Litigation

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    U.S. Supreme Court Changes Jurisdiction for WOTUS Challenges

    WOTUS is, unfortunately, far from dead. In May 2015 the Obama rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). Essentially the rule change redefined everything down to mud puddles (no, we’re not exaggerating) as being subject to the federal Clean Water Act. It was yet another attempt to bring oil and gas regulation under the purview of the federal government, a violation of the U.S. Constitution. In October 2015, a federal judge stopped WOTUS from going into effect while it’s litigated (see Sixth Circuit Court Stops EPA from Implementing WOTUS Anywhere). Eventually 31 states along with other entities filed briefs with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing the rule (see 31 States Ask Court to Dump Obama WOTUS Rule as Unconstitutional). A number of Senators and Congressmen joined the lawsuit. When President Trump took office and nominated Scott Pruitt (who had fought against WOTUS as Oklahoma Attorney General) to head the EPA, we thought that was the end of WOTUS. Pruitt pledged to roll back the onerous, hideous overreach of the Obama EPA (see Free at Last! EPA, US Army Corps Rescind Obama WOTUS Rule). Except that has not (so far) happened. Because of legal wrangling, Pruitt must take two years to develop a replacement for the destructive version of WOTUS–and in the meantime, the Obama version of WOTUS (sadly) remains in effect. Lawsuits against it continue to be litigated. It was into that fray the U.S. Supreme Court entered and recently ruled, unanimously, that the proper courts to review WOTUS are the District Courts and not the Courts of Appeal. Which is an important change. Here’s why…
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    NY DEC Asks Court to Toss FERC Order re Millennium Pipe Project

    Millennium Pipeline is building a tiny, 7.8 mile pipeline in Orange County, NY that will connect the main Millennium pipeline to the CPV Valley Energy Center gas-fired electric plant. Both projects are currently under construction. Millennium’s project, called the Valley Lateral Project, was opposed by the corrupt Andrew Cuomo Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The DEC refused to grant necessary permits for the federal project, so the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to overrule DEC and allow it to be built anyway (see History Made! FERC Overrules NY DEC on Millennium Pipe Permit). The DEC took FERC to court, but in December, the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the DEC’s request to block the beginning of construction (see Fed Court Denies NY DEC Bid to Block Power Plant Pipe Construction). Construction subsequently began immediately. The DEC, no doubt goosed on by the corrupt Cuomo, has just come back to the Second Circuit with a different request. This time the DEC wants the court toss out FERC’s approval of the project, saying if the FERC approval stands, any company could file a half-baked (i.e. “incomplete” according to DEC standards) application for a water crossing permit and that doesn’t give DEC enough time to chase in a completed application. In other words, companies would “run out the clock” by saying DEC took more than a year to approve an application. DEC calls it “sandbagging” by delaying important information. Somehow DEC’s protestations ring particularly hollow, since they themselves are famous for sandbagging…
    Read More “NY DEC Asks Court to Toss FERC Order re Millennium Pipe Project”

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    Renewables a “Roadmap to Nowhere” – Sued for Telling the Truth

    We spotted an article a month ago that is shocking and disturbing. This is the first time we’ve had a chance in our daily article roundup to bring it to you. A Stanford University professor pedals a “religion” that claims the world can be fueled by 100% renewable energy. That is, renewables can provide everything we need: electricity, heating, transportation, industry, shipping, the works. And renewables can do it so well that we won’t need power plants that run on actual fuel. It’s a bizarre viewpoint, but there you go. Some people believe in Santa Claus too. The Stanford prof published a paper espousing this theory. There were a lot of factual flaws in the paper, so another scientist (actually 22 prominent scientists) published a paper pointing out the problems with the Stanford prof’s paper. That’s how it’s done in academe. You put your research out there, and others can (often do) come along and question it with their own research and rebuttal. That’s how science gets better. So what did the Stanford prof do? He sued one of the 22 authors of the dissenting paper, along with the academic journal that published it! Sued them for libel. The person he chose to sue isn’t affiliated with an institution with a legal team to defend him–so this is selective persecution. An attempt at legal bullying. No longer is science something we debate with published findings. Now it’s a matter of faith–and God help you if you believe on the wrong side of an issue like global warming, or renewables. If you dare to believe the “wrong way”–or worse yet poke holes in a true believer’s theories–you may get hauled into court. An ebook titled “ROADMAP TO NOWHERE: The Myth of Powering the Nation With Renewable Energy” (full copy below) covers this controversy and shines a light on what you thought you knew about so-called renewables. The ebook compares renewables with nuclear energy (we wish it were natgas, but perhaps using nuclear is the better comparison in this case). Take a blood pressure pill before you read the following…
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    Constitution Pipeline Appeals NY Fight Directly to U.S. Supreme Court

    U.S. Supreme Court

    “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” – Mark Twain (and Constitution Pipeline). Last week it was our duty to report the sad news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found they could not override the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) decision (under pressure from the corrupt Andrew Cuomo) to block the Constitution Pipeline (see Death of the Constitution Pipeline? FERC Refuses to Overrule NY DEC). FERC found, after an exhaustive investigation, that the DEC had suckered Constitution into refiling a second time, restarting the one-year clock under which NY could render a decision about the pipeline. With four days left on the reset clock, DEC issued a denial of Constitution’s request for a federal water crossing permit (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Constitution went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn DEC’s decision, but ultimately failed (see Court Rejects Constitution Pipe’s Case Against NY DEC; Now What?). With FERC refusing to act, we asked the question last week, Is this the death of the $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into NY and New England? We reached out to Williams and MDN was first to report that Williams said they would continue to fight. And so they have! In a statement issued Tuesday, Williams (i.e. Constitution Pipeline) said they have appealed the Second Circuit’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court (full copy of the appeal below). Williams maintains if the Second Circuit’s decision upholding the corrupt DEC is allowed to stand, it sets a dangerous precedent for rogue states like NY who refuse to obey the strict interpretation of the law. That is, it allows states like NY to simply reinterpret the law any old which way they want. And that can’t stand…
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    Mountain Valley Pipe Tweaks Route, Asks VA Judge for Eminent Domain

    Credit: Roanoke Times – click for larger version

    Attorneys for holdout landowners along the path of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) are using MVP’s willingness to tweak the route of the pipeline to avoid certain areas, against it. Yes, try to work WITH folks–and they turn around and use it against you. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 303-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. In October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave final approval for the project (see FERC Approves Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley Pipeline Projects). In early November, the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection gave the project its approval (see WVDEP Reverses, Waives Water Permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline). And in December, the Virginia Water Control Board voted to approve the project (see Virginia Water Board Approves Mountain Valley Pipe – Antis Erupt). So it should be clear sailing for MVP–except for some 15% of holdout landowners along the pipeline’s route who refuse to sign easements. MVP has taken them to court, asking a federal judge for permission to use eminent domain to gain access to those properties. But the holdouts’ lawyers are saying continued tweaks to the pipeline route are evidence MVP doesn’t know what the heck it wants and who to “condemn” with eminent domain–and that’s enough reason for the judge to refuse granting blanket condemnation for eminent domain…
    Read More “Mountain Valley Pipe Tweaks Route, Asks VA Judge for Eminent Domain”

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    Lancaster Nuns Demand “Religious Freedom” Trial re Pipeline

    A group of radicalized Catholic nuns whom we refer to as Sisters of the Corn are demanding a trial on the grounds of “religious freedom” in an effort to block Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline from crossing their land in Lancaster County, PA. The order of nuns, called Adorers of the Blood of Christ, have tried several strategies to derail Atlantic Sunrise. One of stunts they pulled, in league with a radical Big Green group, is to stick a few wooden park benches in the middle of a corn field that they own (leased to a local farmer), calling it a “chapel” (see Catholic Nuns Use Radicals to Build Chapel in Path of PA Pipeline). Which is why MDN dubbed them “Sisters of the Corn.” The heck of it is that the Sisters use natural gas to heat an old folks home they operate at the same address! Talk about religious hypocrisy. The Sisters used the chapel-in-the-corn as an excuse to sue the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over their approval of Atlantic Sunrise on the grounds that running the pipeline through their corn field violates their religious freedom (see Lancaster Nuns Sue FERC to Stop Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline). A federal judge in Reading, PA dismissed the frivolous lawsuit in September (see Fed Judge Tosses Lancaster Nuns’ Freedom of Religion Lawsuit re ASP). The Sisters, using Big Green lawyers, have just appealed the dismissal, hoping they can find a liberal judge somewhere, anywhere, to hear the case…
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    Enviro. Defense Foundation Continues Quest to Gut PA DCNR Funding

    Big Green insanity continues at the so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The only thing they “defend” is their own twisted philosophy of trying to gouge out the eyes of the oil and gas industry in PA–even at the expense of de-funding their own beloved PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources. Last June, the PEDF won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised from drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land. A divided court ruled that money from royalties (not lease signing bonuses) must be used only for “environmental” purposes. The Supremes sent the case back down to the lower Commonwealth Court to settle some of the still-unsettled issues. PEDF tried to fleece Commonwealth Court into disallowing lease bonus payments and royalties from being used to pay the operating expenses of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). That is, antis want to gut the funding that pays the people in the department to do their jobs! PEDF wants lease and royalty money to be used exclusively for Big Green causes. Last week Commonwealth Court told PEDF: “No” (see PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations). The lower court will NOT address the issue of funding salaries and operating expenses of DCNR. The only decision the lower court will make, per their instructions from the lofty Supremes, is whether or not lease bonus payments must also be used for the same things royalty payments are used for–whatever those “same things” happen to be (operating expenses or not). Last week we said, “If PEDF wants to gut DCNR, they will have to go back to the Supremes to do it.” That’s just what they’ve done. The PEDF radicals have filed with the Supremes yet again, asking the Supremes to either take up the issue again, or force Commonwealth Court to rule the way PEDF wants–to gut the funding of DCNR…
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    PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations

    Last June, radical anti-drillers from the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see PA Supreme Court Hands Antis Partial Victory re State Land Drilling). The case dealt with the narrow issue of how PA can spend revenue raised from allowing drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land. A divided court ruled that money from royalties (not lease signing bonuses) must be used only for “environmental” purposes. The Supremes sent the case back down to the lower Commonwealth Court to settle some of the still-unsettled issues. PEDF tried to fleece Commonwealth Court into disallowing lease bonus payments and royalties from being used to pay the operating expenses of the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). You read that right. The antis wanted to gut the funding that pays the people in the department to do their jobs! PEDF wanted lease and royalty money to be used exclusively for Big Green causes. Earlier this week Commonwealth Court told PEDF no, they will not address the issue of funding the salaries and operating expenses of DCNR. The only decision they will make, per their instructions from the lofty Supremes, is whether or not lease bonus payments must also be used for the same things royalty payments are used for–whatever those “same things” happen to be (operating expenses or not). In other words, if PEDF wants to gut DCNR, they will have to go back to the Supremes to do it…
    Read More “PA Court Rejects Request to Block Royalties Funding DCNR Operations”

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    OH Towns Duped by CELDF Nervous Following PA Court Ruling

    Svengali

    Earlier this week MDN told you that Tom Linzey, the anarchist attorney who founded and runs the radical Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), has been sanctioned by Federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter and ordered to pay $52,000 to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for his “bad faith” in continuing to press legal arguments on behalf of Grant Township, in Indiana County, PA (see Attorney for Anti Group CELDF Fined $52K for “Bad Faith”). Not only that, Judge Baxter also referred the matter to the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a request they review Linzey’s actions with an eye to imposing more punishments against him. Linzey is red hot with rage following the sanctions imposed on him–claiming he’ll sue everyone and everything to clear his good name. Thing is, Grant Township isn’t the only town Linzey has duped using his Svengali routine. There are others, in both PA and OH. Athens, OH is one of them. The so-called “Community Bill of Rights” adopted by Athens in 2014 is almost word for word the same exact language thrown out by Judge Baxter in PA. Which is giving folks around Athens pause. It’s making them nervous about what will happen if they get sued, as you can detect in the following story…
    Read More “OH Towns Duped by CELDF Nervous Following PA Court Ruling”

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    5 Radical Green Groups Sue to Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline

    Here we go again. A group of five, radicalized Big Green groups, led (by the nose) by the odious Sierra Club, filed a motion and a new lawsuit in federal court on Monday attempting to prevent construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The pipeline is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners. The Sierra Club along with Appalachian Voices, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Wild Virginia, want a halt to MVP construction work until their lawsuit to reverse the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to approve the project is heard by the same court. We doubt the court will grant their request–but one never knows. The case (and motion) were filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Below is the Sierra Club’s smug, self-serving announcement about the lawsuit and motion, followed by copies of the lawsuit and motion…
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    NYC Commits Fossil Fuel Suicide – Sues Big Oil, Ending Investments

    New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is clinically insane. It’s time to put him in a straitjacket and prevent him from doing any more damage to a once-great city. de Blasio is using city resources to sue five oil companies, blaming them for “climate change”–the hoax that mankind is causing the earth to warm at an apocalyptic rate. The theory behind global warming is that burning fossil fuels (extracted by the five companies) releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere where the CO2 then acts like a canopy over the earth, trapping in heat from the sun, causing the earth to warm. And, as the theory goes, Mom Earth is warming up to such a degree that it will “soon” (any year now) kill plants, animals, mankind–all living things. All sorts of ills are laid at the feet of so-called global warming, now called “climate change”, including earthquakes, major storms, hurricanes, pestilence, racism. No, we’re not exaggerating. EVERYTHING is blamed on global warming. Even the record cold temperatures that we’ve experienced in the northeast are blamed on global warming! Wait–how can that be? How can a canopy effect trapping heat cause COLDER temps? Obviously it can’t–but these people will believe anything. Yes, CLINICALLY INSANE. But maybe not totally insane, because at its root, de Blasio’s move is not *really* about global warming and preserving the planet–it’s about an avowed socialist (de Blasio admits his perverse political leanings) attempting to steal money from those who earn it, in order to redistribute it to people who don’t earn it–people who will keep voting de Blasio into office in response to his political bribery. de Blasio has also instructed the city to divest its pension funds from any company that remotely has anything to do with fossil fuels. Now that IS insane!…
    Read More “NYC Commits Fossil Fuel Suicide – Sues Big Oil, Ending Investments”

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    Minuteman Seeks Justice Against Kathleen Kane & PA AG’s Office

    One of the companies in the Marcellus industry targeted for extinction by Pennsylvania’s former Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, was Minuteman Environmental Services (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). Minuteman was a Pennsylvania company serving the shale industry with several different businesses. In 2014, Kane orchestrated what can only be called a terror attack on Minuteman and its owner Brian Bolus and his family (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Kane’s vendetta against Minuteman was one of the most egregious examples of her abuse of power while she was AG. Kane’s attack on this small business literally drove it out of existence–they finally went bankrupt. One of the charges Kane used against the owner of the business, Brian Bolus, is that he illegally added his mom and dad to the health insurance plan for the company, even though they were not employees. Fantastically, Kane went after mom and dad, charging them with health care fraud! That charge, along with other charges, were dropped in 2016 (see Former PA AG Kathleen Kane’s Vendetta Against Marcellus Co Over). In fact, out of the original 83 charges (56 charges being felonies), 81 of the charges have been dropped. The final two charges–misdemeanors (barely above a traffic ticket in the pecking order), go to trial this month and will (hopefully) also be dropped. It has taken four, long, years for Bolus and Minuteman to be exonerated legally. During that time, Kane herself was tried and convicted for committing perjury–a felony–and removed from office (unrelated to the Marcellus industry). Kane and the AG’s office caused extreme harm to Brian Bolus and his family–reputationally, and economically. Nothing can ever make up for the years and loss of reputation and forcing a company to go bankrupt, throwing hundreds of people out of jobs. However, there is *something* can be done. Bolus has filed a lawsuit (copy below) against Kane and the AG’s office and some of the people in the AG’s office that maliciously targeted him and his company. He’s demanding a jury trial–to help right the extreme wrong that’s been done…
    Read More “Minuteman Seeks Justice Against Kathleen Kane & PA AG’s Office”

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    Attorney for Anti Group CELDF Fined $52K for “Bad Faith”

    Tom Linzey, the attorney who founded and runs the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), has just been sanctioned by Federal Judge Susan Paradise Baxter and ordered to pay $52,000 to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for his “bad faith” in continuing to press legal arguments on behalf of Grant Township (Indiana County, PA)–legal arguments that say the people of Grant have rights they actually don’t have. Linzey has continued to claim rights for the citizens of Grant that have no legal basis and have been discredited in court. Not only that, but Judge Baxter also referred the matter to the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a request that they review Linzey’s actions with an eye to imposing more punishments against him. We’ve previously reported on the story of two Pennsylvania towns that were either hoodwinked, or perhaps willing led astray, by the radical CELDF into passing (now overturned) bans on fracking and injection wells in their towns–Highland Twp (Elk County) and Grant Twp (Indiana County). The two townships thought they would do an end-run around the state’s authority to issue permits for two injection wells–one in each township, by re-incorporating under so-called home rule charters. The towns essentially declared themselves independent of the state for a variety of matters, including oil and gas permits, which PA state law clearly says is a function of ONLY the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. In March, the DEP issued final permits for the injection wells AND sued each town to get those portions of their home rule charters, dealing with oil and gas, overturned (see PA DEP Issues 2 Wastewater Injection Well Permits, Sues 2 Towns). Both towns eventually backed down (see 2 PA Townships Won’t Enforce “Home Rule” Against Injection Wells). However, in May, Grant’s attorneys (i.e. Linzey) filed a counter-claim against PA asking Commonwealth Court to recognize a sort-of extra-judicial set of rights the town can exercise over top of, or in addition to, state laws–instead of their previous position of trying to replace state laws (see CELDF Continues to Agitate Against Indiana, PA Injection Well). The company building the injection wells, PGE, has been economically harmed by the actions of the towns and attorney Linzey, and sued to recoup costs. This decision in part satisfies that lawsuit. The judge, in very strong language, is punishing Linzey for his continued, intentional abuse of the legal system. We note she is not punishing the towns but rather Linzey…
    Read More “Attorney for Anti Group CELDF Fined $52K for “Bad Faith””

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    OH Supreme Court Rules Against Forcing Driller to Explore Utica

    What if a landowner leased his or her land decades ago and a driller drilled a conventional natural gas well on the property, and that well has produced commercial volumes of natural gas for years–and still does. And what if the lease gives that driller the right to drill (or not drill) in any given rock lawyer. And what if that driller is content to simply let that conventional well keep producing and not drill further down, into the now commercially viable Utica (or Marcellus) shale layer? Does the landowner, whose land is located where the Utica/Marcellus exists, have any case for taking back the rights to the deeper shale layers the conventional driller refuses to go after? That’s a case that went all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court in March of last year (see OH Supreme Court to Hear Appeal re Driller Who Won’t Explore Utica). The Supremes heard oral arguments in the case in September. At that time we said this: “The winds appear to be blowing against the landowner, judging by what the judges said” (see OH Landowner Wants High Court to Force Driller to Explore Shale). Indeed we were right. In a January 3, 2018 decision, the Supremes ruled that Ohio does not recognize an “implied covenant to explore further” in oil and gas leases (full decision below). This is sad news for Ohio landowners who have old wells/leases with a driller who stubbornly won’t explore the Utica, nor allow anyone else to either…
    Read More “OH Supreme Court Rules Against Forcing Driller to Explore Utica”

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    As MVP Gears Up for Feb 1 Construction, WV Landowners Try to Block

    A relatively small number of landowners in West Virginia is using a novel legal argument to try and stop Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from beginning construction. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 303-mile natural gas pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval for the project in October (see FERC Approves Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley Pipeline Projects). In order to keep the project on track for completion by the end of 2018, they need to begin tree clearing no later than Feb. 1st. Problem is, there are landowners in WV (and VA) who won’t negotiate with MVP on leases–so MVP has sued them using eminent domain. Here’s what typically happens in an eminent domain case (knowledge we gained at a session at last year’s Shale Insight event): Since this is a federally regulated project, MVP has the right (under FERC authority) to use eminent domain to “condemn” properties where the landowners won’t play ball. The cases are typically filed in U.S. District Court–in this case for the Southern District of West Virginia. MVP filed that paperwork back in October. What usually happens next is that the judge/court will grant an order allowing the pipeline company to enter the property and do the work–but the details about how much money the landowner gets is not decided, sometimes for a year or more. That’s a separate issue. First the company is allowed in and does the work, later on the court will decide how much money to award the landowner for the work. However, the WV landowners filed a response and motion for partial summary judgment in late December that makes the argument that how much each landowner gets should come first, before MVP is allowed on their property. Frankly, it just doesn’t work that way. Question is, what will the justices do in this case?…
    Read More “As MVP Gears Up for Feb 1 Construction, WV Landowners Try to Block”

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    Dominion, MVP File to Dismiss VA-WV Lawsuit Against Pipe Projects

    In September a group of 57 gentry landowners in Virginia and West Virginia, backed by an out-of-state Big Green group, sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in an attempt to gut the 80-year old Natural Gas Act that gives FERC the right to grant eminent domain for pipeline projects (see VA, WV Landowners Sue FERC re Pipelines, Seek to Gut Natural Gas Act). Specifically, the colluding landowners oppose Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, and EQT’s $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline project, a 303-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The frivolous lawsuit, titled BOLD ALLIANCE, et al. v. FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It claims the landowners’ property is a “taking” not properly compensated under the U.S. Constitution. Yesterday two important parties to the lawsuit–Dominion (representing Atlantic Coast Pipeline) and Mountain Valley Pipeline–filed a motion to dismiss the case. They have a strong argument. Why dismiss? Because the gentry landowners filing the lawsuit have ignored United State laws, which specifically state that (a) ONLY FERC has jurisdiction over the projects and decisions about whether or not they can get built, (b) if a supposedly aggrieved party disagrees with FERC’s decisions, they must first file for a rehearing, and if FERC still refuses, then (c) the supposedly aggrieved party can file a lawsuit ONLY with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The suers (Bold Alliance) did file for a rehearing and FERC has not yet ruled on the rehearing. Bold Alliance tried to sidestep the law by moving forward with a lawsuit prematurely. However, the really big no-no is that they filed in U.S. District Court for DC, NOT the Court of Appeals for DC. Big difference. We see no other choice for the judges in U.S. District Court but to dismiss the case since Bold Alliance should not have brought the case in their court in the first place…
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