WV Sen. Joe Manchin Files Friend of Court Brief to Support MVP
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) emergency application to vacate the stays of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) that are blocking completion of MVP. The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023, signed into law on June 3 by President Biden, specifically removes legal jurisdiction for MVP from all courts but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit). Yet the 4th Circuit recently blocked two key permits, by extension blocking all construction of MVP. Last Friday MVP filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court (see MVP Asks Supreme Court Chief Justice to Overturn 4th Circuit Stay). Joe Manchin is chiming in with his support for MVP’s appeal.
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Yesterday MDN told you that on Monday, the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., the 4th Circus) illegally stayed a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to traverse a piddly 3.5 miles of the federally-owned Jefferson National Forest (see 
Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., clown judges from 4th Circus) yesterday Congress, the President, and the entire country the judicial equivalent of the double-barrel middle finger by illegally ruling to block the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest–for a fourth time. The three judges–Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton–are (in our opinion) corrupt and should immediately be impeached and removed from the bench. Their malfeasance has gone on long enough.
In April, Williams filed a formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to upgrade Transco pipeline’s capacity in Alabama and Georgia. The Alabama Georgia Connector Project involves upgrades to five compressor stations that will increase capacity in the region by an extra 63.8 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). The mighty Transco pipeline is a 10,200-mile natural gas transportation system that extends from south Texas to New York City. Transco is the nation’s largest-volume natural gas pipeline system, transporting about 15% of the natural gas consumed in the United States. Williams reversed the flow on Transco years ago to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the south.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see 
Superior Pipeline, headquartered in Oklahoma, operates in the following geographic areas: the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle, Central/Western Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma, Southeast Texas, Kansas, and Appalachia, including Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Superior owns and operates natural gas gathering and processing facilities, natural gas treating plants, and over 3,700 miles of pipeline. Unit Corporation, which had owned 50% of Superior, recently finished selling its 50% share to OPTrust and Partners Group. With the sale, the new 100% owners have changed the name of the company from Superior Pipeline to Superior Midstream.
Finally! On Monday, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) builder Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to restart all remaining construction to install the final 6% of MVP in West Virginia and Virginia. Yesterday, FERC issued that permission. Ladies and gentlemen, start your bulldozers! Company spokeswoman Natalie Cox said crews will begin work “shortly” on all remaining construction. We don’t know what shortly means, but we hope it means this week.
In the early days of the shale revolution, Marcellus/Utica drillers (all shale drillers) were incentivized by shareholders to drill at any cost. The philosophy was “drill baby drill,” believing pipelines would somehow get built to handle the increasing production volume. Over the past three years or so, since about the time the pandemic began, things have changed. Instead of “drill baby drill,” the rallying cry is now “curtail volumes,” “delay completions,” and “game-time decisions.” M-U producers have learned to “walk the line” of matching production with local demand, storage, and firm pipeline capacity.
The left thought it had won the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) battle and had stopped this 94% completed pipeline project cold. But then Congress passed the “debt ceiling” bill that forces the completion of MVP (see 
It really is sad (and angering) to behold the tactics of the left. Their favorite #1 tactic is fear. If the left can convince you the end is near à la “climate change” and “ticking time bomb pipelines” and “bomb trains” and “radiation” and “water contamination” and other incendiary (false) claims about fossil energy, they have you. The left thought it had won the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) battle and had stopped this 94% completed project cold. But then Congress passed the “debt ceiling” bill that forces the completion of MVP (see 