| | | | | |

Analysts Say MVP Southgate Pipe in NC Not Likely to Get Built

Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, proposed to extend the pipeline by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The extension is called MVP Southgate. In typical fashion, Democrats oppose it (see NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time and 52 NC Legislators Join Gov. in Seeking to Block MVP Southgate). Some energy analysts are chiming in with their view that MVP Southgate will never get built.
Continue reading

| | | | |

28 U.S. House Democrats Ask FERC to Reject MVP Southgate Project

A group of 28 House Democrats asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to deny a request from the developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to extend the project 75 miles into North Carolina, called MVP Southgate, arguing in a letter this week that Southgate’s construction would pose serious climate and environmental risks to affected states. Typical. Why do so many Democrats irrationally hate fossil energy?
Continue reading

| |

M2X Energy’s Modular Gas-to-Methanol Plant in NC Produces 1st Batch

We’re off to the races! M2X Energy, based in Florida, announced the company’s first modular gas-to-methanol plant reached a key milestone and produced its first methanol at the Richard Childress Racing campus in Welcome, N.C. Richard Childress Racing is a motorsports organization with a long history in NASCAR racing and engine development. M2X uses methane (natural gas) that otherwise would be burned (flared) and converts the gas into methanol which is used as a chemical feedstock to create other things, like gasoline, antifreeze, plastic bottles–even LED and LCD screens.
Continue reading

| | | |

Making the Case in North Carolina for MVP Southgate Pipeline

Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, proposed to extend the pipeline by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The extension is called MVP Southgate. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a liberal Democrat, is against it (see NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time). So too, are 52 NC liberal Democrat legislators (see 52 NC Legislators Join Gov. in Seeking to Block MVP Southgate). However, many others, including NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, favor Southgate. An excellent article written by Jon Sanders, director of the John Locke Foundation’s Center for Food, Power, and Life, makes a case for Southgate, discussing how it “can help bridge the gap from coal to zero-emissions nuclear.”
Continue reading

| |

NC Gets 40% of its Electricity from NatGas, Just 8% from Solar

We read an article that breathlessly proclaimed North Carolina is on pace to generate more of its power from solar than from coal this year. It is, said the author, “another sign of the state’s energy transformation toward a greener future.” Release the party poppers! ? But as we read the article, we discovered solar only provides “roughly 8%” of NC’s electricity. Coal currently provides between 7% and 8%. The current champion is (and will be for decades) natural gas, which provides 40% of NC’s electricity. So much for NC’s “transition toward a greener [solar] future.”
Continue reading

| | | | |

52 NC Legislators Join Gov. in Seeking to Block MVP Southgate

click for larger version

Earlier this week, we told you that North Carolina Gov. Roy “Dud” Cooper does what the wacko left tells him to do, namely oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate project (see NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time). He isn’t the only one. Some 52 North Carolina State House and Senate members, every one of them a liberal Democrat, have joined Cooper in asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to deny a request by MVP to extend the amount of time it has to build the Southgate extension. However, NC’s Lieutenant Governor, a Republican, supports MVP Southgate.
Continue reading

| | | | |

NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time

NC Gov. Roy “Dud” Cooper

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is a dud. He does what the wacko left tells him to do–no mind of his own. He’s like Joe Biden, except on a smaller scale, limited to harming just North Carolina and not the entire country. Yesterday Cooper sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking the four commissioners to deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) request for a time extension to build the MVP Southgate project into his state. Why? Cause everybody in NC will be forced (by Biden) to convert to electricity any day now, and using natural gas for heating and generating electricity isn’t needed in the Tar Heel state anymore. What a crock!
Continue reading

| | | | |

Equitrans Asks FERC for Extra 3 Years to Build MVP Southgate to NC

Early last week, we published a post about the possibility that Equitrans would revive its moribund project to build the 75-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project from the current MVP terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC (see MVP Completion in 2023 Gives New Hope for MVP Southgate in NC). We told you anti-fossil fuel leftists were all atwitter that MVP Southgate may rise from the ashes like a phoenix. They were right! Late last week, MVP sent a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra three years to build MVP Southgate.
Continue reading

| | | |

MVP Completion in 2023 Gives New Hope for MVP Southgate in NC

It took an Act of Congress, but the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, will be, according to the builder and primary owner, Equitrans, completed and online by the end of this year (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023). Equitrans had big plans to expand MVP an extra 75 miles from Pittsylvania County to Alamance County, NC, a project called MVP Southgate. However, given the pushback and obstacles in completing the original MVP, Equitrans appeared to give up on Southgate last October (see Equitrans Signals Giving Up on MVP Southgate – Pulls Eminent Domain).
Continue reading

| | | | | | | |

FERC Positive EIS for Transco NC Southside Reliability Project

We have an update to a project we first told you about in June of last year called the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project (see Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC). In 2022, pipeline giant Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to beef up capacity along the mighty Transco pipeline by upgrading compressor stations and other infrastructure (no new pipeline) in order to flow an extra 423 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus/Utica gas to Piedmont Natural Gas and its customers located in eastern North Carolina. The new news is that FERC recently issued a final environmental impact statement (EIS) that finds the project, with proper tweaks, will not harm Mother Earth. This is a loud and clear signal that FERC will soon grant a certificate for the project to proceed.
Continue reading

| | | | |

Blue Ridge Pkwy Says Dominion Pipe has “No Significant Impact”

In February, MDN brought you news about a “last mile” pipeline from Dominion Energy (see Will Dominion Back Down on Pipe Under Blue Ridge Parkway?). Last mile pipes are the pipes utility companies install and maintain to run gas to homes and businesses. Dominion wants to install a new 760-foot pipeline under the Blue Ridge Parkway (managed by the National Park Service) in North Carolina. Naturally, anti-fossil fuel zealots oppose the project because it flows an evil fossil fuel. However, yesterday, the National Park Service issued a FONSI to say there will be no significant impacts from the pipeline on the pretty views from the Parkway.
Continue reading

| | | |

Equitrans Signals Giving Up on MVP Southgate – Pulls Eminent Domain

This is, indeed, a sad day. Last Thursday, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP), which is majority owned by and is operated by Equitrans Midstream Corp., filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss eminent domain proceedings against landowner holdouts in North Carolina for land needed to build an extension of MVP into the state, called MVP Southgate. An Equitrans spokesman said the company hasn’t given up on the Southgate extension. We don’t believe it for a New York minute. We’ve seen this movie before when PennEast Pipeline canceled eminent domain, first in Pennsylvania (see PennEast Stops Eminent Domain Lawsuits in PA – What Does it Mean), then a month later in New Jersey (see Troubling: PennEast Pipeline Withdraws NJ Eminent Domain Lawsuits). In the case of PennEast, canceling eminent domain proceedings was a prelude to canceling the project, which happened a short time later.
Continue reading

| | | |

MVP Continues Plans for NC Southgate, Negotiates with Landowners

click for larger version

Equitrans Midstream isn’t letting the grass grow under its feet with respect to advancing plans for the MVP (Mountain Valley Pipeline) Southgate project–a 75-mile extension of the not-yet-completed MVP mainline. At the end of June, we told you that Equitrans won a court case in which anti-fossil fuelers challenged a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate that allows the Southgate project to get built (see Fed Court Backs FERC Approval of MVP Southgate Pipeline). Equitrans/MVP is now negotiating with 85 landowners in North Carolina to build the Southgate pipeline across their land.
Continue reading

| | | |

Will Dominion Back Down on Pipe Under Blue Ridge Parkway?

Most of our coverage about pipelines is for large interstate pipelines, or perhaps large regional gathering pipeline systems. Every now and again we’ll bring you news about a “last mile” LDC (local distribution company) pipeline–the pipes utility companies install and maintain to run gas to homes and businesses. We have a story of that sort for you today. Dominion Energy, a huge utility company that used to be in the pipeline business (but sold its pipeline business to Warren Buffett a few years ago) wants to install a new 760-foot pipeline under the Blue Ridge Parkway (managed by the National Park Service) in North Carolina.
Continue reading

| | | | | | | |

DC Fed Appeals Court Signals Support for MVP Southgate Pipeline

click for larger version

Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia that is 94% complete (in-the-ground). The pipeline is targeted to be in-service later this year. MVP Southgate is an extension to MVP that will travel an additional 75 miles from southern Virginia (where the current MVP terminates) into North Carolina. MVP Southgate has not yet broken ground. The project has been opposed by North Carolina and the same mish-mash of “environmental” groups that opposed MVP. Some of those groups appealed a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue a permit for the project. A virtual hearing in the case on Wednesday didn’t go the way antis wanted.
Continue reading

| | | | |

NC Senate Rejects Enviro Nominee After She Flunks Southgate Test

When was the last time you heard about a state legislature with the guts to reject a governor’s nominee to head a regulatory agency because the nominee proved to be, well, dumb? Yeah, like never. Until now! The ranks of dullard bureaucrats are legion across the country, but you can count on one less dullard in North Carolina where the Republican legislature, after quizzing Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s nominee to head the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), determined she flunked because she didn’t know a darned thing about Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposed Southgate project.
Continue reading