No MVP Pipeline: No MVP Surveying
Pipelines: A Bird’s Eye View — Part 1
From an Article by Robbie Harris, WVTF National Public Radio, June 13, 2017
Nearly three years after E-Q-T Partners proposed the Mountain Valley Natural Gas pipeline, decision day is approaching. If approved, it would carry (natural gas) underground, 300 miles across Virginia. But that prospect continues to fuel vigorous debate about pipelines: how they’re planned, how they’re approved, and whether they’re even necessary. Robbie Harris has more.
The Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania was discovered in 1839. But it wasn’t until earlier this century, that it became the largest producer of natural gas and natural gas liquids in the country, spurring not only an energy boom but a pipeline boom as well.
Greg Buppert: “What we’ve seen with the growth of the Marcellus Shale is really octopus of pipelines coming out West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, reaching in all directions.”
Greg Buppert is Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center:
“How many of these new projects are needed? We dug into that question deeply and what we learned is pretty interesting; most existing pipelines in the country and in our region are half full. They’re only using 50-per cent of their capacity.”
But is a pipeline half full or half empty? EQT Spokeswoman Natalie Cox says the Mountain Valley line will run at its full capacity of 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. She wrote in an email that, it is –quote-‘“…fully subscribed through long-term shipping contracts.” And that, “Roanoke Gas Company has announced plans to tap the line at two places in Virginia, in Montgomery and Franklin Counties – to serve existing and new customers…” Additional taps could also be installed.
But the Mountain Valley is not the only pipeline proposed to go into the ground in Virginia. The Atlantic Coast pipeline aims to do the same thing farther north, and others have been discussed as well. Southern Environmental Law Center’s Greg Buppert says that’s why it’s time for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to change the way it determines weather to approve proposed pipelines.
Greg Buppert: “What FERC does is, it looks at pipeline projects in isolation from each other, so we never have an assessment of, ‘What are the regional needs for a new pipeline coming out of the agency?’
Buppert acknowledges, that approach may have been fine before the gas boom, when fewer pipelines were proposed. While the Marcellus is producing at its highest capacity yet, some suggest it could be at or near its peak output, while renewable energy continues to gain market share
“Yet there ‘s no comprehensive evaluation of whether or not this shale play will be over built. And those are the kinds of questions the agency needs to consider if it wants to use its authority in a responsible way.”
FERC’s former chairman, Norman Bay said as much after he stepped down in January; That it might be to rethink how the regulators determine whether there is a public need. But right now, FERC can’t make any major decision or policy determinations until vacancies on the commission are filled. Spokeswoman Tamara Young Allen says President Trump has nominated 2 people (Neil Chatterjee an aid to Senator Mitch McConnell’s and Robert Powelson, President of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners.) Both have been confirmed in committee and are awaiting confirmation by the full senate.
But observers suggest it’s unlikely a Republican led commission would change current approval procedures for natural gas pipelines.
FERC’s Final Environmental Impact Statement is expected to come out next Friday (June 23) That would start the clock on a 90-day decision period by the commission about whether to authorize the $3.5 billion dollar Mountain Valley Pipeline project.
TOMORROW, in part 2 of our report, we’ll get a three-hundred-sixty degree view when we fly over some of the proposed route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in southwest Virginia.
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
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https://itsgoingdown.org/virginia-residents-disrupt-mountain-valley-pipeline-surveying/
Virginia Residents Disrupt Mountain Valley Pipeline Surveying Again – It’s Going Down
Action Virginia, Virginia Residents Action, June 4, 2017
Residents Disrupt Mountain Valley Pipeline Surveying Again
Against the will of residents, survey crews are again attempting to access properties in the Bent Mountain area of Virginia after a judge issued an injunction against property owners blocking surveying for the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
Circuit Court Judge David Carson ruled on May 26 that barring surveyors from their work would do “irreparable harm” to the Pittsburgh based multimillion dollar corporation EQT Midstream. According to the Roanoke Times, Coles Terry, one of the landowners fighting the surveyors responded to the ruling with, “It went exactly like I thought it would. It’s the big guy against the little guy. It’s a billion-dollar project. They don’t care about us. It’s all about money.”
The surveyors, from Holland Engineering based out of Holland, MI, wasted little time in getting back to work. Or at least they tried to. On May 31, survey crews accompanied by private security guards returned to the Bent Mountain community only to be confronted once again by angry residents.
Holding a banner reading, “We Cherish. We Will Defend Water & Land,” community members successfully prevented the survey team from getting onto the property. After a standoff at that property the survey crew moved further down the road and set up equipment briefly before being informed by locals that they were trespassing on another piece of land they did not have legal permission to be on. Shortly thereafter the survey team packed up for the day without having conducted any work. Police were also on the scene and reportedly took the ID’s of those present.
The MVP would bring fracked gas from West Virginia into Virginia where it would tie into an existing network of pipelines along the East Coast. It is believed that much of the gas is destined for export. In addition to destroying people’s private farms and woodlands, the MVP will also travel through several miles of the Jefferson National Forest, cutting a 300 foot wide swath directly adjacent to two federally designated wilderness areas.
As the resistance to surveying continues to heat up, MVP opponents are calling on people to go after the funders of the pipeline. The group Protect our Water, Heritage and Rights (POWHR) is calling for a week of action to defund the MVP June 19-23. You can find the full list of MVP funders at the POWHR website.
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