Statement of House Speaker William J. Howell on proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) issued the following statement Tuesday on the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline announced by Dominion and its partners.

“This announcement is tremendous news for the Commonwealth of Virginia and represents a major step forward in our continued pursuit to harvest abundant natural resources in order to lower energy costs and create good-paying jobs. Natural gas is an abundant, clean, and affordable resource and this pipeline will improve Virginia’s access to natural gas supplies from the Upper Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. The development and construction of the pipeline will create thousands of jobs throughout various regions of the Commonwealth and encourage economic development by keeping energy costs down for Virginia businesses and entrepreneurs. I applaud and thank Dominion for its continued investment and commitment to strengthening our economy.

“I also applaud Governor Terry McAuliffe for his enthusiastic support of this project, despite fierce opposition from many allies of his own party. Natural gas production and infrastructure development, as well as domestic energy production altogether, continues to be a major initiative of the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is encouraging to see Governor McAuliffe’s endorsement of those policies and their positive impacts.”