Well this is certainly interesting:

“A collection of 18 Virginia state lawmakers pressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today to stop the progress of the Atlantic Coast pipeline over fears that ballooning costs could fall on the state’s ratepayers.”

See below for the letter, which is signed by State Senators Creigh Deeds, John Edwards, Jeremy McPike, Lionell Spruill; Delegates John Bell, Jennifer Carroll Foy, Karrie Delaney, Elizabeth Guzman, Patrick Hope, Chris Hurst, Mark Keam, Alfonso Lopez, Ken Plum, Sam Rasoul, Danica Roem, Ibraheem Samirah, Marcus Simon and Kathy Tran. The main points of the letter are that:

• There has never been a demonstrated public need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)
• Today – with falling renewable energy prices, overstated claims for natural gas demand, etc. – there’s definitely not a public need
• Plus, “at a time of rapid climate change, [the ACP] would lock not just Virginia but the entire Southeast into decades of climate-disrupting fossil fuel use.”
• And there are “numerous legal challenges” to the pipeline.
• As if all that’s not bad enough, “Virginia ratepayers would be on the hook for these decades-long unnecessary costs,” with the pipeline’s cost now having ballooned to a whopping $7.8 billion.

For all those reason, the signatories of this letter ask that FERC: a) issue a “stop work order” on the ACP; and b) suspend the Certificate of Public Need and Convenience (COPN) while FERC “reassesses the need” for the ACP.

My only questions are: 1) what took so long for Virginia lawmakers to put in this request, given that we’ve known most of this information for at least a couple years now; 2) while I’m glad to see 18 General Assembly members sign the letter, where are the others, particularly ALL the Democrats? With those caveats, though, I’m certainly happy to see this. Thanks to everyone who helped write this, and to everyone who signed on!