VA County Planners Approve Atlantic Coast Pipeline Compressor Stn
Something noteworthy has happened in Buckingham County, VA. Planning Commission members in the county worked hard to evaluate a request by Dominion for their Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, a request to build a compressor station in Buckingham County. Residents expressed concerns–over noise, air pollution, explosions–you name it. Planning Commission members listened, and in the end, voted to recommend that Dominion be allowed to build the compressor station, as long as they adhere to 40 conditions set forth in the Commission’s recommendation. You see, this is how adults do things. They are reasonable (able to be reasoned with). They listened, closely. They heard the concerns. They devised a plan that will allow Dominion to build the compressor station, but at the same time protect the residents that live near it. Of course that wasn’t good enough for the children-in-adult-bodies who chanted a threat to shut down the pipeline…
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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently approved changes to environmental regulations that requires “mandatory disclosure of fracking chemicals, baseline water testing and monitoring, and spill prevention and response planning.” While leftie Big Green groups love the new rules, the drilling industry is working to ensure trade secrets (exact combinations of chemicals) can’t be discovered by using Freedom of Information Act laws. The big news, for MDN, is that with the enactment of these new rules (see a copy below), it appears shale fracking is a huge step closer to happening in the Old Dominion…
So often very small, loud-mouthed antis appear to be winning the battle that we sometimes forget about the silent majority. Case in point: In reading the typical mainstream media story about Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina–you would assume the project is reviled and opposed by “everyone” and doomed to failure. But reality if far different from the false picture painted by the media. A poll conducted recently by the Tarrance Group for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce of Virginia residents shows that by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Virginians support the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. That would be a “landslide victory” if it were an election…
In September MDN wrote about a new natural gas-fired electric plant being planned for Chesapeake, Virginia (see 
Dominion recently announced a new pipeline project called Eastern Market Access Project. The project will beef up two compressor stations in Virginia, build a new compressor station in Maryland, and add a couple of pipeline taps near Washington, D.C. The purpose of the $145 million project is to deliver more gas to Washington Gas, and to deliver gas to a new gas-fired electric power plant being built in Maryland. We suspect Marcellus/Utica gas will be the added gas flowing to both Washington Gas and the new electric plant in Maryland. [Note: A Dominion spokesman later confirmed to us that the gas will come from either the Marcellus or Utica plays.] You may recall that in May 2015 Washington Gas announced a plan to invest in Marcellus wells in Greene and Clearfield counties in PA (see 
In June Dominion began building Virginia’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant in Greensville County (see 
In the southeastern U.S. much of the Big Green opposition to pipelines has centered on preventing pipeline companies from entering properties to complete required surveys. If you can stop the process before it begins (so they reason), it saves them from having to hop in the VW Microbus and go to (pot smoking) anti-pipeline rallies all over the place. Peace man! Landowners in West Virginia and Virginia have challenged the rights of various pipeline companies to enter their property. It happened with EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given a preliminary thumbs up to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see 
In March 2015, Dominion–a huge natural gas and electric utility as well as a midstream company–announced plans to build the State of Virginia’s largest natural gas powered electric generating plant, in Greensville County, VA (see 
Just last week MDN warned that anti-drilling radicals running King George County, VA were contemplating a vote to ban fracking in the county (see 
Virginia doesn’t have the Marcellus/Utica under it–at least not very much. But Virginia does have another shale layer–the Taylorsville. We commented back in 2014 that the state is inching closer to allowing fracking in the Taylorsville and other potential basins (see 
In July 2015 Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the $130 million New York Bay Expansion project, which will flow Marcellus gas to 500,000 additional New York City residents by the 2017/2018 heating season (see