SC PSC Votes to Approve Dominion Buyout of SCANA
In January Dominion Energy announced a deal to buy out and merge in South Carolina-based SCANA Corporation (see Dominion Buys SCANA, Mulls Atlantic Coast Pipe Expansion into SC). SCANA is an energy-based holding company that through its subsidiaries is essentially the local gas and electric company for much of South Carolina. When Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline gets built and expanded into South Carolina, it will flow Marcellus/Utica gas to SCANA customers–an important and huge new market for our molecules. In November North Carolina regulators signed off on the merger (see Dominion One Step Away from Closing on SCANA Merger). Last Friday, the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (SCPSC) voted to approve it as well–the last major regulatory hurdle before the merger can happen.
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The U.S. Fourth Circuit (i.e. Circus) Court of Appeals has bungled another decision regarding the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Yesterday the court vacated a permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) that allows ACP to cross beneath the Appalachian Trail and 21 miles of national forest land in Virginia and West Virginia. You think we’re kidding when we refer to the judges of the Fourth Circuit as clowns? How else do you explain the judge quoting from The Lorax, a fictional children’s book written by Dr. Seuss, as part of the decision issued yesterday. The so-called decision is straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Bizarre. What’s next? Will we be treated to Youtube clips from the Captain Planet cartoon in future decisions? This faulty decision is already being appealed by Dominion Energy. It’s pretty easy to predict the decision will get overturned on appeal–by adult, non-clown judges in the next court up.
It’s about we fight back against radical, insane people like those at the Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). They are so far outside of the mainstream, and they are such pathological liars, it’s time to take the gloves off and fight back. Dominion Energy is doing exactly that! Dominion released a statement yesterday that directly and strongly (with fighting language) refutes recent false statements (i.e. lies) made by the Sierra Club and SELC about Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). We’re standing up and cheering!
We bring you the following story purely for your (and our) entertainment. Dominion Energy, a huge company with its fingers in many energy pies (pipelines, LNG exports, power generation, utility company), is teaming up with the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield, to “harness methane gas from thousands of malodorous hog lagoons.” That is, they will capture methane from pig poop and use that methane to “heat homes and combat climate change.” (Excuse us while we get up off the floor from laughing so hard!) The story comes from the well known fake news purveyor Washington Post, so we can’t be 100% sure of its accuracy. But we’ll go with it, simply for laughs.
The move to dissolve MLPs (master limited partnerships) and replace them with a corporate structure continues. In March, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) took “significant action” to address the Trump tax cut legislation enacted last December (see 
In a pattern that has repeated itself with both the Mountain Valley Pipeline and (now) the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a key permit that allows ACP to build under and through streams and rivers and wetlands has been, for now, revoked. The permit is called a Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 and was previously issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow ACP to build through streams, etc. in all three states where it runs–West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. Earlier this month the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals put a temporary stop on constructing the pipeline across/under/through streams and rivers in WV (see 
Security at energy companies is no longer an afterthought, no longer an annual “audit” that’s done to ensure you have good policies in place. It’s now something that must be actively managed day-to-day. Threats come in all sizes and types, from nutty pipeline protesters who tip over into violence, to Russian and Chinese hackers looking to screw with our electric grid and steal our secrets. Knowing this, Dominion Energy, a huge company with its fingers in many energy pies–from pipelines to electric generation (wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear) to local electric and gas delivery (utility company)–has just hired the former FBI division chief for Richmond, Va. as its new Chief Security Officer–a newly created role in the company. Our prediction: You’ll see more CSOs in the future.
There is a political mess brewing in North Carolina–a mess that has made for some strange bedfellows. Rabid anti-fossil fuelers are supporting Republicans in a bid to target NC’s Democrat governor because his administration granted a permit for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) in the state. We first reported on this developing situation back in September (see 
In January Dominion Energy announced a deal to buy out and merge in South Carolina-based SCANA Corporation (see 
There is a fascinating bit of politics playing out in Virginia. The state’s previous governor, Terry McAuliffe, favored pipeline projects like EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). What’s strange about McAuliffe’s support is that he’s a far-left Democrat. Yet he resisted calls from his nutroots base to shut both pipeline projects down. McAuliffe was replaced in January 2018 by Ralph Northam, another liberal Democrat (lib Dems get elected in Virginia because of a high population of libs who live around the D.C. area). Once again the nutters came out in force to pressure the new governor to oppose MVP and ACP. And once again, the new governor is not caving to the pressure. In fact, Gov. Northam has just canned two board members who voted to delay a vote on an ACP compressor station!
If there’s one more black person living in a given rural community than white, and if a pipeline company wants to put a compressor station in that community as the best location to push gas through the line, the very act of building that compressor station in that community is racist. That’s the horse manure being pedaled in Buckingham County, Va. Last week the State Air Pollution Control Board held two days of public hearings where antis, detecting they may lose the battle to stop a compressor station for Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, trotted out their so-called “environmental justice” argument. Last Friday the board decided to delay a vote on whether to approve the compressor station, until their meeting on Dec. 10.
We’ve covered, it seems endlessly, news about two important new pipeline projects coming in the Marcellus. One is EQT Midstream’s (now Equitrans Midstream) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile pipe from West Virginia to southern Virginia. The other is Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. MVP will, when it’s done, carry 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas to southern markets, and ACP will carry 1.5 Bcf/d. Both pipelines chart a similar path south. And both pipelines are now stalled, dogged by frivolous lawsuits filed by so-called environmental groups. Both have announced delays for their final completion dates. Our friends at RBN Energy look in detail at both projects, and what a delay may mean for drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. Are more pipeline constraints on the way in our region?
It would be great when you are drilling a well, or building a pipeline, that when a state government inspector swings by to check up on the project, they don’t spot any problems. Especially for big projects like pipelines that run hundreds of miles. It would be nice, but not reality. Something always happens here and there. Unforeseen. Like weather with torrential rain, resulting in runoff from a ditch you just dug. The inspector swings by the next day and notices water and dirt where it’s not supposed to be, and voila, a “notice of violation” (NOV) is issued. It happens. That’s the way the world works. For Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), both with segments in West Virginia, NOVs have been and no doubt will continue to be issued. How many NOVs would you imagine have already been issued for each project in WV? How many is “too many” and indicates the project builders are being sloppy?