Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Montgomery County | Pipelines | Virginia
Radicals Continue Tree Sitting >200 Days in SW VA to Protest MVP
We thought the tree sitting weirdos trying to illegally block construction of Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia had long returned to earth. But as we reported in early March, there are still a couple of wackos sitting, still engaging in a crime, in Montgomery County, VA (see Still a Few “Tree Sitters” Left Blocking Section of MVP in Va.). An illegal out-of-towner from Texas (24 years old) has now been up his tree for over 200 days and counting.
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Last August the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a decision overruling the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to allow National Fuel Gas Company’s Northern Access Pipeline project to proceed (see 
In addition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) slapping down the New York DEC this week (see our lead story), on Wednesday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down both New York and North Carolina regulators who tried to block three important Williams pipeline projects, all related to the mighty Transco Pipeline.
The Cuomo-corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is spitting and sputtering, “warning” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that if they (FERC) decide to rule that NY took too long to approve the Williams Constitution Pipeline and now gives the project a go-ahead, the DEC intends to rain down all sorts of legal hell on the agency. Which tells us one thing: the DEC is VERY nervous that their power to block pipeline projects is about to be neutered.
The Mariner East 1 pipeline sprung a small leak and spilled 20 barrels (~840 gallons) of ethane and propane in Berks County, near Philadelphia, on April 1, 2017 (see 
A 30-inch segment of Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission Company (Tetco) interstate natural gas pipeline exploded in January, sending two people to the hospital and destroying two nearby homes when fires from the blast spread (see 
We spotted a story about landowners in the Philadelphia suburbs who currently have to live with construction of the Mariner East 2 pipelines (plural, there are two of them, ME2 and ME2X), literally happening in their back yards. While we are strong supporters of the ME2 project, we are not unsympathetic to landowners and the hassles they have to endure while it’s being built.
One of the arguments often heard from those who oppose natural gas pipelines is that “nobody” benefits from the pipeline except the sleazy Big Corporation that builds and profits from it. A single pipeline running through Ohio and Michigan puts that lie to rest. Rover Pipeline, built and operated by Energy Transfer, paid out some $73 million in local property taxes in 2018 when the pipeline first began operation. For 2019, with the full pipeline operating at 100% capacity for the entire year, Rover says they will pay out ~$180 million in property taxes! Taxes that fund schools, roads, first responders and other worthy causes.
Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson is “urging patience” with PTT Global Chemical and their long-overdue final investment decision (FID) to move forwarding with building what is now being called a $7-$10 billion ethane cracker complex in Dilles Bottom (Belmont County), OH.
There must be something in the water in New England. Today we told you about mass insanity in Bristol, Vermont, and now a story about a small community in nearby Massachusetts that wants to block 2.1 miles of new looping pipeline (buried next to an existing pipeline) in Longmeadow, Mass. All because local fruit loops want to ban new “fossil fuel” infrastructure. Lunacy is breaking out everywhere in New England!
Does one government hand know what the other is doing in Puerto Rico? More to the point, is there a brain instructing either hand what to do? That’s the question we had as we read the legislature of PR has just passed an idiotic law requiring all electricity generation on the island to come from so-called renewables by 2050.
Anti-fossil fuel radicals are making noises, threatening noises, about how they may react when and if (as seems likely) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) decides to overrule New York State and allow the Williams Constitution Pipeline to finally, after five years, get built.