MVP Announces New Application for Permits – In-Service Date of 2H23
With all due respect, Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), is making a big mistake, in our humble opinion. Equitrans issued its first quarter 2022 update this morning. The big announcement from the update is that the company plans to file for new permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow MVP to build through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. The radically left U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) has ruled against MVP and those same permits twice before. Equitrans CEO Thomas F. Karam says he thinks the third time will be the charm. We say, don’t hold your breath.
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Reuters has noticed that the rate of growth in the production of natural gas has slowed nationally, even though the price for natural gas is at a 14-year high and even though other countries, particularly Europe, are begging for our gas. Why? Lack of pipelines. We have the ability to produce far more natural gas than we do now, but Big Green (funded in part by foreign countries and bad actors) successfully defeats new pipeline projects with a barrage of lawsuits.
Because of constant court challenges against pipelines, the Trump administration completed a redo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12), a general permit used in constructing pipelines, just prior to leaving office. From the beginning of the Biden administration, anti-fossil fuel fanatics have attacked NWP12, hoping they can cancel it or otherwise make it so onerous nobody will use it. In March the Army Corps caved to the pressure and announced it will review (i.e. change) NWP12 (see
Three Democrat Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners voted to adopt and immediately begin using new guidelines for approving pipeline projects by taking into account mythical global warming factors back in February (see
When you only have one main pipeline flowing natural gas from the prolific Marcellus Shale to your region, as does Boston, if that pipe has an outage for any reason, as the Algonquin Gas Transmission (AGT) has had, you’re in trouble. AGT declared a force majeure (an unforeseen act of God) on the 26-inch line of its J System in Massachusetts. The outage in one particular section of the pipeline means “slashing nominations downstream of Trapelo to zero for the foreseeable future.” Ouch. Guess what’s happening to the price of natural gas at the Algonquin Citygates natgas trading hub? Through the roof.
Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY and New York City for Consolidated Edison customers, called the East 300 Upgrade Project, took a giant leap forward last Thursday when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County. This is a major victory and a sign this project will now get completed.
New Jersey Resources’ Adelphia Gateway project converts an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final approval for the project in December 2019 (see
Getting hydrogen from point A to point B by mixing it with and flowing it through existing interstate natural gas pipelines sounds easy. Just hook up to a handy source of hydrogen and let the molecules flow and mingle with methane molecules, right? However, adding hydrogen (H2) to existing methane (CH4) pipelines is NOT a simple thing. There are major roadblocks to flowing H2 through CH4 pipes.
In early March MDN brought you information from the Toronto Financial Post that said the Ukrainian crisis has put East Coast Canada LNG export facilities “back on the map” (see
Pipeline giant Williams announced yesterday that it will collaborate with Cheniere Energy, the largest LNG exporter in the U.S., as well as other natural gas midstream companies, methane detection technology providers, and several academic institutions to implement measuring and tracking of so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at natural gas gathering, processing, transmission, and storage systems. Williams will include the mighty Transco pipeline system in this project, a 10,000-mile pipeline system that flows Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast (to Cheniere’s LNG export facilities).
Spire STL is a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. The pipeline began flowing gas in late 2019 (see 
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has (for months) forcefully pushed the issue of completing the 94% done-and-in-the-ground Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, a 303-mile pipeline from WV into Virginia. In early March Manchin let all five Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners know of his displeasure that MVP, along with other pipeline projects, is delayed (see