Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | LDCs | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia
Immediate Demand for NatGas in Roanoke as Soon as MVP Goes Live
For all of the griping and complaining and moaning from the radical left (and uppity Virginia horse farmers) about the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) being unnecessary and a blight against humanity, wonder of wonders, customers are WAITING for the gas that will flow through MVP! In fact, the CEO of Roanoke Gas Co. says “We were out of gas literally.” Roanoke Gas desperately needs the new supplies that will flow through MVP. In addition, Summit View Business Park in Franklin County will receive gas from MVP, which will boost the park’s efforts to market its 13 available sites.
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In 2021, as he was running for Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged that if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin kept his promise, although it took longer than he had hoped (and is still being challenged in court). In addition to not paying as much for electricity post-RGGI, ratepayers just got another gift: Dominion Energy, the primary utility company servicing Virginia, is dropping an average fee of $4.50 per month from the utility bills of Virginia residents.
Four out-of-state pipeline protesters (two from New Jersey, one each from Vermont and Maryland), all senior citizens who thought it was cutesy to block access to work sites for the almost-done Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), are about to learn a hard lesson. They have been sued by MVP for BIG BUCKS — for the costs to compensate for lost time AND for punitive damages. We’ll see if the protesters’ Big Green benefactors will pony up the lawyers and money they need to fight the lawsuits. It’s about time our side begins to play hardball. You play hardball by suing these crazies and making them pay. Kudos to MVP.
Newly released information gathered from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows that as Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) tested its 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, some 130 potential problem areas were located. Running a PIG (pipeline inspection gauge) device through the pipeline to check for dents and other weaknesses found 50 “anomalies” that required further excavation work to check. Another 80 excavations were needed after tests using an electric current to probe for weaknesses in the pipeline’s special anti-corrosion coating.
Anti-fossil fuelers and some residents with portions of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) traversing their land are flooding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with comments asking the agency to delay permission for MVP to be placed into service. The latest in-service date MVP outlined to FERC in a recent request for startup permission is “early June” (see 
We suppose it was inevitable following a rupture in a segment of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) during pressurized water testing (see 
Finally, it’s the end of the road for Big Green using (abusing) six uppity Virginia landowners who didn’t want the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to cross their well-groomed horse pastures. The landowners, funded by Big Green and using Big Green lawyers, sued repeatedly to try and overturn the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) right to delegate its eminent domain authority to pipeline companies like MVP in order to build pipelines. Big Green and the landowners knew it wouldn’t stop MVP — the hope was to block all (and we mean ALL) future pipelines from getting built. That was the end game. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will not revisit the case. It had already looked at this case once before. This is well and truly the end of the line for these landowners and Big Green in attempting to gut FERC’s eminent domain authority. Finally.
We’re just a few weeks away from the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) going online, flowing 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of yummy FRACKED natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica to southern Virginia and beyond. And that fact is driving the insane, unhinged left even more insane and unhinged. Yesterday, a man (who refused to identify himself as a man) tied himself to two barrels full of concrete in the middle of the road in the Bent Mountain (Roanoke County), VA, area, blocking access to an MVP work yard. The protester was spewing anti-Israel statements (a bigot and anti-Semite), along with nonsensical statements about the oil and gas industry. Truly unhinged. State police arrived to deal with the situation.
We have to admit we’re disappointed. A section of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) ruptured during pressure testing last Wednesday in Roanoke County, Virginia, according to a report from the state’s environmental agency. A landowner observed sediment-laden water in her pasture on Wednesday morning and reported it to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). “The origin of the sediment-laden water reported in the complaint was from the rupture of a section of pipe during hydrostatic testing the morning of 5/1/2024,” wrote the DEQ expert, John McCutcheon.
We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
You have to hand it to the left. They never give up on their mission to destroy this country. Big Green groups using (abusing) six uppity Virginia landowners who didn’t want the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross their well-groomed horse pastures have appealed a lawsuit recently dismissed by a federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court one last time. That is, if the Supremes decide to consider it again. It’s an open question if the Supremes will accept the case back.
Every major (and most minor) drillers in the Marcellus/Utica have, over the past couple of years, signed on to one or more of the responsible gas certification authorities. Responsible or “certified” or “differentiated” gas is gas that is produced with lower methane emissions as certified by an outside organization like Project Canary, MiQ, or Equitable Origin. Given certification reviews cost big money, you would think (hope) there are actually customers on the other end who *want* to buy the certified natgas, and may be willing to pay a premium to get it. Utility companies are some of those customers who want to buy certified gas in order to comply with various mandates to lower emissions. But certified gas comes at a price — a price that gets passed on to end-user customers. How do they feel about paying more for certified gas?