EQT Makes it Official, Files with FERC to Extend MVP into NC
In April MDN told you that even though Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) had only just begun to build along it’s 300+ mile route from West Virginia to southern Virginia, and even though the project faces enormous opposition from extremists who sit in the tops of trees and on top of poles, MVP went on offense by announcing a binding open season (time when customers can sign on the dotted line) to expand the not-yet-built pipeline even further (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC). The MVP Southgate project, as it’s called, will flow gas from the MVP mainline where it terminates in Pittsylvania County another 70 miles south to new delivery points in Rockingham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. Yesterday MVP (i.e. EQT Midstream) filed the official request with FERC.
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Who regulates what when it comes to the federal government and the oil and gas industry? We have an alphabet soup of federal agencies and agencies within agencies that regulate some aspects of drilling (on federal lands), pipelines, and by extension (because of air emissions) compressor stations, trucking and more when it comes to our industry. We recently spotted a helpful article that gives a high-level overview of who is regulating what. It’ll make your head spin! And this is just at the federal level. Add to this each state with its own regulatory fiefdoms and it’s a miracle any drilling ever happens.
Flashback: In May of this year, Energy Transfer CEO Thomas Long said Rover Pipeline would be fully online by June 1st (see 
MPLX, i.e. MarkWest Energy, has been slapped pretty hard by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, and several other state environmental agencies. Last Thursday the federal EPA serving as lead agency, announced a settlement with MPLX (and its various subsidiaries) to pay nearly $7 million in fines and corrective actions to cut down on air emissions at 21 of its plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas and Oklahoma. Of that total, $925,000 is a fine or “penalty” for violating clean air laws at the plants. The rest of the money will be spent on corrective actions to fix things and cut down on air emissions.
On Sept. 10, Energy Transfer’s 24-inch gathering pipeline in Beaver County, PA, called the Revolution Pipeline, caught fire and exploded during testing (see 
A group of 13 landowners in Virginia whose property was force taken by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) using eminent domain is appealing a case they already lost in federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court. The landowners claim MVP has taken private land–their land–to use for private/corporate gain and not (as the law requires) taken for a “public” benefit. Eminent domain allows the taking of private land for public benefit, but not taking private land for private benefit. The issue really revolves around the question of, What is a public benefit? Can a private company use government powers because what they provide benefits the public? The big question is, will the Supreme Court, which gets some 8,000 such appeals each year, make this appeal one of the 80 or so they consider?
In early October NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin partial operation (see 
Although EQT Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project has experienced a number of legal and regulatory setbacks and is currently blocked from constructing pipeline across/under/near any river, stream, or wetland in all of West Virginia and all of Virginia (some 1,100 different locations), believe it or not there are still many places where MVP can and is still installing pipeline (see 
Two weeks ago Enbridge, owner of the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (Tetco) Pipeline, announced it had put part of its Texas Eastern Appalachian Lease (TEAL) natural gas pipeline project in Ohio into service (see 
Dominion’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from West Virginia to North Carolina has had its share of setbacks. But these days, it appears the project is building momentum and government/regulatory decisions are breaking in ACP’s favor. The project is on track to finish by the end of 2019, so says Dominion. The latest win for ACP came yesterday when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission for ACP to begin construction pretty much in all locations in West Virginia. The only prohibitions are small areas in National Park Service land and a few locations where there may be Indiana bats.
Less than two weeks ago NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin operation (see