Once again agitators who pretend to care about the environment and about people (they care about neither) from Big Green groups like Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Sierra Club, say a tiny pipeline project in northeastern Virginia is racist and should not get built. On Monday we told you the Virginia State Corporation Commission will not (yet) approve Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) Header Improvement Project, a project to build 24 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations (expanding a third compressor) to connect to the mighty Transco pipeline system to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the northeast Va. region (see VA Regulators Want Assurances Before Approving VNG Pipe Project).
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Category: Virginia
VA Regulators Want Assurances Before Approving VNG Pipe Project
Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) Header Improvement Project wants to build 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 Va. region (see Va. Turns Down Anti Request to Delay Hearing on VNG Pipe Project). The Virginia State Corporation Commission is saying before they will give the project its permission to build, the Commission needs certain ironclad assurances.
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MVP Southgate Pipe Close to Deal with Southern Va. Megasite
Amid all of the frivolous lawsuits and regulatory actions brought by Big Green, aimed at blocking progress on important projects like the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that runs from West Virginia to southern Virginia (90% complete), progress is still happening for new pipeline projects. One of those new projects is MVP Southgate, a 75-mile extension of MVP that will run from southern Virginia into North Carolina.
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Mountain Valley Pipe Gets FERC OK to Drill Under Roanoke River
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia into southwestern Virginia, recently received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to change the method it will use to cross over (actually under) the Roanoke River. Not that it makes much difference right now since the entire project, which is 90% complete, is stalled due to a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking an unrelated Midwest oil pipeline.
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Yet Another (Virtual) Hearing on Northeast Va. Pipeline Project
On May 12, over the objections of anti-fossil fuel nutters, the Virginia State Corporation Commission held a virtual hearing on Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) Header Improvement Project–a project to build 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 Va. region (see Va. Turns Down Anti Request to Delay Hearing on VNG Pipe Project). Even though the hearing got held, the Corporation Commission has been pressured by antis to hold a second hearing–on June 8.
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Lawsuit Seeking to Gut FERC Eminent Domain for MVP has Failed
Yet another lawsuit trying to emasculate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by attacking its right to delegate eminent domain authority to pipeline builders has been tossed in federal court. Several of these cases have been tried using Marcellus/Utica pipeline projects. This latest case was brought by uppity, privileged landowners in Virginia against the Equitrans Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
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12 Va. Lawmakers, All Dems, Seek to Deny NatGas for Power Plants
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG), a company that serves customers in northeastern Virginia, wants to build new natural gas infrastructure in Prince William and Fauquier counties. VNG is seeking state approval to build 24 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations (expanding a third compressor), connecting to the mighty Williams Transco pipeline system to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the region. The Header Improvement Project will deliver natural gas to two new gas-fired power plants. A group of 12 Virginia state legislators, every one of them a Democrat, is trying to sink the project.
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Va. Turns Down Anti Request to Delay Hearing on VNG Pipe Project
Two weeks ago MDN told you about Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) and their request for state permission to build 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 Va. region (see Antis Worried Pandemic Means They Can’t Stop Va. Pipeline Project). Big Green groups tried to hoodwink the state into delaying an upcoming virtual hearing on the permit request scheduled for May 12.
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Virginia Tech Drilling 15,500-Foot Rogersville Shale Test Well
Is Virginia energy-schizophrenic? For years it has appeared The Old Dominion has had a grudge against fossil fuels. Lawmakers and residents consistently attempt to block federal pipeline projects, like Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley, from crossing in and through the state (see Virginia Passes New Law Aimed at Stopping Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Virginia Landowners Sue to Emasculate FERC in Bid to Block MVP). The state recently passed a law outlawing (in the future) the stuff every citizen exhales with every breath–carbon dioxide (see Virginia Adopts Regulation to Limit Carbon Pollution, Fight Climate Change).
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Mountain Valley Pipe Permit in Va. Delayed After Montana Decision
Disgusting anti-fossil fuel lunatics have hassled the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the Midwest with frivolous lawsuits for years. Last week an Obama-appointed liberal judge serving in Montana, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris, vacated a permit for the Keystone project, once again stopping construction. The permit vacated was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is called a Nationwide Permit 12–the equivalent of a Section 401 permit under the Clean Water Act–allowing projects like pipelines to be built across or under streams, rivers and “wetlands” (swamps). The problem with the judge’s action is that it potentially affects all pipeline projects across the country using an NP12 permit–including the delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile Marcellus/Utica gas pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia.
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Antis Worried Pandemic Means They Can’t Stop Va. Pipeline Project
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG), a company that serves customers in northeastern Virginia, wants to build new natural gas infrastructure in Prince William and Fauquier counties. VNG is seeking state approval to build 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 region. The Header Improvement Project, as it’s called, will help service VNG’s 300,000 natural gas customers and is needed to deliver natural gas to two proposed new gas-fired power plants.
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Virginia Passes New Law Aimed at Stopping Atlantic Coast Pipeline
A newly passed and signed-into-law bill in Virginia, House Bill (HB) 167, purportedly aims to “protect” electric consumers from shouldering the costs of new pipelines that would feed gas-fired power plants. What the bill actually does is remove freedom of choice for utility companies, driving up the cost of electricity in the Old Dominion. The bill does the opposite of what it says it will do. All in the name of trying to block Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project. What a sorry state of affairs in a once-great state.
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Dominion’s Net-Zero Emissions in Va. Does NOT Mean Fossil-Free
A recent column appearing in a Virginia newspaper shares what it believes is a revelation: When big energy/utility companies like Dominion Energy say they will achieve “net-zero carbon emissions,” they don’t mean they will stop using fossil fuels to create energy. Not by a long-shot. What “zero carbon” or “net-zero carbon” means is that all carbon dioxide (generated when burning natural gas to generate electricity, for example) is captured and used for something else. CO2 is not released into the atmosphere. Even though companies like Dominion are able to capture and reuse CO2, and prevent methane from leaking, it’s STILL not good enough for those who irrationally hate fossil fuels.
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Court Victory for Atlantic Coast Pipe Against Nelson County, VA
The 600-mile Dominion Energy Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project has completed about 35 miles of the project and that’s it. Why? Lawsuits, brought by Big Green groups. The biggest challenge the project faces is a lawsuit that ruled ACP could not cross under the Appalachian Trail. Dominion appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court where it now sits. By all accounts, the recent oral arguments before the Supremes went well for ACP (see Atlantic Coast Pipeline had Very Good Day in US Supreme Court). Although the Supreme Court case is the biggest obstacle, there are other, smaller cases ACP still must overcome.
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FERC Issues Favorable Final EIS for MVP Southgate Pipe to NC
Although the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from West Virginia to southern Virginia is facing intense opposition by Big Green in completing the project (currently on hold because of court challenges), the project is now 90% built and in the ground. It should be done later this year. And then what? And then it’s on to building a 75-mile extension from southern Virginia into North Carolina, called MVP Southgate (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC). On Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for MVP Southgate. The only step left, which is now a foregone conclusion, is for FERC to issue a certificate allowing MVP Southgate to begin construction.
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MVP Update: USFWS Needs More Time; Antis Pester DEQ
Last Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra 45 days to revise an Endangered Species Act (ESA) review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Also from last week: anti-fossil fuelers (Big Green groups) virulently opposed to MVP (which is 90% built) continued to hound the project by pestering the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over minor violations the DEQ found in construction activities from September to December. Big Green wants to know what the DEQ is going to “do” about the violations.
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