On February 23, Dominion Power announced four additional alternate routes in Nelson County for its proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), nearly doubling the number of land owners affected. Augusta now has nine possible ACP routes, and Dominion has added one alternate route in Buckingham County.
Holding an Open House in Nelson for all three counties is a first, especially since we were told by Dominion representatives they didn't have to hold it all. When landowners complained the maps presented for their use in viewing all these routes were extremely difficult to read, Dominion agreed! Suffice it to say, the anti-pipeline booths set up outside the venue were very busy. Most people were joining Nelson's anti-pipeline groups, buying No Pipeline signs and t-shirts, and asking how they could help with the resistance.
Free Nelson organized a protest for the event, centered around Dominion's purchase of Virginia's elected officials. On February 5, about 50 citizen lobbyists attended the General Assembly session to lobby for the repeal of the survey without permission law passed in 2004. They lobbied Virginia's Senators in the morning and attended the Commerce and Labor Committee meeting where the bill was promptly killed without a motion.
Local citizens wore tent cards at Tuesday's Open House with a Senator's name who serves on the Commerce and Labor Committee and comments which read "bought and paid for by Dominion" and "Dominion bought my vote for" and the dollar amount of contributions. Governor McAuliffe and Senator Warner were included in the protest, because McAuliffe supports the proposed ACP, and then-Governor Warner signed the 2004 survey bill into law. Each "Citizen Senator" also had an envelope of "Commonwealth of Dominion" bucks equalling their specific pay off received from Dominion. Senator Dick Saslaw won the prize for the largest amount of contributions received at over $240,000.
At the end of the evening, the "Citizen Senators" went to Dominion's "Public Input" table where they sang a revised version of the old Lesley Gore song, "You Don't Own Me" and returned all of Dominion's contributions received by our legislators in "Commonwealth of Dominion" bucks.
Photos by Marion Kanour and Jennifer Lewis
