Why does Dominion Energy have SO MUCH MONEY?

From an Article by Sarah Rankin, Associated Press, March 8, 2018

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Civic leaders in town after town along the 600-mile (966-kilometer) route of a proposed natural gas project have posed for similar photographs, smiling and accepting poster-sized checks from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Dominion Energy says it’s being a good neighbor by handing out $2 million in grants of around $5,000 to $10,000 in communities affected by its joint venture with fellow energy giants Duke Energy and Southern Co.

But critics say Dominion is buying support on the cheap to outflank opponents of the project, which would carry fracked natural gas from West Virginia into Virginia, North Carolina, and potentially further south at a cost that’s swelling to as much as $6.5 billion.

“It continues to astonish me how tiny these grants are and how ready people are to sell their souls,” said Hope Taylor, executive director of Clean Water for North Carolina, a nonprofit fighting the pipeline.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press as well as interviews with company officials, supporters and opponents, show the considerable lengths Dominion has gone to as it builds support for its largest capital project. The company says its grant program is charity, and not part of what it calls its largest outreach program in Dominion history.

“We wanted to make sure our side is adequately told,” said Bruce McKay, who as senior energy policy director for Richmond-based Dominion oversees the project’s public affairs. He calls the outreach necessary in part because of the pipeline’s complex, multijurisdictional nature and growing opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure.

Dominion is the leading percentage owner of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, responsible for its construction and operation. So far, only some trees have been cleared, but the project aims to go online as early as late 2019, according a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Supporters say the pipeline will meet a critical need for natural gas — primarily for power generation — in a region with constrained supplies. They say it will create jobs, boost economic development and support a shift from coal.

Opponents say it will harm the environment, and contend developers are overstating the need to build a project for which regulators will allow them to recoup a handsome return on their investments.

Even federal regulators (FERC) were divided on whether it’s in the public interest, voting 2-1 for approval in a rare split decision.

Publicly announced in September 2014, the pipeline quickly gained bipartisan backing. By 2015, one executive with a pipeline partner told South Carolina’s regulators at a commission hearing that the public support was “about as good as you can get.”

But Dominion was just getting started: It says its largest-ever outreach program has included 225,000 direct-mail pieces; community meetings; TV, radio and print ads; and social media use to reach more than 35,000 followers, according to an October presentation posted on Dominion Energy Transmission Inc.’s website.

McKay, who wouldn’t reveal the program’s overall cost, delivered some “lessons learned” in the presentation, including this advice: “Must create and maintain a political environment which allows permitting agencies to do their work,” and, “If you want fair media coverage you need to pay for it.”

McKay also denies any quid pro quo for campaign donations, saying Dominion simply gives to candidates who support sound energy policy.

The five Virginia lawmakers who signed a letter last year urging regulators to approve the pipeline have together taken more than $1 million from Dominion for themselves or their PACs during their careers, according an AP accounting of records maintained by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Dominion also has worked closely with local officials and generated plenty of local media coverage through its Community Investment Program. In an interview, McKay insisted the grants to health foundations, land trusts, charities and other local groups shouldn’t be considered lobbying.

But at least some communications have acknowledged the optics.

Gary Brown, economic development director of Northampton County, North Carolina, emailed a pipeline public-relations manager working on the grant program to suggest that a poster-size check should show three grants’ combined total.

“As it is a show piece, how about a prop check written to ‘Northampton County’ for the total of all grants — larger total — bigger image — greater perceived impact,” Brown wrote in an email obtained by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League through a public-records request and provided to AP.

Brown, who testified in favor of the pipeline at public hearings, is board president of an automotive research center that received a $1,680 grant, the progressive news outlet NC Policy Watch reported.

In at least three other instances, grants have gone to organizations run by or affiliated with pipeline boosters.

For example, after the Boys & Girls Club of Lumberton received a $10,000 grant that helped repair hurricane damage, Executive Director Ron Ross testified in support of the pipeline at a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality meeting. He said his support had nothing to do with money. “We didn’t ask them if they wanted to give us money — they asked us,” Ross said.

In one North Carolina county, Dominion representatives planned a helicopter tour of a northern Virginia compressor station for two commissioners, documents obtained by AP show. In another, the county manager and other “supporters” were invited to dinner at a swanky former plantation, emails show.

Other emails obtained through a public-records request show an administrator in Buckingham County, Virginia, frequently alerted a Dominion employee to news or complaints. In one, the administrator predicted an outspoken pipeline critic would “be a problem.”

Another email says Dominion wrote a letter for a county supervisor to sign supporting the conversion of conservation easements — which are supposed to forever protect land from development — for use for the pipeline. The emails suggested printing it on Buckingham County letterhead for a Dominion worker to hand-deliver to the decision-making agency.

McKay says opposition from organized, well-funded environmental groups made all this outreach necessary.

David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said that’s a false comparison. He said: “What ties all of these stories together is, Dominion is trying to con people, trying to con their own customers and policymakers and legislators, because the arguments don’t stand up on the merits.”

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Reasons why farmers and land owners hate fracking

Essay by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Placement of wells, access roads and pipelines destroys the surface value of the land. Well pads and roads are rocked to a depth that will support heavy trucks in any weather, often 18 inches. Drainage is changed, with new gullies formed, and silt produced and discharged into streams. “Reclamation” never restores a fully productive surface.

Pipelines from wells to connectors go up and down steep grades, many of them over 45 degrees. They are kept cleared for the length of the project with consequent loss of timber. They are a source of erosion, timber is lost, and timber along the right-of-way grows in to cover the vacated area, the so-called “edge effect.” This spoils the timber along the right of way. Value of half-grown timber is lost. When the project is “completed,” 70 years at the best are required to produce a merchantable crop.

These rights-of-way are attractive to trespassers, and interrupt habitat and animal migration patterns. There will be a gate on the property line or more access roads to get company line walkers from one farm to another,

Building sites are foreclosed. If the landowner wants to cross the pipeline with farm equipment, that is usually no problem. If he wants to sell timber or has other reasons heavy equipment must cross the pipeline, special precautions must be taken to prevent damage to the pipeline. If these precautions are not written into the contract, such activity is precluded. Smart landowners seek advice on this, but those who do not will not be able to use their land to its fullest potential.

Big diameter pipelines for transmission are a particular horror. They often go straight up and down hills, cutting very deep. Here in West Virginia, in many places that means cutting through solid stone. One can see both bulldozers and backhoes with special cutting blades that rotate using tungsten carbide cutting edges. And what is the back filling material? The same broken stones, since it the grade is too steep to move in material that will pack. The result is a subsurface stream along the pipeline, rock scratched protective coating on the outside of the big pipes, and plenty of oxygen and water to the steel underneath the coating to cause rusting.

Diversion ditches are intended to remove surface water over the pipes. There should be tight packing around the pipes below to prevent underground flow under the breakers. Another problem with breakers is exemplified by is a place a few miles from where a large-diameter pipeline where the line goes straight up a mountainside for half a mile, and all the diversion ditches on both sides go out the same distance. This dumps the water from the right-of-way into the same course, so that it simply builds up as it goes down the hillside, and will become massive gullies after heavy rainfall. In another, a culvert through a fill goes under the pipeline. It is a wooded watershed, so sticks will wash down and block the culvert, causing it to flow over the fill and wash down to the pipe, exposing it.

All of this is minutia for the planners, executives and politicians, but it is minutia on a grand scale. It is devastating to landowners who are denied production and lose the capital they had in the land. To add insult to injury, landowners must continue to pay the same, or even higher property taxes, if it is mistakenly determined by the assessor that there has been value-added to the land. The opposite is true, recognized by banks that often won’t loan on land within so many feet of an explosive hazard or frack site (industrial hazard), and insurance can raise the rates landowners pay, considering them to be in a commercial zone.

Apparently, the assumption by thw fracking business and its hangers-on is that the landowner loses nothing in the exchange, which is absolutely not true. The gas drilling company may pay a few dollars nominal compensation, but this is only a pittance compared to the costs to landowners, which are many, still downplayed by industry, and misunderstood by the general public.

Appalachia, and West Virginia in particular, is a source of water for much of the country, and our well water has historically been good up until recently, misplaced septic systems and water well drillers who stop too soon, not withstanding. With the takeover of the fracking industry, many who had good wells for decades have now lost their water completely or had it contaminated due to fracking. The new thing is to pipe city water to these locations, to somehow ameliorate the destruction of a vital resource, on which lives and property values depend. So one must pay a water bill, instead of a few more cents on their electric bill.

Air pollution is also a problem near fracked wells and pump stations. Methane is odorless, but here in central West Virginia older wells the gas is naturally odorized. That odor is familiar to anyone who goes out of doors because many older installations leak badly. Pipes, old wells, plugged wells all na befund to leak. It seams reasonable this will happen in time to newer installations, too.

The people who initiate and control destruction of these resources apparently have no understanding of the food situation, either:
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1. More than 50% of U.S. agricultural market value and 93% of U.S. farms – both conventional and organic – operate within shale basins and active shale plays;
2. Some 3,000 acres of productive farmland are lost each day;
3. In 2017, the U. S. used 46 million acres to grow wheat, and 40.3 was in lawns, about the area of Florida.

It is impossible to have organic farming where shale drilling has occurred. With the world population increasing so rapidly, we must address these problems immediately.

Unfortunately, most rural people are undereducated and inarticulate on these issues. They lack the ability to influence others, to understand well or explain the losses they must endure due to fracking. And most of them are involved in their own corner of the world, too busy making a living to see the big picture. Moreover, West Virginia has been in the grip of extraction for over 150 years. Most people believe there is no way to change things and so they do not write or call their senators. Many don’t talk to their neighbors about fracking, or even vote.

The Farm Bureau does a lot to help farmers with their small, close-up problems. However, the leadership consists of men with larger farms who come in dead tired at night and fall asleep watching Fox News. Many of them are attracted by the idea of giving up what they think will be a small part of their resources for a very large chunk of easy money now, not realizing or caring for the long-term consequences of making such a deal.

Rural people are engaged in a vital industry little understood by the public and by businessmen in other industries. Many rural people have little understanding of these problems themselves, simply following tradition. There is no inorganic food, all is by production of plants and animals, and this production cannot be easily increased by throwing more inorganic input and capital into the pot, the development pattern characteristic of many businesses.

With the population bomb going off, food production should be a major worry for planners and government. The normal business cycle, 5 to 7 years, passes by very quickly in the world where a new generation comes along every 20 to 25 years

People Over Pipelines

We have a Report from Erin McKelvy. Erin is a resident of the Blacksburg VA area and an affiliate of Blue Ridge Rapid Response Project (or BRRRP) and is helping to organize the “Stop The Pipelines Action Camp” in that area from July 13-17th, 2017. The action camp is being organized in hopes to spread resistance to the Mountain Valley & Atlantic Coast Pipelines that are traversing Appalachian West Virginia, Virginia and, in the MVP’s case, North Carolina. We talk about what it is to live in a place and defend your home, to get to know your neighbors, to build the skills needed to resist ecocidal, capitalist infrastructure projects.

More info at https://blueridgerapidresponse.wordpress.com or contact blueridgerapidresponse@gmail.com

The event is being co-sponsored by Smokey Mountain Eco-Defense (SMED).

New industry sponsored pipeline security is being pursued by mercenary groups like “TigerSwan” as well as industry-sponsored astro-turf (or fake grassroots) group “YourEnergy” meant to muddy the water of community resistance to pipeline expansion and other infrastructural projects.

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Virginia DEQ Programs: Water Protection for Pipelines, June 1, 2017

Due to the size and scope of proposed natural gas pipeline projects in Virginia, DEQ is developing additional requirements to ensure that Virginia water quality standards are maintained in all areas affected by the construction of these pipelines.

VA-DEQ will require Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to provide detailed plans to assess whether construction activities in adjacent areas will adversely affect water quality during construction and to ensure that water quality is maintained into the future. This additional certification goes well beyond other regulatory requirements and will protect water quality across the range of pipeline activities, not just temporary construction impacts to streams and wetlands.

The types of additional information developers must provide relate to environmental concerns such as karst geologic features, steep slopes, public water supplies and areas prone to rockslides. See main article sidebar, Request for Information (RFI) for ACP and MVP.

Once VA-DEQ has evaluated this information, it will develop additional water quality conditions and will give the public an opportunity to review and comment on these certification conditions. VA-DEQ also will hold public hearings on the draft certifications. Once the comment period has concluded, VA-DEQ will prepare a report and recommendations on the certification conditions for the State Water Control Board’s consideration.

VA-DEQ will hold three public hearings for Atlantic Coast Pipeline and two for Mountain Valley Pipeline.

In summary, five regulatory and review tools provide comprehensive oversight and thorough technical evaluation to ensure that Virginia’s water quality is protected.

Environmental impact review.

VA-DEQ, along with Virginia’s other natural resource agencies, submitted numerous comments and recommendations on the draft environmental impact statements published by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for these pipelines. For example, Virginia identified specific concerns in a number of stream segments crossing watersheds. Virginia recommended additional pre- and post-construction water quality monitoring, heightened erosion and sedimentation control practices, and/or pre-impact characterization of proposed stream and wetland crossings.

Stormwater, erosion and sediment control.

VA-DEQ is requiring each pipeline developer to submit detailed, project-specific erosion and sedimentation control and stormwater plans for every foot of land disturbance related to pipeline construction, including access roads and construction lay-down areas. These plans must comply with Virginia’s stormwater and erosion and sediment control regulations that are designed to protect water quality during and after construction. These plans will be reviewed by qualified professionals (either VA-DEQ staff or third-party engineers) and will be posted for public review. An engineering consulting firm will assist in VA-DEQ’s review of the erosion and stormwater plans. The cost of this work is estimated to be approximately $2.2 million.

Federal wetlands and stream regulation.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is the federal regulatory partner in permitting dredge and fill activities in wetlands and streams. The Corps’ Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 requires that water quality is protected during the construction of pipelines in wetlands and streams. The Corps will evaluate each wetland and stream crossing to see if it is consistent with the conditions of NWP 12. Because the Corps’ permit only covers construction activities that cross a wetland or stream, VA-DEQ is addressing other water quality impacts through its water certification authority. The conditions provided in NWP 12 are comprehensive and include: coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on threatened and endangered species; requirements to restore the pre-construction conditions at stream crossings using materials that mimic the natural stream bed; mitigation for all permanent loss over 1/10 acre and/or 300 linear feet of waters; a recommendation discouraging directional drilling in karst topography; a recommendation to use Virginia native species for revegetation; and extensive guidance and requirements for countersinking pipes.

Virginia water quality certification.

VA-DEQ will require water quality certification conditions for all potentially impacted water resources related to activities that may affect water quality outside the temporary construction impacts to stream and wetland crossings. These will provide reasonable assurance that water quality standards are maintained in Virginia’s streams. Once VA-DEQ has evaluated this information, it will develop additional water quality conditions and will give the public an opportunity to review and comment on these conditions. VA-DEQ also will hold public hearings on the draft conditions. Once the comment period has ended, VA-DEQ will recommend certification conditions for the State Water Control Board’s consideration.

Water quality monitoring.

VA-DEQ will conduct its own water quality monitoring of the pipeline projects to ensure water quality standards are maintained.

NOTE: See the schedule for public hearings and other information on the VA-DEQ website.

No Pipeline (MVP, ACP, etc.)

Mountain Valley Pipeline opponents target bank with latest protest

From a News Report by Joe Dashiell, WDBJ News 7, Roanoke, VA, June 27, 2017

Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have opened a new front in their fight against the controversial project. Tuesday afternoon, more than a dozen people protested outside the Wells Fargo Tower in downtown Roanoke.

Pipeline opponents say Wells Fargo is one of the six major banks financing construction of the natural gas pipeline. The protestors were urging customers to close their accounts.

Carolyn Reilly is a Franklin County landowner, whose property lies in the path of the proposed natural gas pipeline. “I’m here out of gratitude to someone who is saying I am choosing to move my money and close my accounts with Wells Fargo.”

The protesters were also challenging Well Fargo’s participation in the Dakota Access Pipeline. And Wells Fargo shared the following statement Tuesday evening.

“As a company committed to environmental sustainability and human rights, we respect all the differing opinions being expressed in this dispute. We are closely following the developments in this situation and are hopeful that all parties involved will work together for a peaceful and positive outcome.”

“Wells Fargo is one of 17 financial institutions involved in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline. The loans we have provided represent less than five percent of the total, and we are contractually bound to fulfill our legal obligations under the credit agreement so long as our customer continues to meet all of its terms and conditions.”

“The DAPL project was evaluated by an independent engineer to be compliant with the Equator Principles, a framework adopted by Wells Fargo in 2005 that is designed to determine, assess, and manage social and environmental risks and impacts of projects. As a result of issues that have arisen in this case, we have enhanced our due diligence in sectors subject to our Environmental and Social Risk Management policy to include more focused research into whether or not indigenous communities are impacted and/or have been properly consulted.”

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WV DEP, its chief challenged on pipeline approval

From an Article by Ken Ward, Charleston Gazette, June 9, 2017

Five local, state and national citizen groups have asked a federal appeals court to overturn the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of a state authorization for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Lawyers for the groups filed their petition for review Friday afternoon with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Last month, DEP Secretary Austin Caperton refused to grant a hearing to environmental groups and citizens who filed an appeal after his agency approved a Clean Water Act certification for the MVP project.

In a two-paragraph letter, dated May 10, Caperton did not state a reason for his denial. The DEP did not publicly announce that decision, and agency spokesman Jake Glance did not respond to a request for an explanation or comment on Caperton’s decision.

The natural gas pipeline would run about 300 miles, from Northwestern West Virginia to Southern Virginia. It is a joint project of EQT Midstream Partners LP, Next-Era US Gas Assets LLC, WGL Midstream and Vega Midstream MVP LLC.

According to the DEP, the pipeline originates in Wetzel County and goes though Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers and Monroe counties before entering Virginia.

The permit in question is a certification under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act that the pipeline activity will not violate the state’s water quality standards or stream designated uses.

In appealing the DEP’s approval to Caperton, citizens and organizations said the agency did not have enough information to draw such a conclusion.

“With the MVP proposing to cross streams more than 600 times in West Virginia alone, it’s startling the bar was set so low on information required from the applicant,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, one of the groups that filed the 4th Circuit petition. “Especially for a project of this magnitude, we expect a lot more detail. Without the complete information and analysis, there’s no way that West Virginians can be assured their rivers and streams won’t pay a price.”

Unlike many other permitting decisions, an appeal of a DEP 401 certification does not go to a board like the state Environmental Quality Board, but to the agency secretary. Under the DEP’s own rules, the secretary has discretion on whether to even hold a hearing on such an appeal.

When it initially approved the pipeline’s 401 certification, the DEP issued a news release about the action and pointed members of the news media to the MVP developer’s website for “information about the potential economic benefit” of the project.

Groups filing the appeal of Caperton’s decision with the 4th Circuit include the Sierra Club, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the Indian Creek Watershed Association, Appalachian Voices and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. The groups are represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

“This pipeline threatens to do irreparable harm to Appalachia’s treasured streams and forested hillsides, and it is crucial that the state thoroughly examine these impacts rather than rubber-stamping a project that is bad for our communities and the environment,” said Deb Self, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign.

“State environmental regulators need to start taking their duties seriously,” said Peter Anderson, a program manager for Appalachian Voices. “They must rigorously analyze impacts on water, soil and forests, rather than taking the industry view that the permitting process is an annoying bump in the road. These agencies are public health institutions at their heart, so they should act like it.”

MVP under challenge by Appalmad, et al.

West Virginia Nixes Enviro Group’s Appeal of Mountain Valley Pipeline

From an Article by Jamison Conklin, Natural Gas Intelligence, May 17, 2017

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has denied an environmental group’s hearing request to appeal the state’s water quality certification for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

In a short letter sent to citizens and the nonprofit environmental organization Appalachian Mountain Advocates last week, WVDEP Secretary Austin Caperton denied the hearing under state law, which gives him, rather than a regulatory board, discretion over the matter.

The agency issued the pipeline’s Section 401 Water Quality Certification in March after three public hearings on the project across the state. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month delayed the project’s final environmental impact statement to June 23 to consider more information, and other state permits are still pending. Opponents of the pipeline appealed the water quality certification claiming the agency did not have enough information to issue it.

The 300-mile pipeline would originate in Wetzel County, WV, and move up to 2 million Dth/d of Marcellus and Utica shale gas to an interconnect with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line in Pittsylvania County, VA, for delivery to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. It is expected to be in-service by 4Q2018. The project is a joint venture of EQT Midstream Partners LP, NextEra US Gas Assets LLC, Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream LLC.

Caperton, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Justice after he took office earlier this year, has faced criticism from environmental groups. Prior to his appointment he worked as a consultant for the coal industry and moved quickly to fire the agency’s environmental advocate, Wendy Radcliff, and to hire as her replacement Ed Maguire II. Justice, who was a businessman and coal baron before taking office, has expressed strong support for the oil and gas industry and its role in helping the state economy he’s been intently focused on reviving.

Caperton didn’t explain why he denied the hearing request, and the agency has not commented. But the project’s opponents have told local news media that they will likely appeal his decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

State water quality certification is required by the U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) and is needed when any project affects state waters. Environmental advocates have increasingly focused on state-issued CWA permits as a new way to stymie pipeline construction.

In nearby Pennsylvania, Energy Transfer Partners LP began constructing the Mariner East 2 pipeline in February after receiving CWA and other state approvals. An appeal of those permits filed by the Clean Air Council, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Mountain Watershed Association is pending before the state Environmental Hearing Board.

Meanwhile, both the Northern Access expansion project and Constitution Pipeline are on hold as their sponsors fight New York state’s denial of CWA permits in federal court.

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AppalMad and Sierra Club File Rebuttal to Mountain Valley Pipeline Claims

POWHR Coalition (Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights), 13 WV & VA Community Groups, https://powhr.org

Karst geology experts have strongly condemned Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Draft Environmental Impact submittals to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding pipeline construction in sensitive karst terrain. A 14 page rebuttal, prepared by Ernst Kastning and submitted on behalf of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club by Appalachian Mountain Advocates attorneys Benjamin Luckett and Joseph Lovett, describes the risks to Southwest Virginia and West Virginia communities from pipeline construction.  Damage would include groundwater contamination, groundwater recharge, surface collapse and other dangerous consequences of building a massive infrastructure project in a seismic area populated with caves and sinkholes.

Read the entire AppalMad briefing below:

APPALMAD submittal of Kastning Rebuttal 20170524-5177(32180600)

Dominion files with FERC to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Dominion has submitted their 30,000 page, 10 foot tall stack of paperwork to FERC as their formal application for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to gain a certificate of Eminent Domain and Public Necessity. Click here to learn more about their application. Now is the time to get involved by signing petitions, attending meetings, or making a donation to support the Watershed’s efforts. (See our address below — Elise.)

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Making Sense of Natural Gas Pipelines and Right-of-Way Agreements

West Virginia University Cooperative Extension is hosting a series of three pipeline meetings entitled ‘Making Sense of Natural Gas Pipelines and Right-of-Way Agreements.’ The meetings will be October 12 (Mill Creek, WV), October 13 (Summersville, WV) and October 14 (Weston, WV).

Attendees will have an opportunity to learn about the proposed pipelines and ask questions. Let’s have a strong presence at these meeting to show them why the pipelines don’t make sense. For more information about the topics covered, locations and times of the meeting CLICK HERE.

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Petition FERC Today!

An “Office of Consumer Advocate” at the FERC has been proposed since 1978, but the office has never been created or funded. Please sign the petition calling for a consumer advocate at:  Petition to create a Consumer Advocate within FERC

The organization behind this petition is Public Citizen, a highly ethical citizen advocate organization. EVERYONE involved in the pipeline fight and all those sympathetic to it should sign this petition.

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There is still time to act to Protect West Virginia Streams!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the public comment period on a critical decision for the health of Appalachia’s waterways and aquatic life. The comment period has been extended to Oct. 10. Please take action today and tell the EPA to create a selenium standard that protects fish and people from the devastating impacts of stream pollution.

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Upcoming Community Meetings –

Wednesday, October 14 (7 pm) — Greenbrier River Watershed Association Annual Meeting (St. James Episcopal Church, 218 S. Court St. Lewisburg, WV). All members and anyone interested in the Association’s work to preserve the watershed are welcome to attend.

Thank you for your help at this time …..   Elise Keaton Liegel, elise@greenbrier.org

Greenbrier River Watershed Association, Suite #4, 120 W. Washington Street, Lewisburg, WV 24901   See also:  www.MAREproject.org

See also: Appalachian Mountain Advocates

Monongahela & Geo. Wash. National Forests

Gov. McAuliffe: No fracking in George Washington National Forest

From an Article by Steve Szkotak, Associated Press, September 10, 2014

RICHMOND — Citing assurances from federal officials, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday fracking for natural gas will not be allowed in the George Washington National Forest.

“I won’t allow it as long as I’m governor,” McAuliffe told the inaugural meeting of a climate change panel he created this summer. “We made it clear to everyone we will not allow fracking in our national forest. I’m not going to allow it.”

“I don’t support it as governor of the commonwealth and I think we’re in mutual agreement with that,” he said of the officials.

U.S. Forest Service officials, who are considering fracking among other uses in the forest as part of a new management plan for the 1.1 million-acre preserve, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The decision rests with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.

Environmental and conservation groups have rallied against any fracking in the forest, which lies primarily in Virginia but also includes a sliver of West Virginia. They are fearful of polluting the headwaters of a primary water source for the region and the industrial footprint drilling would bring.

A senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center welcomed McAuliffe’s opposition to energy exploration “in this special forest.” “We hope the Forest Service issues a final management plan soon that makes the forest off-limits to gas drilling and fracking,” Sarah Francisco said in an email to The Associated Press.

The decision on fracking is expected to be contained in a new management plan for the forest, the largest federal forest on the East Coast. The Forest Service initially proposed a ban on fracking in the forest, but it was met with opposition by the energy industry. Opponents fear the USDA will bow to the industry pressure. The Forest Service said this week it had not reached a decision on fracking.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling technique using water, abrasives and chemicals to extract natural gas laced through shale deposits. Much of the drilling is occurring in the Marcellus Shale formation stretching from upstate New York to West Virginia. A sliver of the Marcellus deposit extends into northwest Virginia.

The science on the impact of fracking has not been conclusive.

[NOTE: This last statement is incorrect. The scientific studies on impacts have shown excessive noise, diesel fumes, gaseous and liquid leaks, toxic chemicals, extremely hazardous working conditions, public health impacts, land damages, road damages, accidents, fires, explosions, lawsuits for damages, victim pay-outs, and wasteful practices for the natural resources of our States and Nation.]

NOTE: However, the Virginia Governor has announced his support of the 42 inch Atlantic Coast Pipeline to run thru the Monongahela and Geo. Wash. National Forests. Have you made your voice(s) known to any of these: The President, your representatives in government, your  Governor, the US EPA, US Department of Energy, the US Department of Agriculture, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission?