‘I feel used’: how fossil fuel firms court Black leaders to support pipelines | Environment

Pastor Geoffrey Guns was sceptical when asked to join the community advisory board for a gas pipeline, but decided it was his duty to advocate for the Black communities that would be affected by the fossil fuel expansion project.

The Virginia Reliability Project (VRP) is a proposal by the Canadian fossil fuel company behind the Keystone XL pipeline to expand and upgrade gas infrastructure through tribal lands, fragile waterways and underserved neighbourhoods in south-east Virginia.

Almost 50% of the population along the VRP route live below the poverty line and more than half are people of colour.

TC Energy claims the expansion will create thousands of local jobs and that community engagement is core to the company’s mission. For this reason, Guns, a senior pastor at the Second Calvary Baptist church in Norfolk, joined the advisory board along with several other local Black religious leaders.

“If they’re asking us to rubber-stamp this, then there should be economic benefits for Black folks and minorities. But all we heard was talk without any actual commitment to equity in contracts for minorities,” said Guns.

On the VRP website, under a tab labelled community voices, TC Energy lists endorsements from influential figures, including Black state-elected officials who praise the economic benefits promised by the company for communities of colour.

Several of the community voices received financial contributions from the company and its registered lobbying firm, which is legal but not mentioned. The views of the community advisers are not listed.

“The whole thing feels very disingenuous, as clearly the company is not really interested in our advice on safety or guaranteeing opportunities for minority businesses. I am very disappointed. This is a bunch of white people with some Black faces sprinkled in. I feel absolutely used and violated,” said Guns.

It’s not the first time fossil fuel companies have looked to influential Black leaders to smooth the way for polluting oil and gas projects that disproportionately affect people of colour, Indigenous communities and low-income neighbourhoods.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the historic civil rights organisation which fights for equal access to housing, voting rights and education, has published a list of common tactics used by the fossil fuel industry to manipulate communities, which often exacerbate climate injustices.

The NAACP’s “fossil fueled foolery” primer warns people to be vigilant of companies that co-opt local leaders and organisations that misrepresent the interests and opinions of communities. It’s also common for oil and gas companies to finance political campaigns and pressure elected officials to garner their support.

The NAACP acted after some of its local chapters, which operate with significant autonomy, were exposed supporting power plants and pipelines.

The VRP is no exception.

Emails seen by the Guardian show that James Minor, president of the NAACP’s Richmond chapter, lobbied on behalf of TC Energy, asking local politicians to sign ghostwritten letters supporting the pipeline expansion in the months before the application was submitted to a federal regulator.

Minor is also one of eight voting members on the Virginia Marine Resources Commission – the state agency responsible for issuing water permits, which the project requires. In June, he voted in favor of a separate TC Energy permit request before the permitting commission.

Minor, who is employed by the city of Richmond, wrote messages from a private email address, opening with “hello from team VRP” – the acronym for the Virginia Reliability Project. “Recently, we posted new community benefit overview documents … Please take a look and consider sharing with your networks,” said one email, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.

“This is a blatant conflict of interest and what seems to be an extremely troubling attempt by TC Energy to tilt the environmental review of the project in its favor,” said Itai Vardi, research manager at the Energy and Policy Institute (EPI), a fossil fuel industry watchdog group, which shared the emails with the Guardian. Minor denies any conflict.

Similar emails were sent to separate elected officials by TC Energy consultant Esmel Meeks, a local Black political consultant who previously headed a now defunct group funded by the oil and gas trade association American Petroleum Institute. Meeks, who recruited Pastor Guns to the advisory board, said it was a “sincere effort to gather honest feedback about the project”.

Team VRP is also represented by Sean Downey, a partner at the political consultancy firm Hilltop Public Solutions, who worked for the Democratic senator Cory Booker during his 2020 run for president on an environmental justice mandate, and later advised the political campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It seems that VRP is just the latest example of lobbyists and consultants for TC Energy and other gas companies ghostwriting supporting letters for elected Virginia officials to send to regulators, after two major new pipelines – the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley– were derailed by widespread opposition.

“At this juncture in the history of the climate crisis, we need to stop developing fossil fuel infrastructure,” said Lynn Godfrey, the energy transition program manager at the Virginia chapter of Sierra Club. “It’s a no-brainer that this lobbying is a conflict of interest.”

TC Energy is a $47bn (£42bn) energy company, formerly known as TransCanada, best known for the leaky Keystone XL pipeline opposed by Indigenous communities, environmentalists and Presidents Obama and Biden.

The VRP proposes digging up almost 49 miles (79km) of an existing 12-inch pipeline and replacing it with pipes that are double the diameter – through designated wetlands, a residential area and alongside an elementary school attended mostly by children of colour – in order to increase gas to the Hampton Roads area.

The VRP would use risky horizontal drilling to cross major watersheds currently undergoing environmental rehabilitation such as the Nansemond River and the Great Dismal Swamp, which provide fish, oysters and drinking water to Indigenous Americans and historic Black waterway communities.

In the first instance, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) must decide whether the market need justifies the pipeline expansion, and if it is in the public interest.

Drawing on data from the gas utility, the company argues that the expansion will fill a shortfall in gas in the Hampton Roads area, which it claims has led to more than $4bn (£3.6bn) in lost revenue over the past five years. The expansion, claims TC Energy, would create 3,635 jobs and raise more than $16m in additional taxes.

The oil and gas industry has a history of inflating economic benefits to communities, and while Ferc is legally required to assess the veracity of the company’s economic benefits data, “in practice [it] does not take a deep dive into the numbers”, said Gillian Giannetti, a natural gas expert with the National Resources Defense Council’s Ferc project, a coalition representing green organisations.

Since 1999, Ferc has approved more than 99% of pipeline projects, creating the impression that the regulator lacks teeth and rubber-stamps applications, according to Giannetti.

The Ferc applications are open to public comments, but critiquing thousands of pages of technical information is no easy feat. The company claims it has been conducting outreach for a year, but according to several prominent local groups consulted by the Guardian, the company has not engaged with ordinary residents who will be directly affected but are unaware of the expansion.

Political support for the VRP is growing, and so is grassroots opposition as environmental and community groups fear that the construction, inadequate disposal of the old pipeline and future leaks threaten the region’s food and water security.

In a written statement, lawyers representing the Nansemond Indian Nation – a federally recognized tribe located in eastern Virginia, said: “The proposed project presents a grave threat to the Nation.”

TC Energy’s own public health risk analysis, requested by Ferc, shows that communities along the VRP route already suffer from significantly worse health outcomes compared with the state and US average for low birth weight, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and exposure to air pollutants. Several neighbourhoods are designated environmental justice communities – or sacrifice zones – due to existing hazards.

Particularly vulnerable are residents in Petersburg, a majority Black city located 20 miles (32km) south of the state capital, Richmond, where the company wants to double the capacity at the compressor station. Petersburg is ranked the least healthy locality in Virginia, where life expectancy is 10 years below the national average and poverty stands at almost 23% – more than double the state average.

Compressor stations release climate and health-harming pollutants such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds and greenhouse gases.

Minor made calls and emailed draft support letters containing the company’s talking points for Petersburg city council members to sign and send to Ferc. He also requested the Petersburg mayor put his name to a drafted opinion article.

Minor told the Guardian: “I’ve worked on countless projects as a consultant, a volunteer and in a leadership capacity. I only work on those that I believe will benefit the commonwealth and our communities. VRP fits this description … I am proud of the work I do.” He did not respond to questions about his precise role or salary with TC Energy.

Minor, whose role was first reported by the Richmond Dispatch, recruited Dr Lafayette Jefferson, a community organiser, theologian and former president of the NAACP Petersburg chapter, to the advisory board.

“The advisory board is about using Black leaders to deceive the rest of the community and look like it’s meeting regulatory requirements without actually knocking on any doors, in order to push the deal through. It’s textbook stuff,” Jefferson told the Guardian.

“The fact they want to double the horsepower and toxins in Petersburg [at its compressor station] tells me the company doesn’t give a damn about the people living in the vicinity, this is about profits.”

TC Energy currently has two Virginia projects under consideration by Ferc – the VRP and the Virginia Electrification Project (VEP) – which combined would almost double the facility’s horsepower, yet neither application refers to the cumulative impacts on the community.

“It’s sinister and cynical to double the horsepower at one of the most underserved communities in Virginia by dividing the projects to avoid broader scrutiny,” said Vardi from EPI. The company insists the projects are unrelated.

A spokesperson for Ferc said they did not comment on open applications, but previously acknowledged that the agency’s assessment of cumulative environmental justice and climate change impacts are inadequate and need updating.

But change has been slow – in part because the pipeline industry has lobbied hard and Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat and chair of the Senate energy and natural resources committee, has stalled regulatory reforms.

Manchin is the single biggest recipient of campaign contributions from the pipeline industry, whose influence has grown in Washington. TC Energy’s affiliates have spent $4.3m on lobbying in this election cycle, in addition to $200,000 in campaign contributions, according to federal campaign disclosures tracked by Open Secrets.

Locally, the financial support is more modest, but since 2021 includes $25,000 to the inauguration committee for the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, who was elected in January and recently sent Ferc a letter backing the VRP.

TC Energy also contributed $20,000 to the state legislative Black caucus, whose chair, Lamont Bagby, is among the community voices endorsing the pipeline expansion.

The company did not address specific questions about campaign contributions or Minor but said the advisers, who have met twice so far, “are respected community leaders who have agreed to share their opinions and guidance on how [we] can engage with the community and address any potential concerns that might arise”.

According to the spokesperson, the company has solicited feedback from hundreds of residents, community leaders and businesses about the pipeline expansion; posted information in English and Spanish in environmental justice communities along the route; and was committed to “prioritizing local businesses and supplier diversity”.

“There’s been no outreach here or to our sister historic African American villages – not by the company or the politicians endorsing the expansion,” said Mary Hill, head of the Suffolk African American Cultural Society and seventh-generation oyster farmer. “We are ready to fight this all the way.”