Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | North Carolina | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia
Atlantic Coast Pipeline to Give “Pollinator” Insects a Boost
Dominion Energy’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, will help butterflies, bees and other “pollinator” insects along the pipeline’s route. Last week Dominion announced an initiative to establish new habitats for pollinator insects. The plan will use 750 acres along roughly 50 miles of the proposed route in Virginia and North Carolina. It’ll be fun to see how so-called environmentalists will find fault with helping the environment…
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Two new members added to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by President Trump (Neil Chatterjee and Rob Powelson), added to the Obama-appointed member (Cheryl LaFleur) have not wasted any time in authorizing their first major pipeline project as a group. Last week the trio voted to approve the first major pipeline project since a quorum has been reestablished–NEXUS, a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. On August 4th, NEXUS, which is a jointly owned project between DTE Energy and Spectra Energy (now part of Enbridge), sent a letter to the new FERC quorum urging fast action (see 
Four Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) pipeline projects are expected to be completed by the end of this year and when they are, they will together flow an extra 1 billion cubic feet per day of Marcellus/Utica gas to more profitable markets in the South, as far away as the Gulf Coast. The four Tetco projects are: Gulf Markets Expansion Phase 2, Access South, Adair Southwest and Lebanon Extension. As fate would have it, Tetco experienced a fire while drilling under a highway for what we believe is the Adair Southwest project (see today’s companion story, Tetco Pipe Drilling in Athens, OH Hits Gas Pocket, Catches Fire). Three of the four projects–Access South, Adair Southwest and Lebanon Extension–are part of the same umbrella filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Those three together will flow an extra 662 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of gas to Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi. Some of that gas will then catch a ride on the Gulf Markets Expansion Phase 2, flowing gas to Louisiana and Texas. Here’s the exciting part: Some of that gas will go to LNG export facilities, and some will go by pipeline from Texas to Mexico. Cool! Marcellus/Utica gas finding its way to other countries via the Tetco pipeline. Which means some Marcellus/Utica drillers will get higher prices for their gas. Here’s an update on Tetco’s four pipeline projects combining to boost prices in our region, and carry our gas to other parts of the world, and which drillers will benefit…
The Sisters of the Corn have lost their battle to prevent the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline from crossing their cornfield. Last month MDN told you about a group of Catholic nuns who, with the help of radical Big Green groups, cleared a portion of a corn field they own (local farmer uses for planting corn), plopped a couple of wooden park benches and portable flower trestle in the middle of the corn field, and declared the spot a “chapel” (see 
Duke Energy needs to replace an aging pipeline, built in the 1950s, near Cincinnati, OH–or some people in Cincy will have to go without natural gas. Duke has proposed a 13-mile, 20-inch pipeline along two potential routes. Both routes are opposed by antis, including a group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extensions. Will the DOPEs volunteer to shut off the natural gas to their homes and businesses if the pipeline doesn’t get built? Not on your life! The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) held two public hearings in April, to grant anti-pipeliners the opportunity to vent (see 
Uwchlan Township in Chester County (near Philadelphia) has put itself on a path to get sued. The town is in the process of proposing and adopting new zoning ordinances that govern how pipelines can get built within town boundaries. The problem, of course, is that they don’t have that right. Federal pipeline projects are governed by federal law and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. State pipeline projects are governed by the state’s Public Utility Commission. Local yahoos can’t just take it on themselves to overturn federal and state law. Sorry boys and girls, it doesn’t work that way. You’ll need to suppress your inner anarchist. Some of the things the town wants sounds pretty tame: install secure fencing at the site, have an evacuation plan ready. But some things are certain litigation waiting to happen: pipeline operators must compensate the town for “any loss of tax revenue that results from a decline in real estate values” caused by construction the pipeline. And how, prey tell, will the town calculate that? Home values go up and down with the wind–year in and year out. Many factors beyond a pipeline affect property values. This is real hubris on the part of Uwchlan…
In March, Big Green group THE Delaware Riverkeeper (leftist political lobbying arm for the William Penn Foundation that funds it) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District requesting the court overturn a Clean Water Act permit granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Kinder Morgan’s Orion Project in northeast Pennsylvania. Yesterday, in a humiliating defeat, the Third Circuit rejected Riverkeeper’s request and ruled the Army Corps was well within its right to grant the permit (full copy of the ruling below). In October 2015, Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) filed their official, full application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking approval for the Orion Project (see 
A Bloomberg New Service article that is profoundly biased attempts to smear and denigrate the Rover Pipeline, claiming it is “wreaking environmental havoc” and that the project “has racked up more environmental violations than other major interstate natural gas pipelines built in the last two years.” There is no doubt Rover has had its problems, the most infamous being a 2 million gallon drilling mud spill in a wetland near the Tuscarawas River (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the radical Sierra Club had prevailed in a federal lawsuit against a trio of pipeline projects in the southeast (see 
In March of this year, Williams filed a full, official application for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see 
The editors at the Wall Street Journal have taken the gloves off with respect to the insane policies of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo when it comes to natural gas. Because of Cuomo’s “blockade” of natural gas, by banning fracking and by blocking natural gas pipelines from Pennsylvania into NY, Cuomo stands on the cusp of not only ruining his own state with high prices for natural gas–he’s going to ruin it for other states (like those in New England) as well. Cuomo wanted the Indian Point Nuclear plant closed–and it’s closing. He wants coal plants closed, and they have. But at the same time, the state is adding new natural-gas fired electric generating plants, like the one in Orange County. So far, Cuomo’s corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has refused to issue a permit for a pipeline to feed the plant (see 
Yesterday the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in a case that may have long-term, very negative consequences for the oil and gas industry related to pipeline development. The profoundly litigious (and anti-fossil fuel) radicals of the Sierra Club previously filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) blaming FERC for not considering mythical man-made global warming as it conducted a review of three pipelines in the southeast. The Southeast Market Pipelines Project is an umbrella project for three natural gas pipelines in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The linchpin of the project is the Sabal Trail pipeline, which travels from Tallapoosa County in eastern Alabama, across southwestern Georgia, and down to Osceola County, Florida, just south of Orlando (nearly 500 miles). Sabal Trail will connect with two other pipelines. The first is the Hillabee Expansion, which will boost the capacity of an existing pipeline in Alabama and feed gas to Sabal Trail’s upstream end for transport to Florida. The downstream end of Sabal Trail connects to the Florida Southeast Connection, linking to a power plant in Martin County, Florida, 120 miles away. MDN has covered Sabal Trail and the Hillabee Expansion because of its potential to flow Marcellus/Utica gas all the way to Florida (see 
Rover is a $3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. While Phase 1A of the pipeline is essentially done and ready to begin service by the end of this month (see 
It’s about time our side litigated back! Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline, filed a lawsuit yesterday against rabid, radical “green” organizations including Greenpeace, Earth First! and others, for manufacturing and disseminating “materially false and misleading information about Energy Transfer and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) for the purpose of fraudulently inducing donations, interfering with pipeline construction activities and damaging Energy Transfer’s critical business and financial relationships.” Because of Greenpeace and other Big Green groups, DAPL was delayed, people were hurt during protests, violent acts were committed, property was damaged and the environment that the protesters profess to love was also damaged. It was a coordinated and organized attack against Energy Transfer, so the federal lawsuit is suing using federal and state racketeering statutes. Energy Transfer says Greenpeace led an organized effort to put eco-terrorists on the ground among regular protesters. Finally! Someone willing to call out these jerks and take the fight back to them! You may wonder why we cover this story here on MDN. Energy Transfer is also building the Rover and Mariner East 2 pipeline projects here in the Marcellus/Utica region. Both projects are vigorously opposed by Big Green groups with paid protesters. This lawsuit puts other Big Green groups on notice–your days of smearing and lying and agitating are over…
On Monday we brought you the sad news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled against the Constitution Pipeline and their lawsuit against the Cuomo-corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (see