U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine used the phrase “very suspicious circumstances” Monday to describe how a federal agency announced it had approved two deeply controversial natural gas pipelines that will burrow through different regions of Virginia.
Kaine, a Democrat who was in Roanoke on Monday, observed that notices from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the commission’s endorsement of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline were distributed after 7 p.m. Friday — timing clearly intended, he said, to inhibit news coverage going into the weekend.
“When somebody puts something out at 7 o’clock Friday night, they’re trying to hide it,” Kaine said. “That means they’re ashamed of their decision. Why would they be ashamed of it?”
