The Pittsburgh Business Times is reporting that EQT and Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) are “inching closer” to a renegotiated agreement for Equitrans to continue EQT’s natural gas gathering and shipping. During conference calls with analysts last week, both EQT CEO Toby Rice and Equitrans President Diana Charletta were said to be “optimistic” about the eventual outcome of those negotiations. Our interpretation is that EQT is hammering Equitrans to lower the cost of gathering and transporting their gas.
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Category: Equitrans/EQT Midstream
Con Edison Capping Investment in Mountain Valley Pipe at $530M
Consolidated Edison, the huge gas and electric utility that services much of New York City and its suburbs, recently said the company will cap its investment in the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. There is an amount beyond which they will not go. Con Ed is one of five investor/owners of MVP. The primary owner and builder of MVP is Equitrans (EQM Midstream Partners), the former EQT Midstream.
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PA DEP Fines Equitrans $650K for SWPA Gas Storage Field Violation
Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream) owns a natural gas storage field in Greene County, PA, in the southwest corner of the state, called Swarts Field. Natural gas storage fields are an important, but often overlooked, part of the natgas ecosystem. Last December the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) threatened to shut down Swarts Field because of coal mining in the area, saying Equitrans had not properly mapped old/abandonded conventional gas wells in the area (see PA DEP Threatens to Close Equitrans Gas Storage Field in SWPA). The good news is the DEP threat is now over. The bad news is that Equitrans has to pay a $650,000 fine.
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Mountain Valley Pipe Price Goes Up, In-Service Delayed Again
The last time Equitrans talked about the status of its 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project (from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA) was July, when the company said the cost for the project had ballooned to $5 billion and the in-service date delayed until mid-2020 (see Equitrans Wants to Remain Kissin’ Cousins with EQT; MVP 85% Done). Then the clown judges of the federal Fourth Circuit Court pulled a permit for the project, and FERC told the company to stop all construction (see FERC Shuts Down All Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction). Yesterday Equitrans issued a new update. The price has gone up…again, and the in-service date is delayed…again.
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FERC Shuts Down All Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction
As MDN previously reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit bought the lies of colluding Big Green groups and decided to put a hold on a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that allows the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to build through areas with so-called endangered and threatened species (see Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine). Because of the suspended FWS permit, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday told Equitrans, the builder of MVP, to stop ALL work along ALL of the project until further notice.
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Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine
We’ve seen this movie before. The radical fringe leftists from the Sierra Club (disgusting organization) convinced the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. Circus) to block construction of Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) pipeline by getting the court to toss U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permits that allow the project to kill a couple of bats along a few miles of the project (see 4th Circus Blocks Permit, Stops All Work on Atlantic Coast Pipe). The Clubbers have done it again, this time with Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
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Proposed New PA Pipeline to Connect Rover Pipe to WV Power Plant
It’s not often a new pipeline project crops up and slips by us. On May 31, Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) filed an official request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a 16.7-mile pipeline from southwest Pennsylvania into West Virginia in order to feed what will become WV’s very first natural gas-fired electric power plant (see WV NatGas Power Plant Gets Final Permits, Construction Begins Soon). The pipeline will connect to and feed gas from the mighty Rover Pipeline.
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U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear MVP Eminent Domain Case
Global warming fundamentalists have struck out yet again. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case appealed from a lower court by a group of Lancaster County landowners who claim Williams and their Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project abused eminent domain authority by building the pipeline before litigating (for years) how much money landowners should receive (see US Supreme Court Rejects Landowner Case Against Atlantic Sunrise). Big Green tried again in July, this time using Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) as their eminent domain test case (see Another Supreme Court “Quick Take” Eminent Domain Case – Using MVP). The Supremes have just declined to hear the MVP case, as they did the Atlantic Sunrise case.
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Politicized NC Regulators Object to MVP Southgate Pipe Expansion
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is obviously populated with leftist climate warriors, hellbent on blocking any new fossil fuel projects in the state. Last November Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) filed an application to extend the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline that stretches from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA *another* 70+ miles south–into North Carolina–called the MVP Southgate project (see EQT Makes it Official, Files with FERC to Extend MVP into NC). NC DEQ is doing anything and everything it can to stop Southgate.
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Out-of-State, Paid Protesters Continue to Hassle MVP in WV, VA
What appears to be an organized, ongoing effort to stop legal construction activity for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) continues in both Virginia and West Virginia. Out-of-state (paid) protesters chain themselves to equipment and block roads in a “death by a thousand cuts” approach to prevent the completion of the 85% completed MVP project. Is it time to bring racketeering charges against the groups and people behind these activities? We think it is.
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FERC Asks USFWS to Pull/Review Permit for Mountain Valley Pipe
Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to “reinitiate consultation” (i.e. reconsider) its earlier finding that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project would not significantly harm protected fish and bats in its path. FERC believes there is new information on which USFWS should consider when issuing a permit that allows the pipeline to accidentally kill a few threatened species during construction.
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WV Pipeline Snitches Find Minor Problems with MVP Construction
Must be it was “pile on Mountain Valley Pipeline” week last week. In addition to FERC requesting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to pull a permit for the project (which happened), a small group of leftists fanned out and snapped pictures of supposed “violations” of the MVP project in West Virginia. The “volunteers” are spun by lefty media outlets as concerned, salt of the earth citizens. We call them pipeline snitches.
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MVP River/Stream Crossings in WV to Resume Thx to Fed EPA
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just given Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project a huge thumbs up and assist by approving permit changes made by West Virginia that will allow MVP to restart work in crossing hundreds of streams and rivers in the state.
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Mountain Valley Pipe Voluntarily Pauses Some Construction
Equitrans, builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project, has voluntarily stopped construction on certain portions of the 85% completed project. According to an MVP spokesperson, “The voluntary suspension pertains to areas along the route that may potentially have an impact related to the Endangered Species Act; however, MVP expects to continue with construction, where permitted, in other areas along the route.”
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Radical Greens Ask 4th Circus to Block MVP re Endangered Species
Hoping that lightning strikes twice with the “judges” at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) who read children’s books like The Lorax and use them in their decisions, deep-pocketed Big Green groups have filed a new lawsuit with the quirky judges asking that they overturn federal approvals issued to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Big Green hopes the clown judges will overturn approvals for MVP the same way they did for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project.
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Why Do Some M-U Pipeline Protesters Tip Over into Violence?
We have a proud tradition in America of vigorous debate and free speech. We have protests. We still, for now, have a free press where we can express our ideas–whether others agree with us or not. But some on the environmental left go too far. They don’t just protest, they break the law. Some even become violent. Take the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, as an example.
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