Flawed Environmental Justice Analyses

Demographic DataTribal ConsultationEnvironmental Impact StatementsPipelinesFossil FuelsDistributive Justice
Written By Ryan Emanuel

In late 2016, the US government published a draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a proposed pipeline to carry shale gas from fracking operations in the Appalachian Mountains to gas-fired power plants in North Carolina and Virginia. The project was led by Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, two large corporations that own electric and gas utilities in the Southeast.

The environmental impact statement concluded that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would not place disproportionately high and adverse burdens on poor or minority communities, but the analysis behind the conclusion was flawed. US policy on environmental justice requires regulators to take a close look at the racial and socioeconomic make-up of populations affected by pipelines and other infrastructure projects. The policy was enacted to help stop the long-term practice of burdening poor and minority communities with harmful and polluting infrastructure.

The analysis was flawed because it could not detect disproportionately large American Indian populations that were actually located along the proposed pipeline route. In other words, the pipeline would have affected many more American Indians than expected based on the make-up of the surrounding population - but the analysis did not reveal this situation.

Federal officials also failed to consult with tribal leaders prior to drawing their conclusions about the project’s lack of impacts to culturally important places. Instead of speaking directly with tribal leaders, federal pipeline regulators told corporate representatives to speak with tribes and report back about what they learned. Many tribal leaders and American Indian community members in North Carolina were upset by that decision, believing that it was inappropriate to share their concerns with corporate representatives instead of sharing them directly with federal officials who were responsible for making decisions about whether or not to approve the project.

Ryan speaks with Reggie Brewer (Lumbee) and Jennifer Brewer-Young (Lumbee) after a presentation by pipeline company executives at the NC Commission of Indian Affairs in June 2017.

Beginning in 2017, Ryan worked with the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs and tribal governments to raise awareness about the flawed analysis and about government policies on environmental justice and tribal engagement. He helped tribes and Indigenous organizations prepare written comments to federal regulators, including formal requests for direct meetings between federal and tribal officials. Many of these documents can be found in the Scribd collection, In Their Own Words: American Indian Tribal Governments and Organizations on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. These documents describe many of the tribes’ expectations when it comes to meaningful consultation on projects that affect tribal lands and waters. Ryan also submitted his own technical report describing flaws in the federal government’s data analysis - and suggesting ways for federal and state officials to improve the analysis.

In 2017, Science published a brief summary of Ryan’s critique of the federal government’s flawed environmental justice analysis. He ended the critique with an explanation about why it is important to take these analyses seriously: “All parties suffer when environmental justice analyses and tribal consultation are treated as meaningless rote exercises. Tribes suffer erosion of sovereignty and damage to cultural landscapes, federal-tribal relations deteriorate, and developers incur setbacks.”

In mid-2020, with the project facing setbacks in the form of federal lawsuits, multi-year delays, and billions of dollars in expected cost overruns, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy cancelled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Large loblolly pine tree felled in Cumberland County, NC by Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers prior to cancelling the project.

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Ryan Emanuel
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