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Utilities Charge More for “Certified Gas” – Will Consumers Pay It?

Every major (and most minor) drillers in the Marcellus/Utica have, over the past couple of years, signed on to one or more of the responsible gas certification authorities. Responsible or “certified” or “differentiated” gas is gas that is produced with lower methane emissions as certified by an outside organization like Project Canary, MiQ, or Equitable Origin. Given certification reviews cost big money, you would think (hope) there are actually customers on the other end who *want* to buy the certified natgas, and may be willing to pay a premium to get it. Utility companies are some of those customers who want to buy certified gas in order to comply with various mandates to lower emissions. But certified gas comes at a price — a price that gets passed on to end-user customers. How do they feel about paying more for certified gas?
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Antis Launch Ad Hominem Attack of Va. DEQ Director re MVP Work

In a new low, anti-fossil fuelers who have tried and failed to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia (now 99% done) are now attacking the reputation and character of the Director of the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), trying to slow things down with an ad hominem (“to the man” or “personal”) attack against the guy who oversees the environmental agency that has a partial role in watching over MVP. It’s shameful. DEQ Director Michael Rolband was appointed to his job by newly-elected Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2022, back when MVP was already 95% done but stalled due to repeated lawfare by Big Green and cooperative (corrupt) 4th Circuit judges. Even though MVP was already mostly done in Virginia, antis say because Rolband — who did some work for MVP in his prior career before heading DEQ — is somehow compromised or unethical and not doing his oversight job correctly now. Complete hogwash!
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2 “Protesters” Locked to Car Block Road to MVP Construction Site

Once again, Big Green is attempting to illegally block the final bits of construction of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline as it travels through Roanoke County, VA. Yesterday, two “protesters” chained or otherwise attached themselves to an old (junk) car, a car made entirely from and with fossil fuels, blocking a road that leads to an MVP construction site. We grow tired of reporting these incidents and debated on whether or not to report this one. However, MDN readers deserve to know how the lawless left behaves. Plus, one of the so-called protesters looks like he (or she) is…well, you can fill in the blank.
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MVP “Protesters” Behave Badly at Va. Attorney General’s Office

The radicalized environmental left does itself no favors with its antics and histrionics aimed at bullying public officials. Case in point: On Wednesday, Feb. 21, a small group of activists (six or seven) with Third Act Virginia were removed from Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office in Richmond after staging a sit-in. The wackos were there to deliver a petition to the AG demanding that he shut down work on the final 1% of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The AG and his staff refused to meet with the wackos, so they pitched a fit like two-year-olds and had to be removed.
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Equitrans Looking at Potential Buyer; MVP Now Delayed Until 2Q

Two really big (huge) pieces of news are coming from yesterday’s Equitrans Midstream fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update. The first bit of news is that Equitrans is actively considering a buyout offer. The company doesn’t use that exact language, but that’s what’s happening. This should come as no surprise, given the rumor mill on a potential Equitrans sale heated up last December (see Equitrans Midstream, Builder of MVP, Considers Selling Itself). The second bit of news is that (surprise!) the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, which was supposed to be done and online by the end of March, will slip into the second quarter. Oh! And the price tag has increased once again, thanks to various lawsuits by Big Green and complicit judges.
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D.C. Circuit Dismisses Eminent Domain Lawsuit Against MVP & FERC

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) delivered a HUGELY important decision. In April 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed new life into a long-running lawsuit funded by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners who argue the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had no right to delegate authority to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use eminent domain to cross land, including the land owned by the small group of uppity landowners in Virginia. The aim of the lawsuit is to prevent any private company from using eminent domain ever again to build public infrastructure — a true disaster of national importance. The D.C. Circuit said in an opinion yesterday that it lacks jurisdiction to rule on the matter, meaning it’s “case closed,” and MVP can finish up the final little bits (it’s about 99% done now).
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Desperate Antis Ask Va. Regulators to Block Work on 99% Done MVP

Last Thursday, 29 far-left nutball groups wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), demanding that he issue a stop work order for the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to “repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property.” This isn’t the first time these groups have demanded regulators intervene to block MVP based on flimsy grounds. The 29 radical groups include Wild Virginia, The Wilderness Society, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, West Virginia Rivers Association, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and others (most of them obscure, one-person “groups” pretending to be bigger than they are).
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Ohio Protester Stops Work on MVP for 7 Hours, in Jail with No Bail

Madeline ffitch

It looks like the radical left is running out of locals (people in Virginia and West Virginia) willing to get arrested and jailed to block work on the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, so they’re importing them. Madeline ffitch (last name spelled correctly, not a typo) is an obscure writer and activist from Ohio who works for a group called Appalachia Resist! It is a so-called direct-action group, meaning they get aggressive and commit crimes in order to make a point. Ms. ffitch had a fellow leftist put her in a “sleeping dragon” contraption connected to a piece of MVP excavating equipment in the Jefferson National Forest (Virginia side in Giles County) on Monday. It took police about seven hours to cut it off her and haul her away to jail, where she still sits, having been denied bail.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline Almost Done – Makes Good Time with Weather

The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which runs from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, is nearly done, thanks to our recent warm weather. What’s left to do? Less than one mile of “upland” pipe to install, less than 50 water/wetland crossings, and just one more compression station to finish. According to Equitrans, the majority partner and builder of MVP, the pipeline will come online in March. Finally!!!!
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Columbia, Williams SE Va. Pipe Projects Now Fully Permitted to Build

Two related pipeline projects in southeast Virginia now have all regulatory approvals in hand, and the projects will soon begin construction. Columbia Gas Transmission (a subsidiary of TC Energy) applied with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Virginia Reliability Project (VRP), which includes two new compressor units and the replacement of existing pipeline. VRP will dig up, replace, and double the size of two sections, or about 48 miles, of the Columbia Gas pipeline between Chesapeake and Petersburg. Williams’ Commonwealth Energy Connector Project will feed VRP by building six miles of new pipeline within Transco’s existing right-of-way in Virginia, expanding a meter station, and building a 30,500-hp electric motor-drive compressor. Both projects received final approval by FERC in November (see Columbia, Williams SE Va. Pipe Projects Get FERC Approval to Build).
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FERC Grants MVP Request to Double Transportation Rates

The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project will be completed and go online sometime in the first quarter of 2024 (see Equitrans Admits the Obvious – MVP Won’t be Online Until 2024). In September of this year, MVP filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to amend its original certificate (that established the rates it could charge) to increase the rates it charges for new customers (not existing/already contracted customers). Earlier this week, FERC granted MVP’s request to raise rates.
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Out-of-State Protester Gets Jail for Blocking MVP Construction

Emily Adamski of Calif.

Appalachians Against Pipelines, a group backed with big money from Big Green, funnels paid “protesters” to construction sites for the 95% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), mainly in Montgomery County, Va., who chain themselves to equipment requiring state troopers to carefully remove them (requiring hours), slowing the already challenging work to complete the project. About 25 such protesters showed up at a Montgomery County construction site in October. Three of them chained themselves to equipment using “sleeping dragon” devices (see 3 Out-of-State Protesters Arrested for Blocking MVP Construction). One of them, Emily Adamski, 37, of Oakland, California, just received a three-month jail sentence for her illegal stunt. About darned time!
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U.S. Supremes Deny Emergency Request by Va. Landowners to Stop MVP

A small group of uppity Virginia landowners don’t want Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) crossing their horse pastures, leaving a mark. So they conspired with Big Green lawyers in a lawsuit challenging the right of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to use eminent domain to build pipelines across private land. In October, the landowners filed an “emergency” request with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court to block MVP construction while the eminent domain lawsuit grinds on. The D.C. Circuit judges rejected that request in October (see DC Circuit Denies Anti Request to Block MVP Construction in Va.). Since Big Green has endless piles of cash to finance legal actions, they decided to appeal (once again) to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week the uppity landowners and their Big Green lawyers asked the Supremes for an emergency block on MVP construction. Yesterday, the Supremes rejected them.
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MVP Gets FERC Permission to Drill 24/7 Under Interstate 81 in Va.

More progress to report on finishing the 94% completed (now likely closer to 97% completed) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP needs to cross under Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, VA, and it’s no small challenge to drill under the highway because it’s solid rock. On Oct. 13, MVP (being built by Equitrans Midstream) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the I-81 crossing. Last Tuesday, FERC approved it, although the approval comes with a few strings attached, like using special lights and monitoring noise levels.
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Dominion LNG Storage for Va. Power Plant Exempt from FERC Regs

On November 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company’s petition requesting that FERC declare Dominion’s planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, would be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). The project includes a 25-million-gallon LNG storage tank, 15 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of liquefaction capacity, 500 MMcf/d regasification capacity, pretreatment facilities, and associated station yard piping.
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Columbia, Williams SE Va. Pipe Projects Get FERC Approval to Build

In August 2022, Columbia Gas Transmission (a subsidiary of TC Energy) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Virginia Reliability Project (VRP), which includes two new compressor units and the replacement of existing pipeline (see Columbia Files w/FERC to Replace 48 Miles of Pipe in Southeast Va.). VRP will add 100 MMcf/d of incremental capacity on Columbia’s system to service delivery points in southeast Virginia, namely for Virginia Natural Gas. The Columbia project works hand-in-glove with another project by a different company. Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) asked FERC if it could add new pipeline in an existing right-of-way and one new compressor station (see Transco Pipe Seeks to Build New Compressor Boosting Flows in Va.). The Commonwealth Energy Connector Project, as it is called, will build six miles of new pipeline within Transco’s existing right-of-way in Virginia, expand a meter station, and build a 30,500 hp electric motor-drive compressor. Both projects (considered together by FERC) were approved by FERC’s commissioners in an order issued last Thursday.
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