Fight Continues to Install Last Piece of 200-Mile Pipe in VA Beach
We previously highlighted Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) “Southside Connector” project, a 9-mile pipeline from Norfolk, VA to Chesapeake, VA that VNG says will fill a gap between two main supply lines, essential to meet growing natural gas demand in the Chesapeake area. The final 2,000 feet of pipeline needs to be laid, but will run under a river and shipyard located on the bank of the river. The shipyard owner adamantly opposes the pipeline and has launched an all-out campaign to stop it (see The Fight to Install Last 9 Miles of 200-Mile Pipeline in VA Beach). The shipyard owner says there’s welding, torching, grinding–all sorts of work with sparks happening in his yard. He maintains it’s “crazy” to build a high-pressure natural gas pipeline under his operation with so many potential ignition sources should a leak occur. Is he right?
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The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is ramping up to begin training local Virginia residents as construction workers for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The initial training will start in Buckingham County. LIUNA’s training includes both classroom and hands-on training. Folks have been pestering LIUNA for months, asking why they have not already begun training. The reason is simple: You don’t begin training until you’re ready to put people into the field to use that training. You don’t train them and then wait for months on end–while they forget what they just learned. LIUNA’s training program launch means that construction on ACP in Virginia is about to ramp up in a big way.
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?
Although the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) was federally approved a year ago, in October 2017 (see 
Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project of EQT Midstream, continues to work on constructing its 303-mile long project from West Virginia into Virginia–despite a recent court order overturning some of the permits for the project (see 
In September the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) lifted a stop-work order for the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project that stretches from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina (see 
It’s one thing for mud and sediment to wash away from a pipeline drilling site due to heavy and relentless rains–as we have experienced in the northeast these past few months. But it’s another thing entirely when actual sections pipeline sitting at the construction site float away! That happened in Franklin County, Virginia last Thursday. The landowner, who was (and is) opposed to the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from slicing through his property, has complained repeatedly about erosion and sediment from the construction path spilling over onto his farmland. Friday morning he woke up to MVP pipes washed onto his cornfield following torrential rains and wind, the leftovers of Hurricane Michael.
Diversified Gas & Oil continues its mission to buy as many non-shale (conventional) oil and gas wells as it can in the Appalachian Basin. In June, MDN brought you the exclusive news that Diversified had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see 
Earlier this week the Franklin County (VA) Planning Commission voted 5-0 to allow Roanoke Gas Co. to build and operate a “gate station”–a connection to the under-construction Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Roanoke Gas is laying new pipelines in the area and needs natgas to feed its new customers. Antis showed up at the meeting (what’s new?) to complain and threaten and moan and whine. They actually tried to say there is no “public benefit” for MVP, and that this gate station is simply a ruse to give the appearance of a public benefit.
More bad news for EQT Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for MVP in West Virginia (see 
It doesn’t help the cause of justice to let a repeat offender who breaks the law in order to protest pipeline projects, off easy. That’s what happened last week in Virginia when a U.S. Magistrate Judge essentially slapped the wrist of Virginia Tech radical professor Emily Satterwhite following yet another violation in her protest of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Police had taped a “no trespass” area and Satterwhite brazenly violated it, using the excuse she was taking pictures of other nutjob protesters who intentionally ran into the construction zone. OK, so she crossed a taped line. That’s no big deal is it? Thing is, she previously chained herself to a bulldozer, delaying construction of MVP for a whole day. The tape is up for a reason–to protect bystanders and workers. She violated it. She got off easy. The charge will be dropped if she doesn’t repeat offend yet again (fat chance of that happening)…
Not all that long ago (early August) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shut down all work on the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which runs from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (see 