Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Power, Environmental Justice, and Artful Resistance

Petersen, Janee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouashonors1587469734888841

Abstract Details

2020, Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, Geography.
Recent technological advances and advantageous political circumstances have prompted a heightened wave of natural gas extraction and transportation infrastructure across the Eastern United States. In 2014, Dominion Energy announced a new energy project, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The pipeline will transport fracked natural gas from Ohio and Pennsylvania across Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. The ACP will pass through two national forests, private property, a popular ski resort, a yoga community, and an African American community in rural Buckingham County, Virginia, among others. Although construction of the ACP is begun, Dominion Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and other state officials face strong opposition from grassroots organizations. I explore this resistance by asking what fears and concerns opponents have about the pipeline's construction and analyze how these fears shape the type of mobilization occurring against the project. I use an environmental justice framework with an emphasis on procedural power to analyze how corporations disrupt communities and sensitive ecological areas along the ACP's path, despite strong opposition from grassroots organizations. Semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document analysis of public documents, news sources, YouTube videos, and Facebook posts were conducted. I argue that this project ignited a wide variety of concerns among opponents ranging from environmental degradation to the unjust use of eminent domain by a private company. Perhaps most notable is the location of the Buckingham compressor station near an African American community, which constitutes a distributive environmental injustice. These concerns sparked resistance including public protests, disruptions during official meetings, and art-activism.
Harold Perkins (Advisor)
Risa Whitson (Committee Member)
Geoffrey Buckley (Committee Member)
174 p.
Environmental Justice; Geography
environmental justice, power, extractive industry, resistance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Petersen, J. (2020). The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Power, Environmental Justice, and Artful Resistance [Undergraduate thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouashonors1587469734888841

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Petersen, Janee. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Power, Environmental Justice, and Artful Resistance. 2020. Ohio University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouashonors1587469734888841.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Petersen, Janee. "The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Power, Environmental Justice, and Artful Resistance." Undergraduate thesis, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouashonors1587469734888841

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ouashonors1587469734888841
402
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University Art and Sciences Honors Theses and OhioLINK.