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MVP Gets FERC Permission to Drill 24/7 Under Interstate 81 in Va.

More progress to report on finishing the 94% completed (now likely closer to 97% completed) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP needs to cross under Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, VA, and it’s no small challenge to drill under the highway because it’s solid rock. On Oct. 13, MVP (being built by Equitrans Midstream) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the I-81 crossing. Last Tuesday, FERC approved it, although the approval comes with a few strings attached, like using special lights and monitoring noise levels.
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MVP Sues Two Protesters for Conspiracy, Blocking Pipe Construction

In September, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which has been hassled and harassed endlessly by so-called “protesters” and foreign-backed Big Green groups, sued some 40 protesters and two Big Green groups for $4 million for their ongoing illegal activity to block the final bits of the 303-mile project (see MVP Files Lawsuit Against Anti Groups, Protesters for $4 Million). Many individual protesters were unknown and not identified by name in the September lawsuit. We now know about two of them. Last week, MVP filed a second lawsuit for unspecified damages against Daniel Guidry (from Georgia) and Ashley Stecher Wagner (from California) for their alleged ongoing illegal activities in blocking construction, accusing them of conspiracy in organizing others to do the same.
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Equitrans Says MVP Will Become One of Most Valuable Pipes in U.S.

Equitrans Midstream issued its third quarter update yesterday. As you might expect, there was much talk about completing the nearly-done Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Near the top of Equitrans’ 3Q official update is this comment from CEO Thomas Karam: “Once in-service, there is little doubt MVP will be one of the most valuable pipelines in the U.S., directly connecting our country’s largest and lowest-cost natural gas resource and the rapidly growing demand of the mid-Atlantic and southeast markets.” MVP remains on track to be completed and online in 1Q24. We learned a few new details about MVP from the update. However, MVP wasn’t the only hot topic during yesterday’s update. We have new info about the Rager Mountain Natural Gas Storage Field incident, Ohio Valley Connector Expansion Project, and MVP Southgate.
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PA AG Files Criminal Charges Against Equitrans for Home Explosion

In 2018, a man in Clarksville (Green County), PA, turned on his gas stove, and it exploded, catching fire and leveling the entire house (see Did Shale Well Methane Migration Cause SWPA Home to Explode?). The man, his girlfriend, and young child were helicoptered to a hospital burn unit. The early working theory/assumptions were (a) the man didn’t smell mercaptan, therefore the source of the gas that exploded was not from the stove or line into the house itself, and (b) because there is an EQT shale well “across the street” and a gathering pipeline (operated by Equitrans Midstream) that runs “next to the house,” methane “may have” migrated from the shale well into the home, or methane leaked from the gathering line into the home. After five years of investigations, Pennsylvania’s Democrat (anti-drilling) Attorney General is ready to lay the blame on Equitrans, but not for the gathering pipeline.
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DC Circuit Denies Anti Request to Block MVP Construction in Va.

Shrill antis have their answer from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) in a request to (once again) shut down construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP): NO! A small group of uppity Virginia landowners don’t want MVP crossing their horse pastures, leaving a mark. So they conspired with Big Green lawyers in a lawsuit challenging the right of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to use eminent domain to build pipelines across private land.
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How MVP’s Latest Delay to 1Q24 Affects Project’s Partners, Customers

Last week, MDN brought you the news that the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will not be completely done and online until sometime in the first quarter of 2024 (see Equitrans Admits the Obvious – MVP Won’t be Online Until 2024). In addition to this further delay, Equitrans, the company building MVP, said the cost has gone up again — to $7.2 billion. Equitrans is not the only owner (investor) in MVP. How does this latest delay affect Equitrans, its partners, and its customers?
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Shrill Antis Get More Shrill Asking Court to Block MVP Construction

A long-running lawsuit filed by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners argues the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had no right to delegate authority to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use eminent domain to cross land, including the land owned by the small group of uppity landowners in Virginia. Big Green and the uppity landowners filed an emergency request last Tuesday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the construction of MVP be stopped while the lawsuit continues to play out (see Desperate Antis Ask DC Circuit to Block MVP Construction 1 More Time). Big Green is back, breathlessly claiming MVP has sped up its activity near the uppity landowners to try and get all of the construction done before the court can block it.
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Equitrans Admits the Obvious – MVP Won’t be Online Until 2024

Just two days ago, MDN brought you a post about the challenges faced by Equitrans Midstream in completing the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project this year (see MVP Hits Construction Challenges – Will it Get Done in 2023?). Our exact words in that post: “The brutal truth is that it will be really hard to finish MVP this year. More likely, it will be completed sometime early in 2024.” Looks like we’re prophets. Little did we know, but on the same day, Equitrans filed an update with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to say MVP won’t be ready and online until the first quarter of 2024, and the price to complete it has (surprise!) gone up once again.
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Desperate Antis Ask DC Circuit to Block MVP Construction 1 More Time

A long-running lawsuit filed by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners argues the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had no right to delegate authority to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use eminent domain to cross land, including the land owned by the small group of uppity landowners in Virginia. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court made the mistake of keeping the lawsuit alive, remanding it to a lower court (see US Supreme Court Keeps MVP Eminent Domain Case Alive in Lower Court). Big Green and the uppity landowners filed an emergency request on Tuesday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the construction of MVP be stopped while the lawsuit continues to play out.
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3 Out-of-State Protesters Arrested for Blocking MVP Construction

Multiple people arrested in connection to protests tied to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Credit: Appalachians Against Pipelines)

This is growing tiresome. Appalachians Against Pipelines, a group backed with big money from Big Green, continues to funnel paid “protesters” to construction sites for the 95% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), mainly in Montgomery County, Va., who chain themselves to equipment requiring state troopers to carefully remove them (requiring hours), slowing the already challenging work to complete the project. And then local county judges don’t do anything to stop it (see Va. County Judge Refuses to Stop Illegal Activities of MVP Protesters). About 25 protesters showed up at a Montgomery County construction site yet again yesterday. Three of them — every one of them from out of state — chained themselves to equipment (using “sleeping dragon” devices). All three were arrested and removed, but at the cost of yet another delay.
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MVP Hits Construction Challenges – Will it Get Done in 2023?

Since work resumed in midsummer, 92 stream crossings had been completed through Oct. 1 for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, according to MVP spokeswoman Natalie Cox. About 330 crossings remain. Can the company realistically complete the rest of the work and get the pipeline operational by Dec. 31 (less than three months away)? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question. Some 4,200 construction workers are actively working on getting it done. It doesn’t help that highly organized “protests” are being inflicted on the project by Big Green-backed groups like Appalachians Against Pipeline.
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Va. County Judge Refuses to Stop Illegal Activities of MVP Protesters

Emily Satterwhite, who teaches Appalachian studies at Virginia Tech and has been engaged in illegal activities against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) going back more than five years (see our previous stories about Satterwhite here). Satterwhite continues to encourage others to join illegal MVP construction blockades. On Friday, MVP asked a Montgomery County judge to slap an injunction on Satterwhite to prevent this sort of lawless activity, but the judge was too timid to act.
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MVP Protesters Block Construction in Jefferson National Forest

MVP protesters from Monday (click for larger version)

Radicalized protesters who have been brainwashed (and paid) by Big Green liars continue their campaign to prevent the construction of the final 5% or so of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). This past Saturday, a protester calling himself Mickey, from the group Appalachians Against Pipelines, locked his arms in a “sleeping dragon” device, blocking construction in that area for most of the day. On Monday, another paid protester from Appalachians Against Pipelines pulled the same stunt. This one called himself Ben. Apparently, Ben (as of this morning) is still locked and in place. The area being targeted by these wackadoodles is Giles County, Va., in the Jefferson National Forest.
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NC Dem Gov. Roy Cooper Vetoes Bill to Help MVP Southgate

Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, wants to extend the pipeline by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The extension is called MVP Southgate. In typical fashion, Democrats oppose it (see NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time and 52 NC Legislators Join Gov. in Seeking to Block MVP Southgate). Some energy analysts have chimed in with their view that MVP Southgate will never get built (see Analysts Say MVP Southgate Pipe in NC Not Likely to Get Built). However, all the negative Nellies are not stopping NC’s Republicans, who are trying to make it easier for MVP to get the permits it will need from the Dem-controlled Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
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MVP Cuts Deal with PHMSA for Third-Party Inspections of Pipe Coating

The left thought it had won the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) battle with three colluding (corrupt) and sympathetic judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit). But then Congress, under the leadership of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, passed the “debt ceiling” bill that forces the completion of MVP (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). The left tried one last Hail Mary, challenging the law itself in the sympathetic 4th Circuit. But the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and stopped the nonsense (see Supreme Court Overturns 4th Circuit, MVP to Restart Construction). However, the creative left wasn’t done with its efforts to defeat MVP.
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MVP Files Lawsuit Against Anti Groups, Protesters for $4 Million

Aggressive “protesters” and the nonprofits that organize and send them out are finally getting some of their own medicine. Big Green funds frivolous lawsuits, and when those lawsuits are finally exhausted (and have failed), Big Green pays protesters to engage in illegal stunts aimed at shutting down the construction of projects like the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Protesters are aggressively attempting to delay the final 6% of MVP construction, even though the completion of MVP is guaranteed by an Act of Congress (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). We’ve reported on the recent actions of MVP protesters in chaining themselves to construction equipment, forcing delays and costing money. Now, MVP intends to collect some of the money they’ve had to pay because of the illegal delays by protesters and the NGOs that sponsor them. It’s about time.
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