Action Needed Now
From our Conservation Chair, Marcia Mabee Bell:
A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that will be voted on in Committee tomorrow , June 10, or Thursday, June 11. While time is very short, I think the VNPS membership should know about this bill which is an absolute work around the current FERC regulatory process in order to benefit industry. If you agree after reading the letter below, written by the ABRA Chairman, Lewis Freeman, please take action thru the link provided at the end.
Members of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance:
Legislation in the Congress that would provide the Secretary of the Interior with the authority to negotiate rights-of-way for natural gas pipelines on National Park System lands – currently exempt under the Mineral Leasing Act – is on the schedule to be marked-up by the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday or Thursday of this week (June 10 and 11). A markup memo on H.R. 2295 was released yesterday and is available at:
http://naturalresources.house.
A copy of the bill as introduced is available at http://abralliance.org/?page_
Greg Buppert of the Southern Environmental Law Center testified at a subcommittee hearing on May 20. A copy of his testimony is available at http://naturalresources.house.
1. Proposed pipelines that cross federal lands in Virginia will have
significant impacts for private property and local communities.
2. Virginia needs a regional planning process that fully involves the public.
3. The draft National Energy Security Corridors Act is not the responsible
planning tool that we need.
4.
In order to get this right in Virginia and everywhere else and minimize the impacts of natural gas pipelines, we need public involvement.ABRA members and their organizations are encouraged to write members of the committee expressing concern about the bill. Committee members and links to their websites and contact information is available at http://naturalresources.house.
– Lew
Lewis Freeman
Chair, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance