters favor pipeline

Nelson County Times, By Emily Brown

Results of a survey released last Wednesday show a majority of likely Virginia voters support the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.

Statewide, 55 percent of respondents said they support the Atlantic Coast Pipeline — which would run 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina and through Virginia, including Nelson County — while 29 percent oppose it and 16 percent are unsure.

The project currently is being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which said in the past couple months the deadline for authorization is Sept. 28, 2017.

Results released by The Tarrance Group, the firm that was commissioned by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce to conduct the poll, said 500 “likely voters” across the commonwealth were surveyed by telephone from Oct. 12 through Oct. 15.

“If this were an election, it would be a landslide,” said Aaron Ruby, spokesman for Dominion, which is proposing the pipeline. “Virginians understand that natural gas is a cleaner alternative to coal and that this pipeline will help us improve our environment. They understand that we need to build new infrastructure to grow our economy and power the lives of a growing population.”

Respondents were read the following about the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline:

“There is a proposal to build an underground natural gas pipeline called the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The pipeline would bring domestically produced natural gas to families and businesses in Virginia and North Carolina to meet energy and electricity needs. The pipeline would begin in West Virginia, travel across Virginia, and end in Eastern North Carolina.”

The poll results also were broken down by media markets. Fifty-four percent of likely voters in the Washington, D.C., market support the project, while 56 percent and 57 percent surveyed in the Richmond and Roanoke areas are in favor of the pipeline, respectively.

In the rest of the state, which includes Nelson County, according to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, support was at 51 percent.

Additionally, 35 percent of all likely voters polled said they strongly support the project, while 19 percent strongly oppose the pipeline.

The Tarrance Group said the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Ernie Reed, president of anti-pipeline group Friends of Nelson, said in an interview Monday he is unhappy with the wording used in the question about the pipeline, calling it a “three-sentence sound bite.”

“I don’t think it’s worth the paper that it’s printed on,” Reed said of the survey results.

He believes the proposed pipeline project and its ramifications are complex, and likely voters should have been offered more information before being asked whether they support it.

The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, however, stands by the poll and The Tarrance Group.

On its website, The Tarrance Group says it’s “one of the most widely respected and successful Republican strategic research and polling firms in the nation.”

According to Communications Director Paul Logan, this survey marked the first time the Virginia Chamber of Commerce has worked with The Tarrance Group. Logan said the firm has a “good national reputation as an accurate and well-respected polling outfit.”

Logan said the chamber is confident the methodology and results of the survey provide a good picture of the statewide opinions of likely voters.

Ruby said: “While a small but vocal minority of opponents has received disproportionate attention, the vast majority of Virginians support this pipeline as a common sense solution to our growing energy needs. They want a cleaner environment; they want new industries; they want good-paying jobs. And they understand that it takes infrastructure like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to make it all possible.”