D.C. Circuit Dismisses Eminent Domain Lawsuit Against MVP & FERC
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) delivered a HUGELY important decision. In April 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed new life into a long-running lawsuit funded by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners who argue 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. The aim of the lawsuit is to prevent any private company from using eminent domain ever again to build public infrastructure — a true disaster of national importance. The D.C. Circuit said in an opinion yesterday that it lacks jurisdiction to rule on the matter, meaning it’s “case closed,” and MVP can finish up the final little bits (it’s about 99% done now).
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Here’s the kind of thing you don’t want to read about. Utility giant National Fuel Gas Company, headquartered in Buffalo and parent to Seneca Resources and NFG Midstream (and Empire Pipeline), is suing a former employee and several vendors for buying and installing counterfeit parts at several compressor stations. One such part caused the temporary shutdown at one compressor station in New York’s Southern Tier when the part failed to work correctly.
In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP (when it’s done) 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 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. Last year, Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend Southgate’s project timeline an extra three years. FERC agreed in December (see 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company NFG Midstream (and subsidiary Empire Pipeline). Last week, NFG issued its latest quarterly update. During the quarter (considered the company’s first quarter), Seneca produced 100.8 Bcf (billion cubic feet) of natural gas, an increase of 10.2 Bcf, or 11%, from the prior year, mainly due to production from new Marcellus and Utica wells in Seneca’s Eastern Development Area (EDA).
The Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline project called Enhancement by Compression (ExC) increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England (see 
Last Thursday, 29 far-left nutball groups wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), demanding that he issue a stop work order for the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to “repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property.” This isn’t the first time these groups have demanded regulators intervene to block MVP based on flimsy grounds. The 29 radical groups include Wild Virginia, The Wilderness Society, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, West Virginia Rivers Association, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and others (most of them obscure, one-person “groups” pretending to be bigger than they are).
Tenaska, one of the largest privately operated companies in the U.S., announced it has purchased six 21-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plants in Northeast Pennsylvania from IMG Energy Solutions. Tenaska currently operates approximately 22,000 MW of natural gas-fueled and renewables electric generation. We don’t know where the time has gone, but the last time we wrote about IMG was nearly seven years ago! MDN first told you about IMG (then called IMG Midstream) in August 2014 (see 
Last November, MDN brought you the news that pipeline giant Williams had given the green light to proceed with a new Transco pipeline expansion project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see 
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company recently announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location (see 
TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, is a huge pipeline company headquartered in Canada. TC owns and operates the Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipeline systems in the Marcellus/Utica region. Yesterday, TC announced that it plans to move its regional headquarters from Kanawha City (a neighborhood in Charleston, WV) to downtown Charleston and build a new $60 million building in the process. TC said the existing 110,000-square-foot former CASCI building will be demolished and replaced with a new building, with construction expected to be complete in 2025 and employees moving in by 2026.
In late 2015, MPLX (i.e., Marathon Petroleum) bought out and merged in the Utica Shale’s premier midstream company, MarkWest Energy, for $15 billion (see 
Equitrans, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project, is more than just a one-trick (one pipeline) pony. Equitrans owns 940 miles of FERC-regulated, interstate pipelines that have interconnect points to seven interstate pipelines and multiple local distribution companies (LDCs). The transmission and storage system is supported by 43 compressor units, with total throughput capacity of approximately 4.4 Bcf per day and compression of approximately 136,000 horsepower, and 18 natural gas storage reservoirs, which have a peak withdrawal capacity of approximately 820 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day and a working gas capacity of approximately 43 Bcf. Two of Equitrans’ 18 storage reservoirs — Hunters Cave and Swarts, both in Greene County, PA — are getting a makeover.
