Contact:
Carolyn Elefant (attorney), carolyn@carolynelefant.com,
Russell Chisholm, POWHR Coalition, russell.powhr@gmail.com,
Roberta Bondurant, Preserve Bent Mountain/Roanoke, bondurantlaw@aol.com,
Mark Hefflinger, Bold Alliance, mark@boldalliance.org

Groups Say FERC Notices for Mountain Valley Pipeline are Invalid
“Notices to Proceed” were issued by low-level FERC staffer, in clear violation of agency’s regulations

Bent Mountain, VA — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) “Notices to Proceed” issued for the proposed Mountain Valley fracked gas pipelines are invalid, as they were signed by a low-level FERC staffer, in violation of the agency’s own regulations.

The FERC Certificate authorizing the Mountain Valley Project allows either the Director of the Office of Energy Projects (OEP) or his designee to approve a pipeline’s request for a notice to proceed with construction. Under FERC’s regulations, the designee chosen by the Director must be a “comparable official,” such as a Deputy Director, or head of a FERC Regional Division. Paul Friedman, the FERC employee who signed off on more than a dozen notices to proceed, does not satisfy the definition of a comparable official as he is neither a Deputy nor branch chief.

Last month, the Bold Alliance filed a challenge to numerous notices to proceed approved by Friedman, arguing that the notices were invalid because they had not been signed by the Director. In response, FERC this week issued “tolling orders” which allow FERC to delay resolution of the Bold Alliance’s challenge to the notice to proceed, while allowing MVP to begin construction on its fracked gas pipelines that threatens land and water, and landowners’ private property.

“FERC’s regulations on delegation exist for a reason,” said Carolyn Elefant, the Washington D.C.-based attorney who represents the Bold Alliance. “FERC’s authority over natural gas pipelines comes directly from Congress, so when FERC delegates its authority to agency officials, it is entrusting them to carry out powers granted by Congress. For that reason, FERC’s regulations restrict delegation of authority to upper level officials who act in a supervisory capacity and can be relied upon to make decisions on FERC’s behalf.”

Elefant continued, “There are also practical reasons for requiring an official with supervisory capacity to act on notices to proceed. Once construction starts, landowners’ private property, trees, sensitive habitat and other environmental resources will be irreparably destroyed. Therefore, any decision allowing the company to start construction requires the additional levels of review and oversight that come when a Director or other supervisor signs off on a decision.”

Roberta Motherway Bondurant, of Preserve Bent Mountain/Roanoke stated, “Does FERC understand its responsibility in failing to perform a thorough, capable and professional assessment of a knowingly high-risk and environmentally destructive megapipeline, before signing Notices to Proceed? Construction, engineering and design, erosion and sedimentation mistakes and miscalculations permeate the appellate record–that MVP has allowed a project manager, and not authorities designated by regulation — to sign off on Notices to Proceed, now exponentially heightens the risk to the public.” Bondurant continued, ”It’s time for leaders in the courts, the legislature, in industry and the environment — as well as the public — to sound the alarm, to courageously stand up, speak out, and stop MVP.”

By Matt Combs, Raleigh County Register-Herald Reporter, Beckley, WV, March 29, 2018

A second protest site that had sprung up on the Virginia side of Peters Mountain was broken up Wednesday afternoon, leaving only a single protestor high up a wooden pole in the middle of a Jefferson National Forest access road.

According to the Appalachian Against Pipelines Facebook page, a large contingent of law enforcement, including Virginia State Police, U.S Forest Service officials and U.S Marshals, arrived at the protest location at approximately 3:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and arrested protest ground support members, as well as making the general protest supporters gathered at the location disperse.

Earlier in the day, protestors had installed a blockade across the access road.

The news release said that the blockade would prevent state and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) workers from accessing the location of protesting tree-sitters in West Virginia and prevent the construction of a seven-mile-long road to the site of a proposed borehole near the summit of the mountain.

The blockade included a 50-foot-tall log installed in the middle of the access road with a single protester near its top.

“As I remember the local support the tree sits have received, and all the people already standing up against the destruction of their land and water along the MVP and ACP routes, I know we can be a strong force for a world without these pipelines,” the log-top protestor stated in a news release. “The flames of resistance are catching and they will spread.”

Along with the log-sitter, a group of supporters also gathered at the protest site.

“Ordinary citizens, who for decades have sounded the alarm on threats to water, health, and individual rights from resource extraction, might finally be heard as a result of [these actions],” said Russell Chisholm of Newport, Va., in the release. “By showing up to bear witness to the power of direct action non-violence in the face of chainsaws, the people might bring an end to fossil fuel sacrifice zones in Appalachia and around the globe.”

The new protest follows a denial of an injunction against the tree-sitters last week by Monroe and Summers County Circuit Court Judge Robert Irons.

With a March 31 deadline for MVP to cut trees inside the forest looming, protest supporters fear that a last-minute attempt to remove the tree-sitters is possible.

The tree-sitters on the West Virginia slope of Peters Mountain remain in place.