Eighteen Democratic committee chairs put their names on a forceful statement Thursday urging Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, both Democrats, to "do all they can to stop the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines."
They joined a growing chorus of Democratic officials pushing the state's top elected leaders to act on the controversial natural gas pipelines, which will be built through some Virginia's most mountainous terrain and cross hundreds of waterways. Opposition stems from a range of concerns: climate change, the use of eminent domain to seize land from unwilling property owners and the hazards construction and operation of the pipelines could pose to water quality.
Mountain Valley Pipeline, planned to be built from West Virginia through the southwestern part of the state, is led by EQT Midstream Partners of Pittsburgh. The longer, Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline is planned to run 600 miles from West Virginia into North Carolina and will carve through the center of Virginia.
The statement, released Thursday night by the Roanoke County Democratic Committee and signed by Democratic committee chairs from Occoquan to Northumberland to Salem, says the pipelines "represent the death rattle of an obsolete industry, one being rapidly overtaken by clean energy sources like wind and solar, and pose a clear threat to Virginia’s groundwater and waterways."
The Loudoun and Arlington Democratic committees have also publicly panned the pipeline projects and the handling of protesters. Twenty Democratic members of the House of Delegates have urged Northam to direct his Department of Environmental Quality to conduct more review of the places where the pipelines will cross waterways.
And Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat up for re-election this year, has expressed concern about the treatment of pipeline protesters, who are sitting in trees to block tree-felling for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and the process used by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the projects.
"Lawyers in the AG’s office have been working to ensure all the relevant agencies and boards understand their responsibilities, duties, and authority as they make decisions regarding these projects," a spokeswoman for Herring said. "The state’s lawyers will continue working to ensure compliance with the law."
So far, Northam's administration hasn't been moved to action. The pipeline companies, who argue the gas is urgently needed for utilities and economic development, and Northam's administration say the projects have been subject to the most rigorous environmental review the state has ever performed. However, the DEQ has acknowledged that, in its 25-year history, it has never handled a review of a project on the scale of either pipeline.
“I understand many of the concerns that Virginians are voicing about these projects. I agree with Senator Kaine and others who have said Congress should review the way the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission assesses and permits pipeline projects," Northam said in a statement Friday. "While they take that action, we are fulfilling the state’s role: following the law and ensuring these projects meet the highest environmental standards.”
Many environmental groups, who supported Northam in a big way during his campaign last year, and pipeline opponents disagree, particularly on whether DEQ has done its job in vetting the risks of the projects.
But does letting them down on the most contentious environmental issue in the state pose any risks for Northam and his party with House of Representatives races looming this year and all 140 legislative seats up for election in 2019?
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, doesn't think so.
"He's not on the ballot," said Sabato, noting that Virginia governors cannot serve consecutive terms. "There are only three issues this year: Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump."
Sabato called the pipelines "an important controversy" but not enough to move the needle in races this year and next.
"They're operating at a time when Trump quite literally overshadows everything," Sabato said. “I don't see any giant popular groundswell."
As for Northam himself, "I doubt he runs for any other public office," Sabato said.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, isn't so sure there won't be political consequences. And Northam would be smart to align himself more closely with the pipeline opponents, Farnsworth said.
“There's not a lot of upside for a Democrat to take the side of Dominion on this issue," he said. "Northam's political future, whatever it may be, would be helped rather than hurt by an aggressive stand in favor of environmental activists and property rights activists."
Quentin Kidd, director of the Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, said that, for now, Northam is in a "good spot" in relation to the environmental groups and activists that backed his campaign.
"The environmental crowd has nowhere else to go," Kidd said.
However, a major calamity involving the projects, such as water contamination, could convert friends to foes, Kidd said.
“It's at the moment that there’s a disaster that those positions change."