By Public Accountability Initiative
An economic impact study of Enbridge's proposed Line 3 replacement pipeline released by the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) was financed by an Enbridge-backed business group to which UMD has multiple close ties, all which the study failed to disclose, according to a new report.
The report from the nonprofit watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) documents the major undisclosed conflicts of interest surrounding the UMD study, including that the group that requested the study and paid UMD for it, the Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX), is closely tied to and funded by Enbridge, and that, along with Enbridge, UMD is a dues-paying members of APEX, giving it $30,000 a year.
<p style=""><span></span>UMD Chancellor Lendley Black also sits on the board of APEX alongside fellow board member Lorraine Little, Enbridge's U.S. director of public affairs, and UMD Natural Resources Research Institute Director Rolf Weberg sits on APEX's Executive Committee, all facts which UMD failed to disclose in its study.</p><p style=""><span></span>The results of the study that the Enbridge-backed APEX paid UMD to produce have been pushed by APEX and other Line 3 boosters in the media and in public hearings. Other fossil fuel corporations that have publicly supported the pipeline, such as Allete's Minnesota Power, also have close ties to UMD and APEX, the report shows.</p><p style=""><span></span>"The conflicts of interest surrounding this study are huge," said Derek Seidman, a research analyst at PAI and author of the report. "Public universities exist for the purpose of public education and the public good, not as promotional vehicles for industry-backed research. People making up their minds about Line 3 deserve to have their public institutions support more responsible and transparent studies that aren't so closely linked to the very entities aiming to profit off of the pipeline."</p><p style=""><span></span><span style="background-color: initial;">The report highlights other major conflicts of interests surrounding the UMD study, including that the </span><span style="background-color: initial;">Duluth News Tribune</span><span style="background-color: initial;">, the Twin Ports region's main newspaper which has published favorable editorials and op-eds on Enbridge's Line 3 proposal that cite the results of the UMD study, is a paying member of APEX alongside both Enbridge and UMD. </span><span style="background-color: initial;">Duluth News Tribune </span><span style="background-color: initial;">publisher Neal Ronquist sits on the APEX board alongside Enbridge and UMD.</span></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: initial;"></span><span style="background-color: initial;">The </span><span style="background-color: initial;">Duluth News Tribune</span> has failed to disclose these major conflicts of interest in its coverage of Line 3 and the UMD study, especially the facts that the <span style="background-color: initial;">Tribune </span><span style="background-color: initial;">is a member of and funds the very group—on whose board it sits, alongside Enbridge and UMD—that commissioned the UMD study.</span></p><p style=""><span style="background-color: initial;"></span><span style="background-color: initial;">"These are stark professional and ethical failings on the part of the </span><span style="background-color: initial;">Duluth News Tribune</span> and its reporting on Line 3 and the UMD study," said Seidman. "People making up their minds about Line 3 deserve to know if their leading media sources, which ideally they should trust, have major conflicts of interest around coverage of the topic."</p><p style=""><span></span>The report also analyzes the UMD study's methodological flaws, including its use of IMPLAN, a modeling program that can be easily manipulated to arrive at varied results, and its reliance on inputs provided by Enbridge—the very company behind the Line 3 pipeline—to generate the study's findings. The study also doesn't take into account the likely costs associated with environmental damage, declining property values, and emissions that the pipeline will surely create.</p>
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How This Energy Company's Deep Influence Is Tainting Atlantic Coast Pipeline Approval Process
08 June 2017
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Pipeline in Pennsylvania State Forest. StateImpact PA
By Andy Rowell
There is a growing political scandal in Virginia regarding the ubiquitous influence of the state's largest energy company, Dominion Energy, and it's raising fundamental questions about the integrity of the governor's office and state regulators who will decide the fate of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Dominion's longstanding exercise of power and influence in Virginia is no secret—the company is the largest corporate donor to state candidates.
<p>But a new <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762551/AtlanticCoastPipelineReport.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2017/06/the-power-behind-the-pipelines-atlantic-coast-pipeline/" target="_blank">Public Accountability Initiative</a> documents in one place the company's extensive, revolving door relationships with the very regulators charged with issuing permits for this controversial, $5 billion <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/">fracked-gas</a> project.</p><p>The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a joint venture of Dominion, Duke Energy and Southern Company, but Dominion is the leading owner and will operate the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipeline</a> if it goes ahead.</p><p>The project, which would source fracked gas from West Virginia, plans to traverse the Allegheny Highlands bordering West Virginia and Virginia, cut a large swath through Virginia to the Hampton Roads area, and branch south into North Carolina.</p><p>The new report details how Dominion's influence penetrates every level of state government, from Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) officials, through General Assembly members on both sides of the aisle, to the governor's mansion.</p><p>These relationships are fundamental to the fate of the pipeline.</p><p>While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to rubber stamp the pipeline's federal permit, states retain the right under the Clean Water Act to protect their water resources—the project will cross hundreds of water bodies in the state—and deny permits for such projects if they are deemed a threat.</p><p>The Cuomo Administration in New York State has recently <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2016/04/22/new-york-state-denies-permit-to-constitution-pipeline-halting-construction/" target="_blank">denied</a> <a href="http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/08/dec-denies-necessary-water-quality-permits-gas-pipeline/" target="_blank">two</a> such permits for gas pipelines. In Virginia, Governor McAuliffe's Department of Environmental Quality <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2017/05/31/to-lead-on-climate-virginia-governor-must-stop-pipelines/" target="_blank">has the authority</a> to do the same, but both the governor and the regulators who report to him have shown far greater interest in smoothing Dominion's path through the regulatory system.</p><p>The report sheds light on possible reasons why.</p><p>Gov. McAuliffe, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-backs-550-mile-natural-gas-pipeline-disappointing-environmentalists/2014/09/02/e1bd59c6-32a5-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html?utm_term=.5a4548622ecf" target="_blank">who stood with</a> Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell in 2014 as he unveiled plans for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, has received tens of thousands of dollars in political funding from Dominion. He received $35,000 from Dominion PAC shortly before his election in November 2013, and Dominion Virginia Power gave $50,000 to his inaugural committee shortly afterwards. More recently in 2016, Dominion PAC gave $25,000 to McAuliffe's PAC, Common Good VA, and Dominion CEO Tom Farrell gave $7,500.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy85OTA0MjUwL29yaWdpbi5wbmciLCJleHBpcmVzX2F0IjoxNjIyMjAxMzk3fQ.jgYYKw3k1o8w-rXbEJ_Dm4sQ1cg_Ep4dq3mLWmuAsTs/img.png?width=980" id="5996c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="079296d1dbfdd74d6455c82f9b6c6dfd" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">LittleSis.org</small></p>
<p>The DEQ, the key agency charged with reviewing the pipeline's water quality permit, is mired in conflicting interests linked to Dominion. For example, the DEQ's longstanding director, David K. Paylor, received gifts from Dominion including a trip to the <a href="http://wtvr.com/2016/03/15/head-deq-official-accepted-dominion-gifts-including-paid-trip-to-masters-tourney/" target="_blank">2013 PGA Masters Tournament in Augusta</a>, Georgia, and a $1,200 dinner for Paylor and nine of his associates.</p><p>In 2015, Dominion's philanthropic foundation <a href="https://www.dom.com/library/domcom/pdfs/corporate/our-commitments/community/education/env-grants-2015.pdf?la=en" target="_blank">donated $45,000</a> to the <a href="https://www.allianceforthebay.org/" target="_blank">Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay</a>, an organization whose Virginia chapter is headed by <a href="http://wamu.org/story/16/03/14/has_dominions_political_power_clouded_the_fight_over_coal_ash/" target="_blank">Nissa Dean</a>, who sits on the Virginia DEQ's seven-member Water Control Board, which must sign off on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline's water permit.</p><p>DEQ's Water Permitting Division Director, Melanie Davenport, appears to have previously served as an attorney for Dominion, according to the report. Davenport also sits on the board of the <a href="http://www.vwrrc.vt.edu/">Virginia Water Resources Research Center</a> with Joe Tannery, who is Dominion's energy technology advisor.</p><p>Pamela Faggert, Dominion's chief environmental officer and senior vice president of sustainability, served for nearly eight years as director of the air division of the Virginia DEQ in the late eighties and early nineties. <a href="http://www.vpap.org/donors/25525-pamela-frailey-faggert/?start_year=all&end_year=all+1&recip_type=all" target="_blank">The pipeline</a> also has to receive regulatory approval from the air division. Furthermore, Faggert has donated over $10,000 to Virginia politicians, including supporters of the ACP.</p><p>Given the extensive revolving door between Dominion and DEQ, it is perhaps no surprise that DEQ recently came under fierce criticism over relinquishing partial oversight of water quality permits related to the pipeline to the Army Corps of Engineers' national permitting system.</p><p>As one commentator noted last month, this means that Dominion can use the "corps' <a href="http://www.dailyprogress.com/newsvirginian/news/local/deq-draws-ire-of-pipeline-opponents/article_5e5289e4-41ac-11e7-adfd-f30013a3538d.html" target="_blank">blanket permit</a>, instead of having to get one for each river, stream and wetland the pipelines cross."</p><p><a href="http://www.roanoke.com/business/news/deq-acknowledges-error-clarifies-approach-to-review-of-pipelines/article_2ea11f0c-1fac-5531-aaae-ba6d7f0b2e0c.html" target="_blank">Greg Buppert</a>, senior attorney for the <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="_blank">Southern Environmental Law Center's</a> Virginia office, has expressed concerns: "That process does not involve site-specific analyses and we have no confidence that the corps' permit will be sufficient for such a complex project across the state's steepest mountains."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"><iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-858274810983579648" id="twitter-embed-858274810983579648" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-858274810983579648&created_ts=1493463635.0&screen_name=EcoWatch&text=Atlantic+Coast+Pipeline+Would+Require+Extensive+Mountaintop+Removal+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FTyQjmptiei+%40GreenpeaceUK+%40globalactplan&id=858274810983579648&name=EcoWatch" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="K0347Q1496945125"></iframe></p><p>Dominion is also used to getting its way with state legislators in Virginia. State politicians in Virginia and North Carolina "who have been publicly vocal about their support for the pipeline have been some of the biggest recipients of donations from its corporate backers," argued the report.<br></p><p>General Assembly leaders alone have received nearly $400,000 since 2007 from the company. Some of this money is redistributed by the leadership to less powerful elected officials, ensuring compliance with Dominion's agenda down the chain of command.</p><p><a href="http://www.nbc29.com/story/35069863/virginia-lawmakers-send-letter-to-ferc-supporting-atlantic-coast-pipeline" target="_blank">Five leading state representatives</a> from Virginia, along with eleven elected officials from West Virginia and North Carolina who co-signed a letter to FERC declaring their support for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, "rank among the highest recipients of donations from Dominion over the past decade."</p><p>Ultimately, when it comes to state authority over pipeline permits, the buck stops with the state's chief executive—currently McAuliffe—to ensure a fair and thorough review process that's free of polluter influence.</p><p><a href="http://chesapeakeclimate.org/press-releases/mcauliffe-climate-hypocrisy/" target="_blank">McAuliffe was recently labelled</a> a climate hypocrite after announcing he was moving forward on the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a> principles, but at the same time being a vociferous supporter of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling">offshore drilling</a> and fracked gas pipelines in Virginia.</p><p>As Oil Change International's <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2017/02/15/atlantic-coast-pipeline-greenhouse-gas-emissions-briefing/" target="_blank">own analysis has shown</a>, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline alone would cause as much greenhouse gas pollution per year as 20 coal-fired power plants.</p><p>Chesapeake Climate Action Network director Mike Tidwell, argues: "It is, frankly, hypocrisy for the governor to support both Paris and violent drilling for oil and gas in and across the state. The best thing Gov. McAuliffe could do to support Paris and oppose Trump is to drop his tragic support for offshore oil drilling and for the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mountain-valley-pipeline">Mountain Valley</a> and Atlantic Coast Pipelines for fracked gas."</p><p>If you look up the word "Dominion" in the dictionary you will see the word derives from the Medieval Latin word "dominium" or "dominus" which means "lord or master." And true to its name, Dominion Energy certainly seems to be master of Virginia, no matter the cost to communities and the environment.</p>
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