Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Virginia
Va. Landowner Asks Court for Emergency Stop to MVP Construction
Yet another lawsuit brought by one landowner against the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to block blasting and construction for the pipeline on his property, alleging it could “explode the headwaters of Bottom Creek.” The same landowner has been suing to block MVP since at least early 2019 by our quick check of the court records. This appears to be just one more attempt to use sketchy information to block the completion of a project that’s already 92% done and in the ground.
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Yet another fine for Energy Transfer (ET), assessed by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). This time the DEP has fined ET $140,000 for violations that occurred in 2019 and 2020 during the construction of ET’s B15 Well Connect Pipeline construction project located in Beaver County, PA. According to the consent order and agreement (COA), “sections of the pipeline project were not temporarily stabilized, areas of the site showed accelerated erosion and sedimentation, waterbars were not installed properly or not installed in the approved locations, and erosion and sedimentation best management practices (BMP) were inoperable or ineffective.”
The so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) lost a big court case in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last Friday, but you won’t have heard about it because no one in mainstream media is talking about it or reporting on it. We couldn’t even find a whisper about the defeat from PA Environmental Digest or StateImpact Pennsylvania. Huh. One would almost think there’s some sort of collusion going on. A wall of censorship and silence. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you about it…
You have to say one thing about environmentalist wacko zealots–they never give up. Ever. We’re talking about the Big Green money behind Appalachian Mountain Advocates, Southern Environmental Law Center, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (among 19 groups in total) which have filed a “request” (i.e. demand) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand an environmental review for Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
A new bill just introduced in the Pennsylvania House by State Rep. Eric Davanzo (Republican from Westmoreland County), House Bill (HB) 1763, clears up the confusion and bastardization of the term “royalty,” making it easy for everyone to know what can and cannot be deducted from royalties with respect to oil and gas leases. Davanzo got 23 of his fellow House members to co-sponsor the bill. It is a refreshingly simple bill that does not change any existing contracts. It defines the point to establish the value of gas (or oil) as that point when it is sold to an unrelated third-party purchaser. Simple!
MDN previously told you about so-called environmentalists filing a lawsuit to block the construction of an LNG unloading facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (see 
In something of a strange twist, the Bloomberg News service is sounding the alarm that the world is headed for a shortage of natural gas. Bloomberg hates fossil fuels and anything to do with them. Yet they now sense an impending shortage of natural gas and it’s causing the Bloomies some existential angst. Bloomberg reports natgas prices in Europe have “surged more than 1,000%” since May 2020 with no end in sight. Earth to Bloomberg: Europe has no one to blame but themselves. They don’t want our “fracked gas.” Let them buy Putin’s pipelined gas at extortionist rates.
The latest weekly Enverus U.S. rig count shows total rigs in use recovering to within one rig of a post-pandemic high. For the week ending August 4, the rig count stood at 603, up 4 rigs from last week. The Marcellus play lost one rig from the previous week, while the Utica picked up one rig. Collectively the M-U is currently running 45 rigs, the same level as the previous two weeks.