Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia
Va. DEQ Refuses to Issue MVP Stream Permit Until Winter
The Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is purposefully dragging its feet in an attempt to derail Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline project. DEQ is telling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it will take the rest of this year to review and plan for roughly 120 stream crossings in the state, requesting a time extension of at least six months to do so. If the Army Corps (now controlled by Joe Biden) agrees to DEQ’s request, there is no way MVP, currently 92% complete, can reach 100% completion by the end of this year.
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The flaky Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, who lately has taken to stabbing natural gas pipelines in the back (see 
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 
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 
Equitrans Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA, is backed into a corner by anti-fossil fuelers. The project is 92% complete and in the ground, yet somehow antis have successfully blocked an Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) that allows the project to cross creeks and rivers and mud puddles. Antis have convinced three leftist judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the NWP12 permit–twice. But, MVP has just outmaneuvered the antis.
Don’t you love playing a game with a child and part of the way through the game, the child simply changes the rules for how the game is played (particularly when they are losing)? That’s what comes to mind with the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) recent action in disallowing any pipeline bigger than 36 inches to use a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) to cross creeks, rivers, and wetlands. The move is meant to block Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 42-inch pipeline, from finishing its installation work (the pipeline is 92% complete).
Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 30 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion decided last summer it no longer wanted to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers have a new favorite lie to tell: Any kind of power plant or pipeline that uses natural gas is racist. It’s a sick and twisted lie, but that’s the line they now use. For example, the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board recently approved a permit for the construction of a new 17-megawatt natural gas power plant to power the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. Environuts are hollering it’s racist.
Down but not out. That’s the best way to describe a $346 million pipeline project in northeastern Virginia called the Header Improvement Project. On Dec. 1 the Virginia State Corporation Commission dismissed a request to approve the project. Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) said it will resubmit the project under a new docket/request.
It seems pretty certain at this point that Joe Biden will seize control of the White House come Jan. 20 (although we still hold out hope for a Supreme Court intervention against the 
Believe it or not, there are still two environmentalist wackos living up a tree in Montgomery County, Virginia, preventing work crews for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from cutting trees to clear a path for the pipeline. This has been going on for years and frankly, everyone is tired of it. A county judge has found the two cowards not willing to reveal their names (known as Tree-sitter 1 and Tree-sitter 2) in contempt of court. Starting today if they don’t come down, they are both on the hook for a $500 per day fine.
Last December MDN told you about a second natural gas-fired power plant planned for Charles City County, Va. (near Richmond) being developed by C4GT (see