Virginia Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans is withdrawing her request for a $7.4 million earmark for a natural gas pipeline in her district after questions emerged about the funding.
The money would have gone to conducting early engineering and permitting work toward building a new pipeline in rural Accomack County with an eye toward helping chicken processing plants and a private space company. Leaders on the Eastern Shore have long sought funding for the project.
The money would have eventually gone to a for-profit company to carry out the work and eventually build the pipeline, and paperwork filed by Kiggans initially said Chesapeake Utilities would have been the recipient.
But House Appropriations Committee rules prohibit money from going to for-profit companies. The $7.4 million instead would have gone to the Accomack County government, which would handle distributing it.
Kiggans first changed the recipient information on her website after POLITICO’s E&E News asked about it, but later pulled the earmark request altogether.
Kiggans received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the corporate political action committees of Rocket Lab and Tyson Foods, two of the companies that could benefit from the pipeline, POLITICO reported.
Kiggans’ staff denied that either of those issues caused her to withdraw the earmark request. She said Accomack County had not provided sufficient information.
“Upon further examination of this project, I believe the County must further clarify the specific costs associated with the project, as well as how it plans to use this funding in support of the project,” Kiggans said in a July 19 letter to Reps. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), the leaders of the House Appropriations Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee.
A spokesperson for Kiggans, Hannah Pope, said in a statement that the lawmaker “looks forward to working with Accomack County to update their project as they continue to increase economic development and create jobs on the Eastern Shore.”
Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, criticized Kiggans’ earmark, saying it is reminiscent of the controversial practices that took place before recent reforms.
“Earmarks today are not to be awarded to for-profit entities, which is why Rep. Kiggans had to change the recipient from Chesapeake Utilities to the county government. Nonetheless, Kiggans’ proposed earmark was clearly intended for the for-profit utility,” Holman said in an email.
“What makes this request even more questionable is that the for-profit entity and no doubt some of its members are campaign contributors to Kiggans,” he continued. “This has the old appearance of an earmark as a mutually beneficial exchange.”
Kiggans flipped her seat from Democratic control in the 2022 election, but the party has identified the race as a priority this year. Missy Cotter Smasal, a nonprofit leader, is the Democratic candidate challenging Kiggans.
The Transportation-HUD bill passed the House Appropriations Committee this month. Lawmakers have not yet scheduled the legislation for consideration on the floor.
‘Would be immensely helpful’
Virginia officials have sought gas service for Accomack County for the better part of a decade.
“It would be immensely helpful for the Eastern Shore and our economic development,” said Virginia state Del. Robert Bloxom, who represents the area in the General Assembly and has been the main champion of the push for a gas line.
Chesapeake Utilities has built a gas line up to Pocomoke City, near Accomack, so it would be the most likely to provide a pipeline. But it hasn’t done so yet, prompting Bloxom’s push for government help.
Bloxom said Accomack County would have to put the project out for competitive bidding. “But realistically, there’s only one player that can get it,” he said of Chesapeake.
Other bids would require much more work, even potentially building a line across the Chesapeake Bay, he said. Bloxom tried to get the $7.4 million from the state budget, but was unable, so he asked for Kiggans’ help.
Chesapeake Utilities said it is willing to consider building the pipeline if it can get the help. “Because of the proximity of our existing infrastructure to the state of Virginia, an area where we currently serve propane customers, we are pleased to be considered as a utility provider for Accomack County, should the proposed project progress,” the company said in a statement.
Mike Mason, Accomack County’s administrator, said the county agreed to be involved because of the congressional prohibition on for-profit earmark recipients.
“It’s my understanding that it had to be a political subdivision to oversee it. So Accomack, which would be the benefiting county, agreed to be the conduit for the funding to come,” he said.
Mason said the county would have “oversight” over the money but would be obligated by state regulations to put it out for bids.
“We are bound by competitive procurement laws of the commonwealth, and so we would have to, certainly, competitively procure all of this work,” said Mason.
He acknowledged, though that “one company is well positioned to go after this.” Mason did not respond to a request for comment after Kiggans withdrew the request.
Bloxom said he’ll keep fighting for the pipeline if Kiggans couldn’t get the money, likely in the next state budget. “If she’s not successful this year,” he said, “I’m going to try to get it in the winter.”
Reporter Daniel Lippman contributed.
