Compressor station permit meeting postponed

Today’s much-anticipated meeting of the State Air Pollution Control Board, which saw two members replaced by Gov. Ralph Northam as it weighed a crucial permit for a compressor station that is part of Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, has been postponed because of the snow.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says the meeting will now be held Dec. 19.

The compressor station will be sited in a largely African-American community in Buckingham County, and the governor’s own Advisory Council on Environmental Justice has said it “may have a disproportionate impact on this predominately African-American community and could be perceived as exhibiting racism in siting, zoning and permitting decisions and public health risk.”

Though the board is not scheduled to take public comment at the meeting, activists, including former Vice President Al Gore’s daughter Karenna Gore and actor Don Cheadle, along with some state lawmakers, affected landowners and others, signed an open letter urging that the public be allowed to address the board.

“The legacy of placing toxic facilities in places where they disproportionately affect poor communities of color is unjust and unacceptable and needs acute examination,” the letter says. “It is not right to look the other way while this continues.”