Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia
Split FERC Allows MVP to Restart Construction Near National Forest
The flaky Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, who lately has taken to stabbing natural gas pipelines in the back (see FERC Changes How it Approves NatGas Pipes, Chatterjee a Backstabber), flipped back to supporting pipelines on Wednesday as he joined the two level-headed Republican commissioners in voting to allow Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to partially resume construction near national forest lands, denying a stay request filed by a coalition of environmental groups including the odious Sierra Club.
Read More “Split FERC Allows MVP to Restart Construction Near National Forest”
Over the past few years, radicalized environmentalists have taken the law into their own hands in an effort to block pipeline construction. Some of the more wacky ones decided to build themselves tree stands and live, full-time, up in the top of trees that are in the path of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Their aim was to prevent the trees from being cut down, ultimately blocking construction of the pipeline (see 
When Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will connect West Virginia and bountiful supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas to southern Virginia (eventually beyond), is finally done, will Equitrans send a bill to the odious Sierra Club and other Big Green groups that have intentionally held up the project *for years* with a blizzard of frivolous lawsuits? Frivolous lawsuits holding up the MVP project have had very real costs. For example, Equitrans’ “all-in” cost to ship an Mcf of gas through the pipeline (when it finally is in-service) has doubled because of the delays. We think Equitrans should sue the litigious enviro groups to recover the escalating cost they will pay. Let’s put the Sierra Club out of business.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is finally making official what has, until now, been unofficial (but enforceable via court orders): State environmental agencies have exactly one year to either grant or reject issuing a Clean Water Act Section (CWA) 401 permit for pipelines (and other federal projects) to cross rivers and streams and wetlands. A final rule is now drafted and 90 days after it’s published in the Federal Register the rule will be in place and enforceable.
All the wheels have officially come off the cart for a proposed $346 million pipeline project in northeastern Virginia called the Header Improvement Project. Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) filed a plan last December to build the Header Improvement Project, 24 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations (expanding a third compressor) connecting to the mighty Transco pipeline system to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the northeast Virginia region (see 
Two radical left Democrat FERC commissioners and one backstabbing RINO FERC commissioner voted last week to approve an 87-mile natural gas pipeline project in South Dakota and Nebraska. So a natural gas pipeline was approved by two Dems and a RINO (this is not a joke setup). The approval is a good thing, right? No, it’s not. The criteria they used in approving the project establishes a new precedent, new guidelines, that will be used for all pipeline projects going forward. The precedent is to consider how much man-made global warming a new pipeline will generate, which is (of course) nonsensical and can’t actually be measured. In other words, these three will now use made-up, pretend nonsense numbers of their own choosing to decide whether or not to approve any and all pipeline projects moving forward.
Here’s another “XPress” pipeline to add to Columbia’s (TC Energy’s) long list of other XPress pipelines: East Lateral XPress. Columbia has built a number of XPress pipelines, including Gulf XPress, Mountaineer XPress, WB Xpress, Leach XPress, Rayne XPress, Buckeye XPress, and Louisiana XPress, all of which work together to flow (in part) Marcellus/Utica natural gas to points south, including to the Gulf Coast (
Really Dick? This is what you spend your time on these days? Digging up long-addressed and settled and resolved actions (from SIX YEARS ago)–old infractions by pipeline companies like Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline. Claiming you will “not look the other way” when there’s a violation (a violation that happened long before you were even a FERC Commissioner). Whoa, you’re such a big man. So self-righteous. Glick is now digging up old pipeline sins to parade around once again. It’s like a dog that buried roadkill a year ago and recently rediscovered the spot, dug it up, and now drags the old rotting carcass around the yard for all to see, all proud of himself.
In July 2018 three radical environmental groups dropped their objections to permits the Pennsylvania DEP previously granted for the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association, and THE Delaware Riverkeeper “settled” their appeal of 20 permits issued to Sunoco for the ME2 project (see 
In February 2020, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell sent a letter to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). McDonnell’s letter alleges Shell’s 97-mile, two-legged Falcon pipeline system that will carry ethane to the mighty Shell cracker plant now under construction in Beaver County, PA, “may have been conÂstructed with deÂfecÂtive corÂroÂsion coatÂing proÂtecÂtion.” It’s an explosive charge just coming to light now, more than a year later.
Williams, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco), has filed a lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline (a competitor) over MVP’s plan to extend the pipeline an extra 75 miles from southern Virginia into North Carolina. Williams claims some of the land MVP wants to use under eminent domain crosses into Transco’s easements and building MVP so close to Transco may damage Transco’s pipeline and the cathodic anti-corrosion system that protects it.
Gulfport Energy continues to try and wiggle out of legally-signed and binding long-term contracts with multiple pipeline companies, including deals that move Marcellus/Utica gas through the Rover and Rockies Express (REX) pipelines. Last year the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told Gulfport a very loud NO in breaking those contracts (see 
Last August the North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rejected a water permit for Equitrans’ proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project (see 
The good news for Equitrans’ 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last week overruled North Carolina’s Dept. of Environmental Quality in rejecting a water permit for the project (see today’s lead story). However, MVP wasn’t letting last year’s DEQ action slow it down. In January MVP reluctantly filed eminent domain lawsuits against 100 landowners who refuse to reasonably negotiate an easement for the pipeline.