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OH Supremes Rule Duke Energy Can Build 14-Mile Cincinnati Pipeline
In early March MDN told you that Duke Energy had begun work on building a 14-mile natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s (see Duke Energy Finally Begins to Build 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe). It seems no sooner had work begun than another frivolous lawsuit by antis brought it to a halt. This latest case, argued before the Ohio Supreme Court, was decided yesterday. In a unanimous decision, the court rejected antis’ arguments. The pipeline can finally get built beginning this month.
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Utility giant Duke Energy Corp. is in the process of modifying eight of its biggest coal-fired electric generating plants in North Carolina to burn natural gas instead. The work will cost Duke roughly $283 million. Work is already complete on six of the eight plants, with the final two slated to be done later this year. There is a tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica.
Duke Energy has plans to build multiple new clean-burning natural gas-fired power plants to supply its grid over the next 15 years–some 4.7 gigawatts of new gas-fired plants (see 
In September 2016, local utility company Duke Energy filed a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half-million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas anymore. Following multiple revisions to the plan to satisfy anti-pipeline wackos (who will never be satisfied), in November 2019 the Ohio Power Siting Board gave Duke final approval to build the Central Corridor Gas Pipeline Project along an alternative route (see 
Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 30 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion decided last summer it no longer wanted to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see 
Dominion Energy has decided to exit the natural gas pipeline and storage business, selling off its vast network of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica (and beyond) to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion ($4 billion in cash, the rest in assumed debt). In a related announcement, Dominion said it is throwing in the towel and canceling the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project that would have stretched from West Virginia to North Carolina. We are in grieving. This is a tremendously sad day–not only for Marcellus/Utica drillers and landowners, but for the families of pipeline workers who will now remain out of high-paying jobs. You have the Sierra Club and other radicalized green groups to thank.
Duke Energy loves natural gas-fired electric plants. Duke plans to build up to 4.7 gigawatts (GW) of new natural gas electric capacity in North and South Carolina between 2029 and 2034. In Florida, Duke plans to increase the amount of gas in its electric generation mix to 77% in 2027, up from 64% in 2017. And in Indiana, Duke wants to build a new natural gas plant in 2028, and another in 2034. Duke’s VP of state energy policy, Diane Denton, recently sang the praises of natgas at an Energy Bar Association meeting–saying natural gas “is critical to decarbonization strategy.”
This story is befuddling–we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) objecting to Williams’ Leidy South expansion project, a project that is being built 100% in Pennsylvania! Why are NC regulators objecting to work being done in another state 500 hundred miles away?
When we spotted a headline about Duke Energy, joint venture partner with Dominion Energy in the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, investigating “Plan B” for what to do if ACP doesn’t get built, we thought, “Oh oh. This is a sure sign the project is in trouble and the principles are giving up.” But we should have known–it’s Bloomberg! It’s Biased news with a capital B.
Duke Energy has a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. A group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension, is trying to defeat the project. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extension. The DOPErs are back, claiming a brand new pipeline through the area will be less safe and more dangerous than the old, worn-out pipeline.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Duke Energy’s plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH, to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. We told you in April that Duke had, finally, refiled their application to build the new pipeline along an alternate route, with a few tweaks (see 
Protesting something like a pipeline is one thing. March around, show your signs, talk to the press, make a horse’s rear-end of yourself. Whatever. But showing up at someone’s home and blocking their driveway and erecting a 20-foot tall tower and refusing to move until arrested? That’s something else. That kind of “protest” is threatening, menacing behavior. Bullying. And it’s all too easy for people who have crossed that line to tip over into outright violence. A group of criminal protesters did just what we described–blocked the driveway and erected a wall in the driveway–of Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good at her home in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday. Duke is partners with Dominion Energy in the $6.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina. The criminal protesters showed up at Good’s home to oppose the project. The signs they carried revealed their irrational hatred of fossil fuels, which is what motivated them to protest in the first place. Wackos. Here’s how it went down at Good’s home earlier this week…