During the Oct. 11 meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, Senior Assistant Attorney General Paul Kugelman noted that Gov. Ralph Northam has yet to reissue the Executive Order that established the ACEJ in 2017, calling the council’s legal status into question.
According to Kugelman, the legal status of the council may have already or will soon be expired.
Shortly after this meeting, the Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler issued the administration’s formal “response” to the ACEJ’s recommendations for the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines and the Buckingham compressor station, largely dismissing the notion that the administration could do anything to address the council’s concerns about the environmental injustices generated by the approval and construction of these projects.
In response, Kendyl Crawford, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, released the following statement:
“In the past, Gov. Ralph Northam and Secretary of Natural Resources Matt Strickler have both spoken on their commitment to environmental justice. We urge Governor Northam to reflect on the importance of justice enabling all Virginians to live in a clean, safe environment.
We encourage him to issue an executive order re-affirming his commitment to environmental justice that firmly places the Advisory Council on Environmental Justice on solid legal ground. In these turbulent times, our society must not forget our higher call to love and care for our neighbors.”
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