Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Court Overturns MVP WV Permit; FERC Shutdown Coming Again?
We’ve seen this movie before. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (quickly becoming the Fourth Circus) has once again listened to the arguments of anti-fossil fuel groups including the Sierra Club and Chesapeake Climate Action Network and has overturned a recently re-issued permit that allows Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use certain methods to build the pipeline across streams and rivers in West Virginia. The court action pretty much shuts down all work on MVP in WV.
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We’re not quite sure how to tackle this story as there are so many aspects to it. Let’s start here: Two years ago lawsuits filed by some 200 West Virginia residents against Antero Resources were combined into a class action lawsuit. The lawsuits are called “nuisance” lawsuits because, according to the plantiffs, Antero is a nuisance to them (truck traffic, noise, lights at night, etc.). That massive class action lawsuit, filed in early 2016, is about to be heard by the WV Supreme Court–a court in disarray after all of its sitting justices were impeached and removed.
In June, Apex Power Group said that their planned Guernsey Power Station–a new Utica/Marcellus natural gas-fired electric generating plant proposed for Guernsey County, OH–would break ground this year (see 
We’ve extensively covered the tragic accident and aftermath of Columbia Gas’ natural gas delivery pipelines exploding near Boston in mid-September. The explosions and resulting fires tragically killed one teenager and injured 25 others. It left some 8,600 households and businesses without natural gas–for months. Now anti-fossil fuel advocates say those 8,600 households should just forget about natural gas, forever, and instead convert to sky-high electric for their energy needs. They call it a “green new deal”–meaning make Columbia Gas pay to convert your home to all-electric appliances and heat pumps. We call it a “green raw deal.”
It seems like we’ve been waiting forever for new pipelines to get built to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to new markets where our gas can fetch higher prices. Finally, with projects like Rover, NEXUS, Atlantic Sunrise and others, forever is here. Our gas is now flowing, or soon will, to markets in the Midwest, South, Gulf Coast, and even via exports to other countries. The experts at RBN Energy have an ongoing series that covers M-U pipelines and how our gas is heading to new markets. RBN says in their most recent post in this series, “in some ways the Northeast really is just getting started.” There are plans for another 10 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) to flow out of here and to other markets by 2023. Where and how?
In August MDN told you the rumor mill was in overdrive that Trump has already picked a replacement for outgoing Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Rob Powelson (see 
The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) yesterday released its 2018-2019 Winter Outlook for Natural Gas report (summary below). NGSA says this winter will have warmer than normal temperatures for much of the country. They also predict natural gas demand will reach an all-time high. However, natural gas production will hit all-time highs too. So in the end, prices for natgas (a function of supply and demand) will stay fairly even.
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: ODNR issues 14 permits in Utica Shale; Dominion Energy employees recognized for top innovations and solutions that benefit customers, environment; Man who cut company checks for personal bills, engagement ring gets year in prison; WV state tax collection stays strong in September; Big oil and gas companies are winners in Trump’s new trade deal; Natural gas prices rise on the ‘elephant in the room’; The blue wave and the oil industry: will fracking be the biggest target?; Permitting timelines, grid resilience get attention in FERC strategic plan; Shell’s LNG Canada seen as tip of LNG megaproject iceberg.