Virginia

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    MVP Construction in Virginia Resumes – Who Pays for Pipe Police?

    Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) voluntarily stopped construction along the pipeline in Virginia on June 29, following heavy rains that resulted in erosion and runoff from the pipe’s pathway (see Mountain Valley Pipe Voluntarily Shuts Down Construction in Va.). At that time, an MVP spokesperson said: “There is no specific timeline for the suspension, however, as soon as upgrades are completed and approved by DEQ, construction can resume.” A week later, on July 6, the DEQ (Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality) identified two locations where MVP could resume construction. A few days later that number rose to five locations. Work is once again progressing nicely. Of course anti-fossil fuel ninny nannies are carping that the shutdown wasn’t long enough. Some of the complainers promoted (and possibly engaged in) illegal protest activities to try and defeat the project. Which leads us to a second bit of news about MVP. Roanoke and Franklin counties want MVP to pay them back for the cost of police activities required because of the ninny nanny illegal protesters. That’s right! The two counties want to send MVP a bill because protesters engaged in illegal activities that required a police presence. We find their request bass ackwards. The counties should be going after the protesters who broke the law–and the Big Green groups that backed them and agitated them and supported them in their efforts to break the law. That’s who should pay! Not MVP. MVP is performing a legal, publicly beneficial service by building the pipeline. Why should MVP pay for police protection from malcontents and lawbreakers?…
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    Va. Supreme Court Upholds Pipeline Survey Law for 3rd Time

    In 2016 the Virginia Supreme Court accepted a case from an 83-year old granny who didn’t want surveyors working for Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline to enter her property to conduct a survey for a possible pipeline route (see A Supreme Court to Hear Atlantic Coast Pipe Survey Case). A 2004 Virginia law specifically allows surveyors to enter a property WITHOUT landowner permission, as long as the surveyors provide ample, advance notice of when they are coming. Granny’s case attempted to challenge and end that law. She failed. Last July the Supremes ruled against her (see Va. Supreme Court Rules Against Granny in Pipeline Survey Case). However, Dominion did get a slap on the wrist. The justices said notifications sent for when surveyors will arrive can no longer say the surveyors will arrive “on or after,” because “after” can mean years later. Instead, Dominion will have to give several potential, specific dates when surveyors will visit a property. Fair enough. Except yet another group of landowners sued attempting to overturn the same law–now for a third time. And this third case also ended up in state Supreme Court. Last Thursday the Supremes ruled 6-1 to uphold the existing law that grants pipelines permission to enter property with advance notice. Third time’s a charm?…
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    Mountain Valley Pipe Voluntarily Shuts Down Construction in Va.

    MDN told you last week that Sierra Club lawyers are attempting to bamboozle a court into halting construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia, as they were able to do in West Virginia (see Enviro Radicals Target MVP in Va. Following WV Court “Win”). Turns out the enviro-nuts don’t have to worry–at least for now. Mother Nature has done it for them, has halted all construction of MVP in the Old Dominion. Following heavy rains that have resulted in erosion and runoff from the pathway along which the pipeline will be laid, MVP has voluntarily decided to, for the time being, halt all construction in Virginia. When will construction resume? According to an MVP spokesman: “There is no specific timeline for the suspension, however, as soon as upgrades are completed and approved by DEQ, construction can resume.” Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later…
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    EQT Confirms Sale of Huron Shale to Diversified for $575M

    MDN exclusively brought you the news, on June 19, that Diversified Gas & Oil had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). At that time, Diversified did not disclose who it had purchased the assets from. MDN provided a guess, but that guess proved wrong. Within an hour of posting about the sale, an MDN tipster confirmed for us the seller was EQT, which we subsequently updated, providing the MDN audience with the inside skinny. On Friday, June 29, EQT issued a press release (below) confirming that yes, it was they who had sold the acreage/assets, including nearly 12,000 wells with 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production, to Diversified. The deal also includes 2.5 million acres of leases and some 6,400 miles of gathering pipelines. What we didn’t know about the deal (until now) is that it includes 8 field offices and 250 employees. Here’s the EQT announcement with full details of the deal…
    Read More “EQT Confirms Sale of Huron Shale to Diversified for $575M”

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    Enviro Radicals Target MVP in Va. Following WV Court “Win”

    The lawyers that infest the Sierra Club are still celebrating a temporary court victory last week that essentially stops construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in West Virginia (see Sierra Club Succeeds in Delaying MVP Project in WV via Court Order). Their strategy was/is to bamboozle a court into stopping construction at stream crossings (hundreds of them) by using a technical loophole that MVP can’t complete required work at four of the crossings within the stated 72 hours, therefore the court needs to reassess the umbrella permit issued for all crossings. So the court is doing that, temporarily suspending work at all 591 streams MVP plans to cross in WV. The Sierra Clubbers think that because they won that temporary court victory in WV, maybe they can get lightening to strike twice, convincing the court to pull the permit in Virginia too…
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    Huge New Marcellus-Fired Power Plant Coming Near Richmond, VA

    Click for larger version

    While it’s been in the planning stages since 2016, we’ve only just become aware of an important new (mammoth) Marcellus-fired electric generating plant coming to Charles City County in Virginia. What’s that? Never heard of “Charles City” County? Neither had we. The county is located southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bordered on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River. The Chickahominy Power Station, as it’s called, will be a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant. The facility is owned and being developed by Balico, and built by Gemma Power Systems. According to a press release announcing Gemma’s involvement with the project, “The project will be powered exclusively by clean natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation.” That’s cool! We’re not exactly sure which pipeline(s) will flow Marcellus gas to the plant, but it’s good to know that our gas will power it. This is a huge plant. It ties as being the largest natgas-fired plant ever, along with the 1,650 MW Apex Power plant being planned for Guernsey County, OH (see Country’s Biggest NatGas Power Plant Breaking Ground in OH Oct-Nov). Here’s more on the coming Chickahominy Power Station near Richmond…
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    FERC Grants MVP Permission to Cross Blue Ridge Pkwy in Virginia

    The good news keeps rolling in for Mountain Valley Pipeline–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline currently under construction from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. MVP is being built to move Marcellus/Utica gas south. Following multiple lawsuits and regulatory challenges by Big Green groups, MVP is getting work done and on track to be completed this year. Just last week we told you that following delays by illegal protesters sitting in trees in the Jefferson National Forest, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission helpfully extended tree cutting season for MVP to July 31 (see Big Green Fail – MVP Permission to Cut Trees in VA Until July 31). One of the faux arguments against MVP used by “environmentalists” is that the pipeline will cross under the Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia–somehow doing irreparable damage in the process. Good news: MVP has just received permission to drill and insert the pipeline under the Blue Ridge Parkway, which will have antis howling at the moon…
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    Big Green Fail – MVP Permission to Cut Trees in VA Until July 31

    Big Green protesters with names like “Ink,” “Sprout,” “Red,” “Nutty,” “Fern” and “Decard” illegally sat in the tops of trees (or on poles) in Virginia as a tactic to prevent Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from cutting trees along the path of the pipeline. Some of them sat up there for a few days, some for a few weeks, and some for months. Eventually they all came down, as of early June (see All MVP Tree-Sitting Protesters have Now Dropped Back to Earth). The protesters had hoped to “run out the clock” for MVP to cut the trees. Because of threatened and endangered species (primarily bats that roost in trees), MVP was supposed to have all of the trees along the pipeline’s path cut by March 31. The protesters thought if they could forestall tree cutting until after that deadline (a deadline that was previously extended), they could stop progress and give their Big Green brethren more time to litigate the pipeline out of existence before the tree cutting window reopens in late fall. We’re more than happy to report the protesters’ effort to stop MVP tree cutting failed. Why? Because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just extended the time frame to cut those trees until July 31. All of that sitting for nothing…
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    Richmond, VA Police Train to Handle Anti-Pipeline Protests

    A faux religious group calling itself the Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice (IACJ) is mad that this past Tuesday 27 agencies (many of them police departments) from across the Richmond, VA metro region trained together for a large-scale civil unrest opposing pipelines. Which is totally realistic. The IACJ, a Virginia-based nonprofit 501(c)(3), says it was organized for “supporting resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline.” Community organizers. Anarchists who refuse to follow the rule of law. That the police in the greater Richmond area are preparing to deal with them is smart. IACJ calls it, “American fascism, state violence, late stage capitalism, state repression.” We call the IACJ not only anti-capitalist, but anti-American. They are the fascists, in the truest sense of the word…
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    Quaker “Friends” Turn Unfriendly re Pipelines, Support Illegal Action

    Who knew that Quakers, formally known as the “Religious Society of Friends” or “Friends Church,” could be so, well, unfriendly? Turns out the Quakers, who at first blush you might think are conservative, like the Amish, are far-left liberals. At a recent meeting of the Roanoke Friends, the Quakers adopted a statement (below) to “speak out against two natural gas pipelines [Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline] proposed in Virginia, and all pipelines transporting gas extracted by hydraulic fracking. Fracking is a process documented to contaminate air and water with toxic chemicals, accelerating climate change and encouraging our dependence on fossil fuels.” Sorry my Quaker friends, but you just out-and-out lied. Fracking is not documented to contaminate air and water with toxic chemicals. Period. If you have real scientific evidence to the contrary, please produce it. If we take them at their word, the “friendly” Quakers want all pipelines that flow natural gas everywhere–including the ones that feed their own homes (!)–to be shut down. All pipelines, including local utility pipelines that feed the homes of millions of Americans, flow “fracked” gas. Most gas these days is “fracked.” The “friendly” Quakers also state their support of illegal, law-breaking protesters who sit in trees against a judge’s order, to stop work on pipelines. The Quaker Friends in Roanoke have shown themselves to be just one more non-thinking, knee-jerk reacting group of liberals who really don’t know what they’re talking about…
    Read More “Quaker “Friends” Turn Unfriendly re Pipelines, Support Illegal Action”

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    All MVP Tree-Sitting Protesters have Now Dropped Back to Earth

    We’re happy to report that “Fern” and “Decard” have joined “Ink,” “Sprout,” “Red” and “Nutty” back here on Mother Earth. No, we’re not talking about a new Disney “Snow White” remake (Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, et al). The names we listed are the names of so-called protesters who have been sitting in the tops of trees (or in the case of Fern and Nutty, on top of poles) in Virginia, part of an illegal action to prevent the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These last two protesters, Fern and Decard, were recently forced down to earth and arrested. Pipeline construction through the areas they once occupied has resumed. Which is good news. This bunch of kooks were making a mockery of our justice system. Nutty was a woman who sat on top of a pole for nearly two months. Yeah, her self-selected nom de guerre was appropriate. She finally came down two weeks ago when she ran out of Snickers bars (see MVP “Nutty” Protester Drops Back to Earth – Out of Food). But around that same time, another woman, Fern, went up a pole about a mile up the road from Nutty (see “Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA). Fern only last a couple of weeks–not nearly as long as her “hero” Nutty. We’re just happy to say that all of the nuts have now dropped to earth and we can put this sad chapter behind us…
    Read More “All MVP Tree-Sitting Protesters have Now Dropped Back to Earth”

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    Franklin County, VA Turns Down $200K to Store MV Pipe Equipment

    Talk about cutting off a $200,000 nose to spite your face! One of the counties through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will travel is Franklin County, VA. MVP is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. For more than a year residents in Franklin County have opposed and hassled the MVP project (see Franklin County, VA Landowners Use Sheriff to Eject MVP Surveyors). Over the weekend the last tree-sitting protester, engaging in an illegal attempt to stop the pipeline from coming through Franklin, came down out of the trees (see Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut). MVP was and is getting built through the county, but in a childish act of rebellion, three members of the Franklin Board of Supervisors voted to deny MVP the use of 10 acres of county land to temporarily store construction equipment. MVP was willing to pay the county a staggering $200,000–money the county desperately needs. Instead, to make a “statement” by thumbing its nose at MVP, the three supervisors turned down the MVP money and will now soak taxpayers for that revenue instead. We hope the voters of Franklin remember that at the ballot box in November…
    Read More “Franklin County, VA Turns Down $200K to Store MV Pipe Equipment”

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    Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut

    MVP protester

    We’ve run out of words to describe just how lunatic (and hypocritical) Big Green radicals are in their quest to stop fossil fuel projects. The last of the tree sitters opposing the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project in Franklin County, Va. who had taken to climbing and living in trees along the pipeline’s path have come down, after a judge charged them with contempt (in federal court, a very serious charge), and after MVP workers began cutting some of the trees close to where they were located. A tree sitter calling himself Ink (like the stuff used in pens) had been living in the trees in Franklin County for the past two weeks. He claims that when MVP workers began cutting branches and tops of trees nearby, some of which were connected to a spiderweb of ropes put there by the protesters, one of the branches hit Ink and scratched him, making him bleed. Poor baby. Here, let us grab a box of Kleenex to wipe away our tears. After Ink came down, another protester went up, calling herself Sprout. She stayed up there for four hours. After Sprout was ordered to appear in court on federal charges, she came down too, ending the tree sitting in Franklin. For now. We believe there may be two “sitters” (one up a tree, one up a pole) left in other locations. These “brave” people who refuse to use their real names and identify themselves go by names like Ink, Sprout, Red and Nutty. Need we say more? Our point: Fight for your cause in court or with regulatory agencies. Don’t take the law into your own hands. We live in a land with laws, not anarchy where everyone does what is right in his own sight. If the actions of these so-called protesters (i.e. illegal law breakers) are left unchallenged, it is the beginning of the end for our society built on the rule of law…
    Read More “Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut”

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    MVP “Nutty” Protester Drops Back to Earth – Out of Food

    Nutty up a pole in Jefferson National Forest

    The Nut has fallen to the ground–or more properly, gently helped to the ground by members of the U.S. Forest Service. On March 28 an off-her-rocker fossil fuel hater who refuses to give her real name, calling herself “Nutty,” climbed up a jury-rigged pole in the middle of a gravel road running through the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. She’s trying to stop construction vehicles working on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from using the road to access their legally-permitted construction sites. Her criminal act of lunacy recently inspired another woman to do the same thing (see “Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA). The Forest Service cut off Nutty’s food and water supply back in April by blocking other nuts from passing her supplies. With no food, she decided it was time to come back to earth. After coming down, Nutty was taken to a hospital to be checked out, and given a citation to appear in court to defend her criminal acts. No doubt the “monopod” (pole with ropes to nearby trees) she occupied is already on the ground, cut up into little pieces…
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    “Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA

    A second woman takes to sitting on top of a pole in Jefferson National Forest to block MVP – click for larger version

    For the past couple of months MDN has kept you informed on the actions of lawbreaking (criminal) protesters who are attempting to block construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). A small number of protesters have climbed trees in Jefferson National Forest, including a woman who climbed up an elaborately erected “monopod”–a pole with a small tree house at the top. The U.S. Forest Service shut down a gravel road leading to the monopod and has kept collaborators out, so they can’t pass her food and water–although the Forest Service is doing that job anyway. Last week the radicals were in court to try and get the Forest Service roadblock lifted so they can ferry supplies to their comrade in arms. What is the woman’s name who’s on the top of the pole and has been there since late March? She won’t give her name, however, she calls herself (no lie), “Nutty.” How apt. Now a second monopod has been erected a mile up the road from the first, and another woman has gone up that pole. Her name is Fern MacDougal. Ms. MacDougal says she was inspired to climb a pole by two people: Nutty, and by David Buckel, the lawyer who in April set himself on fire, killing himself, in order to protest fossil fuels. So, MacDougal’s heroes are someone who calls herself Nutty, and an insane man who committed suicide by fire. We think that’s all you really need to know about Ms. MacDougal…
    Read More ““Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA”

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    Mountain Valley Pipe Continues to Get FERC Approval for Construction

    Despite all of the media attention on a handful of protesters who sit in the tops of trees or on top of a poll in order to block construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the pipeline nonetheless continues to receive regular new permissions from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct the actual pipeline and (yes), even to cut trees past the March 31 deadline. The good news is that MVP is on track to be completely built and flowing Marcellus/Utica gas by the end of THIS YEAR! Despite the best efforts of radical protesters and multiple lawsuits by Big Green groups. Recent FERC permissions for MVP include: (1) allow MVP to cut trees in Jefferson National Forest past the March 31 deadline; (2) build parts of the pipeline in Roanoke and Franklin Counties, VA; (3) work 24/7 on building a compressor station in Wetzel County, WV; and (4) build pipeline in Jefferson National Forest, on both the VA and WV sides…
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