Last Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFSW) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra 45 days to revise an Endangered Species Act (ESA) review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Also from last week: anti-fossil fuelers (Big Green groups) virulently opposed to MVP (which is 90% built) continued to hound the project by pestering the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over minor violations the DEQ found in construction activities from September to December. Big Green wants to know what the DEQ is going to “do” about the violations.
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Category: Equitrans/EQT Midstream
Virginia Landowners Sue to Emasculate FERC in Bid to Block MVP
In a lawsuit filed last week, three couples who own land along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia, who don’t want the pipeline crossing their land, are trying to overturn federal approval of MVP by emasculating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This is not the first time someone has tried to emasculate FERC using MVP.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline Settles Lawsuit, Pays Virginia $2.15M
In October MDN told you Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) had been bullied by the Attorney General in Virginia into agreeing to pay a $2.15 million fine and subject itself to stricter monitoring–an ongoing anal exam–as they complete construction of the pipeline in the state (see Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine). MVP construction is currently on hold and is due to restart in 2020. Although the AG and MVP both agreed to the outrageous fine and oversight plan in October, it’s not official until a judge signs off–which happened on Wednesday.
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Equitrans Cancels Trinity Energy Contract re Mountain Valley Pipe
Last week Equitrans subsidiary EQM Midstream Partners (formerly EQT Midstream) canceled a contract with Texas-based Trinity Energy to build portions of the now-stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. You may recall that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stopped all new construction on MVP in October, until a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit that passes muster with the courts can be issued (see FERC Shuts Down All Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction). We’re not sure what Trinity was doing in the meantime with a shutdown of construction in place, but Trinity reps expressed surprise that their MVP contract has now been canceled.
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FERC Pushes Back Deadline to Review MVP Southgate to Feb 2020
Last November Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream), filed plans with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project *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). The Southgate project has been under review at FERC since that time. The original schedule called for FERC to issue a final environmental impact statement (EIS) on Dec. 19. That date has just been pushed back.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline Unloads on Radicalized Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is a radicalized, far left “environmental” group that seems to have endless mountains of cash to finance frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit against any project or company with the moniker “fossil fuel” attached to it. The Clubbers have made trouble for both Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, and now for Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by convincing lefty judges in a federal court to overturn previously issued permits from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Equitrans has had enough of the Clubbers and their interference and recently unloaded on the group in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
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EQT Hammers Equitrans to Lower Gathering Price – Deal Close?
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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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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