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Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC

MVP Southgate proposed route – click for larger version

We love it! Even though Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has only just begun to build along it’s 301-mile route from West Virginia to southern Virginia, and even though MVP faces opposition from extremists who sit in the tops of trees and on top of poles (see Radicals Go Up a Tree in Quest to Illegally Block MVP Construction and US Forest Service Gets Tough on Illegal MVP Pole Sitting Protester), MVP is now going on offense. Yesterday MVP announced a binding open season (time when customers can sign on the dotted line) to expand the not-yet-built MVP pipeline where it will terminate in southern Virginia by another 70 miles–into two northern North Carolina counties. The MVP Southgate project, as it’s called, will flow gas from the MVP mainline in Pittsylvania County, another ~70 miles south to new delivery points in Rockingham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. MVP Southgate will provide low-cost natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions for delivery to PSNC Energy customers as well as existing and new end-user markets in southern Virginia and central North Carolina…
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Busybody Brigade to Help Va. DEQ “Monitor” MVP Pipe Work

As Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) begins construction and launches a plan to expand their pipeline another 70 miles (see today’s lead story), the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) says it is eager to work with radical antis to monitor work that will be done by MVP in the Old Dominion. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA–and perhaps beyond into North Carolina (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC). MVP is being built by EQT Midstream, NextEra Energy and several other partners. It has been hassled by protesters and sued by a cadre of Big Green groups–all with no result. The pipeline is currently under construction. Since there’s no stopping it, antis intend to launch a host of volunteer “monitors” to rat out pipeline workers that do anything from drop a candy wrapper on the ground to drive 2 miles an hour over a locally posted speed limit. In other words, a busybody brigade. To which we say: Go ahead–knock yourselves out. MVP has nothing to hide. If you want to waste your time, it’s yours to waste. The DEQ, under Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, is only too happy to work with the busybody brigade to further hassle MVP…
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Marcellus Electric Plant Proposed for Meadowlands to Power NYC

The red line shows the border of the proposed power plant in North Bergen. The yellow line is a transmission cable to ConEd’s substation on West 49th St. in New York City. Click for larger version.

A subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi wants to build a huge, new $1.5 billion natural gas-fired electric generating plant in the Meadowlands (New Jersey), just outside of New York City. The North Bergen Liberty Generating Project, at 1,200 megawatts, will help replace the electricity lost when the Indian Point Nuclear plant closes down in 2021. Indian Point provides roughly 25% of NYC’s electricity. Something has to replace that big hole in the power grid. You can’t build solar panels and windmills fast enough (not to mention the sun doesn’t always shine nor does the wind always blow). Natural gas will save the day in NYC–and the North Bergen plant will go a long way toward helping. Of course the plant is being opposed by radicals in the nutty Sierra Club and other Big Green groups who despise all fossil fuels and demand that you and I end our use of fossil fuels because they irrationally hate them. Meanwhile, the adults in the room continue to advance plans to replace Indian Point with projects like this one and the CPV Valley Energy Project in Orange County. No, Marcellus gas is not specifically mentioned as powering North Bergen Project, but since the plant will be hooked up to the mighty Williams Transco Pipeline, a pipeline which flows mostly Marcellus molecules these days, at least in the northeast, it’s a safe bet the plant will be powered almost exclusively by PA fracked Marcellus gas…
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9 More Seismic Testing Devices Stolen in SWPA, 6 Were Returned

Click for larger version

Somebody in southwestern Pennsylvania has sticky fingers. In March MDN reported that someone(s) in SWPA had stolen nine seismic testing nodes in Westmoreland County (see Whoops! Stolen Seismic Testing Nodes in SWPA have Tracking Devices). The seismic testing devices were legally placed in various locations by Geokinetics, hired by Huntley & Huntley to map what’s below the surface in preparation for drilling shale wells. Geokinetics let it be known that if the devices were not returned by March 26, the perps would be hunted down and prosecuted. Oh! And did we tell you that each device has a GPS tracker in it, so Geokinetics can locate the devices whenever they want? We now have a second case of sticky fingers. Stupid is as stupid does. Geokinetics reports another nine units were lifted, this time in Monroeville (Allegheny County). Once again the word has gone out: Return them now, by April 16th, or you will be found and prosecuted. Six of nine have already been returned…
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Big Green Begs NY DEC to Revoke Orange Co. Power Plant Permits

As the Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) $900 million Valley Energy Center natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County, NY gets ready to begin service THIS MONTH, antis, including Big Green group Riverkeeper, are desperate to stop it from entering service. Since they couldn’t win any lawsuits to stop it, and since they couldn’t convince the federal government (FERC) to stop it, Riverkeeper and some politicians in Riverkeeper’s back pocket (via campaign contributions) have turned their attention to the Andrew Cuomo-corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), hoping they can convince the corrupt DEC to revoke the permits issued for the plant. On what basis does Riverkeeper and their colluding politicians claim the permits should be revoked? On the basis that a CPV lobbyist paid money to Cuomo’s closest confidante and aide as a bribe to get the project approved. There’s no evidence that the project got approved because of the bribe, but the stench is certainly there, and hey, if corrupt bribes got it approved, maybe corrupt politicians colluding with Big Green can get it unapproved, right?…
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Tenaska Gas-Fired SWPA Elec Plant Fully Staffed, Online in Dec

Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station

In August 2016, energy giant Tenaska (headquartered in Omaha, NE) broke ground to build a 925-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant in Westmoreland County, PA (see Groundbreaking for Tenaska Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant in SWPA). The Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station is costing $780 million to build. It has taken some 600 people to build the plant, which is on track to be completed and online by December of this year. When the plant fires up, it will provide power for 925,000 homes. An update on this important project: All of the permanent jobs to operate the completed plant are now hired. Some 75% of the new hires are local to the Westmoreland County area…
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EDF Launching $40M Satellite to Lie About O&G Methane Emissions

If the American Petroleum Institute (API) were to launch a satellite into space to monitor so-called fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas sites on the ground, would you believe the data they report coming from the satellite? We would, because the API is professional and doesn’t lie. But let’s face it, most people would see a clear conflict of interest. It would be better if a government agency, or perhaps a consortium of universities, were to launch such a research project. On the other hand, the Environmental Defense Fund, a far-left, profoundly biased and anti-fossil fuel organization is proposing to do just that–launch a $40 million satellite that supposedly will monitor methane emissions from oil and gas sites–specifically sites in Pennsylvania. Does anyone really believe that if this happens, the data the EDF will report will be objective? No, NOBODY believes such a thing. But it will give colluding/lying mainstream media an opportunity to continue their false narrative that methane is leaking everywhere causing Mom Earth to catastrophically heat up…
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Other Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Apr 12, 2018

The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: OH rig count goes up to 24; OH bill grabs more money for communities with injection wells; MSC exposes legal flaws in DRBC frack ban; loony Hollywood starlet running for NY gov pushes ban on fossil fuels; CA’s petroleum wars costly for everyone; enviros split on “carbon-free” nuke plants; Devon Energy laying off 300 workers; SandRidge succumbs to corporate raider Icahn, willing to sell out; and more!
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