One of the rallies over the last eight years opposing the 42” MVP ….

From the Article by Maury Johnson (Monroe County, WV), Common Dreams, 4/26/23

Secretary Granholm’s letter cheerleading the Mountain Valley Pipeline came the day after she promised to meet with me, a landowner impacted by Senator Manchin’s pet fossil fuel project.

I am saddened by the depths that proponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will go to advance a false narrative and spread inaccuracies. This time it is Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm who on Friday, April 21, 2023 wrote a cheerleader’s letter rooting for the MVP, Joe Manchin’s pet project. It is very ironic and even a bit disturbing that she wrote this letter one day after she appeared before the Senate Energy Committee and the very next day after she told me personally that she (or her staff) would meet with me in the next week or two.

I am currently in Washington, D.C. where I attended the Senate Energy Committee meeting on Thursday, April 20. I spoke to the Secretary at the conclusion of the hearing and asked her to meet with me. She indicated that a meeting could be arranged this week or next. But in what appears to be a hastily prepared letter — even possibly dictated by the fossil fuel lobby — she expressed her desire to exert political pressure on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other federal agencies.

The Secretary apparently decided that she did not need to talk to those most affected by the project or even entertain an opposing viewpoint. Like many agencies, she did not talk with or listen to any affected landowner and totally continued to perpetrate the social, racial, and environmental injustice concerns that President Joe Biden had just a few hours before expressed that his administration would take seriously.

You can’t have it both ways: You either listen to impacted communities or you don’t. This letter appears to be written to appease Senator Manchin and others in the MVP camp. It is also strange that this letter was filed just before Equitrans Midstream Corporation — the company behind the pipeline — had its shareholder meeting on Monday morning, April 24.

You can’t have it both ways: You either listen to impacted communities or you don’t.

The MVP project is not necessary to support the nation’s energy security and energy supply. Just because they say it is so, doesn’t make it true. It actually would do just the opposite. It would lock us into decades of methane and carbon pollution that the nation or the planet can ill afford. As the lead federal agency for the project under the FAST-41 framework, I feel that the FERC has failed in its regulatory duty to be an independent agency by submitting to inappropriate industry-generated political pressure similar to that which is reflected in Secretary Granholm’s letter. It appears to me to be an attempt to intimidate the commission.

In a letter I just completed and sent to the FERC, I requested that they do their job and follow their charter as an independent agency: to evaluate all projects on their merits and with regard to their impact on climate change and to resist the political pressure placed on them by politicians like Senator Manchin, who would build more pipelines, mine more coal, drill for more oil and gas, despite the fact that it would put us on a fast track to total environment destruction.

I do not believe that the MVP project would help ensure the “reliable delivery of energy that heats homes and businesses, and powers electric generators that support the reliability of the electric system,” despite what Secretary Granholm may state in her letter. This is a 42-inch diameter interstate transmission line which is most likely slated to transmit gas for export.

Infrastructure such as MVP destroys communities, pollutes water, harms our environment, and has no role to play in the clean energy transition. Unproven technologies such as “carbon capture” facilitated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are not something you should rely on to fix our climate emergency. With the severe problems we are facing, these proposals are too little, too late.

No new pipeline infrastructure is needed. The rapid growth of hydrogen as an emissions-free fuel is also a misnomer, especially if the hydrogen is produced as a byproduct of more drilling. The transport of carbon dioxide through a pipeline might be the most dangerous thing we could ever do. I believe Secretary Granholm herself knows better than what she stated in her April 21 letter.

As extreme weather events continue to put strain on the U.S. energy system, we must quickly transition to green energy and continuing to build pipelines cannot be part of that transition. The MVP project would, if completed, lock us into decades of climate-busting greenhouse gas emissions as it destroys communities and property across its entire route.

The MVP project would, if completed, lock us into decades of climate-busting greenhouse gas emissions as it destroys communities and property across its entire route.

Now here is the hardly disguised, hard-hitting core message embedded in a (not so funny part of) Granholm’s letter: “While the Department takes no position regarding the outstanding agency actions required under federal or state law related to the construction of the MVP project, nor on any pending litigation, we submit the view that the MVP project will enhance the Nation’s critical infrastructure for energy and national security. We appreciate the Commission’s prompt actions to fulfill its regulatory responsibilities regarding natural gas infrastructure under the Natural Gas Act, and the interagency coordination it provides as the lead federal agency for the project under FAST-41. We look forward to continuing to work with FERC to ensure consumers have access to reliable, cost-effective, and clean energy.”

That was a very strong armed tactic, if I ever saw one. I believe it is totally inappropriate to write such a letter, especially when just one day before she said she would meet with me and the president issued the Executive Order Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All on the morning before she wrote her letter to the FERC. The president said all executive branch agencies have a duty to pursue environmental justice. Apparently Secretary Granholm did not get the message.

Meanwhile, I am still in Washington D.C. waiting to hear from Secretary Granholm. Personally, I don’t understand her rush to write her letter cheering for the MVP. It is also typical of how most government leaders have treated landowners and other citizens in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Maury Johnson inspected a section of the plastic coated pipe here

Residual Waste is toxic brine, as with the diesel truck exhaust gases

From an Article by Michael Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, September 18, 2022
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WESTON, W.Va. – We read in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, including a time to be silent and a time to speak. By now, I had hoped to be silent. As a pensioner, I was hoping to hang out with my family, do some hiking, and to travel a bit. In short, I’m just trying to live a peaceful life. The only problem is that corruption and violence are so rampant that they can’t be ignored.

Silence in the face of violence is compliance with it. (To hear a beautiful take on that notion, listen to “Medicine” by the Americana band Rising Appalachia). So my season of silence is over.

For nearly a decade, before I tried to step back a few months ago, I had written more than 100 articles about the public health, safety and environmental dangers of fracking and related pipeline development. I’ve also written about Mountaintop Removal and efforts by environmental activists to protect the pristine Appalachian Mountains. What West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his fossil fuel cronies have inflicted upon the people and land of West Virginia and Virginia in attempting to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is nothing short of a violent assault upon the people and land.

In building the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the MVP, energy companies EQT, Duke Energy and Dominion and their subcontractors have been ruthless, as the articles below reveal. (Note: some links within articles may no longer be valid). This collective chronicle of the gas industry’s tactics reveal deceit, threats and destruction. The MVP remains uncompleted only because of the people in its path. A coalition of individuals and groups have stalled it primarily through successful legal and regulatory challenges, not to mention dogged determination.

These articles – the first published Aug. 4 2014 – demonstrate what a roller-coaster ride of emotions and betrayal landowners and environmentals have experienced. They succeeded in shutting down the ACP and had the MVP on the ropes. Investors were nervous.

However, it appeared that all of that work against the MVP may have been undone in a behind-closed-doors deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin to get Manchin’s essential vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That deal was supposed to streamline the permitting process for the MVP.

However, E&E News Energy Wire is reporting that may not be enough to salvage the beleaguered and long-delayed project. According to the article, a primary obstacle may be legislation announced and sponsored by West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The Republican proposal is picking up bi-partisan support. The E&E News article details how legal and regulatory challenges could still derail the MVP should the proposal pass, as it would not allow the MVP to bypass judicial review.

Though this is hopeful news, this fight is far from over. There is simply too much money changing hands. So, keep up with this story and support any effort to thwart the shady dealings of Schumer and Manchin.

These articles would not have been possible without the cooperation of my family and the subjects of the articles. They are the brave souls willing to share their stories, allowing me insight, facts and documents to support my enterprise and investigative reporting; additionally, contributions from other writers have served to enrich our reporting.

So, while it may take you a while, please read through our past articles. You will see that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t changed tactics in over a century. Only this time, instead of using Baldwin-Felt thugs to do their dirty work as they did during the West Virginia Mine Wars in the early 1920s, today’s energy executives hatch their plots on Manchin’s “Almost Heaven” yacht moored on the Potomac River.

Duke Energy’s 9 MW Asheville Battery Installation in Buncombe County

From an Article by Tim Sylvia, PV Magazine, October 26, 2021

A new battery, which uses an electrolyte to convert chemical energy into electricity for storage and deployment, will begin testing in 2022 at Duke Energy’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Center in Mount Holly, North Carolina.

Honeywell, a prominent technology company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced that it has developed a new flow battery technology intended for pairing with wind and solar resources. The company has partnered with Duke Energy to field test the product.

Honeywell’s battery uses a safe, non-flammable electrolyte that converts chemical energy to electricity to store energy for later use. The solution can store and discharge electricity for up to 12 hours, according to Honeywell. If proven, the battery would provide the system with another distinct advantage over traditional lithium-ion batteries, which currently can discharge up to four hours.

The battery is also comprised of entirely recyclable components. It is touted by Honeywell as being immune to degradation over long periods of use, a paramount issue for all battery storage chemistries and technologies.

According to Honeywell, the flow battery can be combined with the company’s Experion PKS business and asset management, system, and its enterprise performance management solution, Honeywell Forge, for remote monitoring.

In 2022 Honeywell plans to deliver a 400 kWh unit to Duke Energy’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Center in Mount Holly, North Carolina, to determine if the technology is viable for use at scale. Duke will need to make commitments to deploying storage at scale if it hopes to achieve its goals of a 50% reduction of carbon emissions versus 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

According to a Duke representative, the utility plans to install almost 400 MW of battery storage capacity in its service territory over the next five years, though it is unclear if this refers to it’s North Carolina Service area, or total southeast service area including South Carolina and Florida. The representative also added that Duke has a keen interest in breakthrough technologies, like this flow battery.

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PV Magazine is a monthly trade publication launched for the international photovoltaics (PV) community in the summer of 2008. The current print run, based on qualified circulation, is 35,000. The international website, www.pv-magazine.com launched in 2010. (Sep 6, 2021)

Appalachian Voices are speaking out about solar energy

From Appalachian Voices in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia & West Virginia

Dear Colleagues and Friends, Join Us on November 4th ~

Thank you for signing up to learn more about the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund (SFF), a new program to jump-start commercial and institutional solar projects in coal-impacted communities throughout Central Appalachia! We’re excited to announce that the program will launch on Thursday, November 4 with a webinar at noon Eastern Time and invite you to join! Please RSVP to attend.

The SFF will use a recent $1.5 million ARC POWER Initiative award to deploy select subgrant awards for solar projects on nonprofit and public buildings. The SFF also will facilitate competitive technical assistance contracts for solar installations on commercial enterprises and will develop additional investment and credit enhancement strategies to unlock more solar deployment in the region.

During this webinar, attendees will learn about the program’s available financing tools, applicant eligibility criteria and the application process for entities and developers seeking funding for solar projects. Members of the SFF Executive Committee will discuss the history of the fund, its purpose and goals, and the structure of the program.

Speakers include the following four (4) involved individuals:

>> Adam Wells, Regional Director of Community & Economic Development, Appalachian Voices

>> Hannah Vargason, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Partner Community Capital

>> Marc Palmer, Co-Founder and CEO, New Resource Solutions

>> Andrew Crosson, CEO, Invest Appalachia

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A. Commercial, government and nonprofit building owners and facilities managers, and solar developers and installation professionals are encouraged to attend and bring questions about the process. The public is also welcome to attend to learn more about the program and how it works.

RSVP to join us on November 4th! I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Cheers, Autumn Long
Appalachian Solar Finance Fund Project Manager

RSVP

MVP impacts to mountains, rivers and streams are excessive

From a Summary by Lewis Freeman, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance, March 8, 2021

A report released March 8 by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) concludes that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 300-mile pipeline that would move natural gas from the Appalachian Basin to markets in the eastern and southern U.S., is in financial jeopardy because of reduced demand projections and legal challenges.

The IEEFA report found four primary reasons to be skeptical of the pipeline’s financial viability:

● Revised forecasts now predict lower natural gas demand than when the project was first proposed. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts gas demand will fall at least through 2030 in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.

● The likely cancellation of the Southgate Extension, a spur meant to funnel gas from the Mountain Valley project to North Carolina, weakens the financial case for the pipeline. Public Service Company of North Carolina has signed up for 12.5 percent of the Mountain Valley capacity. But if a North Carolina permit denial is upheld in federal court, the extension can’t be built—and the utility can’t use the gas.

● Gas produced in the Appalachian Basin and shipped through the Mountain Valley Pipeline to an interstate connection known as the Transco Pipeline must now compete with cheaper sources of natural gas. Prospects for saving money with gas shipped through the Mountain Valley Pipeline are already on shaky ground; the construction costs of the project have soared 60 percent beyond original estimates, to roughly $6 billion.

● Liquified natural gas (LNG) exports to Asia and the Pacific may not offset declining domestic demand. Asian LNG demand is predicted to be lower than originally anticipated; lower-cost producers such as Qatar could undercut Appalachian gas; new U.S. LNG export terminals face financing challenges; and any new terminals also are likely to look for less-expensive alternatives to Appalachian Basin gas.

The report notes that the MVP was approved under a 21-year-old Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) policy that bases decisions entirely on the existence of commercial contracts to purchase gas, rather than the actual need for new sources of gas.

A copy of the full report is available for your reading.

>>> ​Lewis Freeman, Executive Director, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance
https://www.abralliance.org/

Protesting MVP has been serious every day for over two years

From an Article by Scott DiSavino, Reuters News Service, September 8, 2020

U.S. pipeline company Equitrans Midstream Corp said on Tuesday it remains on track to complete the $5.4-$5.7 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia early next year.

That comment follows a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to issue a new Biological Opinion on Sept. 4, which the project needs to resume construction.

Mountain Valley is one of several U.S. oil and gas pipelines delayed by regulatory and legal fights with environmental and local groups that found problems with federal permits issued by the Trump administration.

In February 2018 when Equitrans started construction of the 303-mile (488-km) pipeline designed to deliver 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale, it estimated Mountain Valley would cost about $3.5 billion and be completed by the end of 2018.

“We look forward to resolving the few remaining permitting issues, resuming forward construction,” Equitrans said.

Equitrans has said it expects to receive new approvals soon from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that will enable it to finish building the last 8% of the project.

Analysts at Height Capital Markets said they expect FERC will lift its stop-work order in “coming days” and the Army Corps will reauthorize the project’s Nationwide Permit 12 to allow stream crossing “shortly thereafter.”

“We expect environmentalists and other opponents will challenge each of these permit decisions … within 1-2 weeks of issuance,” Height Capital Markets said, noting “FERC and FWS have had nearly a year to review the permit, so it should be relatively insulated from legal challenges.”

Other projects similarly held up include TC Energy Corp’s $8 billion Keystone XL and Energy Transfer LP’s Dakota Access crude pipelines, which are still involved in court battles.

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See also: Tree sitters mark two-year anniversary of pipeline protest, Joe Dashiell, WHSV News 3, Harrisonburg, VA, September 4, 2020

This 42 inch pipeline creates pollution problems at stream crossings, on steep terrain, etc.

Commentary by Jacob Hileman, Roanoke Times, July 12, 2020

On Oct. 2, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Upon losing this permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, MVP was forced to cease construction at all stream and wetland crossings in Virginia and West Virginia, leaving hundreds of crossings outstanding. That the Corps has been unable to reinstate NWP 12 for twenty-one months, and counting, is truly incredible.

Why has the Corps delayed reissuing NWP 12 to MVP for so long?

It is likely the Corps has not been able to find a way to reinstate the permit that will withstand legal scrutiny. Since beginning construction in early 2018, MVP has lost numerous permits as a result of opponents’ successful legal challenges. In a number of these cases, the courts thoroughly rebuked the implicated agencies for failing to justify their issuance of permits for the MVP. For example, authorization from the U.S. Forest Service was deemed “silent acquiescence.” The Corps has assuredly seen the writing on the wall.

The magnitude of the delay in reissuing NWP 12 to MVP is a stark indication the Corps never should have granted the permit in the first place.

If reinstating NWP 12 was simply a case of dotting i’s and crossing t’s — a purely procedural matter — the Corps would have reissued the permit to MVP within weeks. Instead, the Corps finds itself facing the absolutely monumental task of rewriting a fatally flawed permit. This was confirmed by the April 15 ruling against the Keystone XL pipeline, which found the Corps acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it reauthorized the NWP 12 program in 2017.

While the U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a partial stay of the lower court’s ruling — allowing pipelines other than Keystone XL to continue using NWP 12 during the appeal process — it does not solve the underlying permit issues for the MVP.

Can the Corps refuse to reissue NWP 12 for the MVP?

Yes. And while unlikely, it absolutely should. The text of the Corps’ suspension letter to MVP makes it clear the Corp has the authority to “reinstate, modify, or revoke the authorizations.” Without NWP 12 in place, MVP is not allowed to impact waterways during construction, yet failed sediment and erosion control devices have been the source of dozens of water quality violations in Virginia and West Virginia. These violations have resulted in more than $2 million in fines for MVP, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality recently announced more fines are on the way.

The timing of the Corp’s reissuance of NWP 12 to MVP will communicate far more information than the text of the permit.

One year after MVP lost NWP 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted a stay of the Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This action effectively halted new construction along the entirety of the 303-mile-long MVP, leaving the project belly-up as it contends with the fact it is $2 billion over budget and two years behind schedule. Even if the Corps is able to reissue NWP 12 in the near future, until the stop work order is lifted all forward construction remains at a standstill.

However, the concurrent suspension of both NWP 12 and the Biological Opinion may actually prove to be a boon to MVP. Assuming both permits are reissued simultaneously, the largest barriers to project-wide construction will immediately evaporate. This leaves the public and courts little time to scrutinize the revised permit conditions before MVP embarks on a frenzy of new construction, knowing the project’s very existence may depend on it. MVP surely recognizes this opportunity.

Since December, MVP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have slow-walked the consultation process on the Biological Opinion, extending the process by one- and two-month increments while NWP 12 remained in limbo. Although the consultation process was completed last month, the Biological Opinion still has yet to be reissued.

Ultimately, regardless of how the Corps rewrites NWP 12 for the MVP, the permit conditions will have little to no effect on the ground. There is simply no way the damages wrought by the MVP can be contained. Any reissuance of NWP 12 is antithetical to the core function of the permit as a regulatory tool, and must be seen for what it is: a free license for MVP to pollute, damage, and desecrate any and all waterways in its path.

>>> Jacob Hileman is an environmental hydrologist with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. He was raised in the Catawba Valley of Virginia, and is presently a researcher at Stockholm University working on global water sustainability issues.

Dominion cancels Atlantic Coast Pipeline, sells natural gas transmission business

ACP pipeline right of way trees cut at highly sensitive location

PHOTO: Pipeline scene at Wintergreen — A path had been cleared for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on this Blue Ridge Mountain slope at the entrance to Wintergreen resort, just below the project’s planned crossing beneath the Appalachian Trail.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead, abandoned by Dominion Energy and its partner, Duke Energy, ending a 600-mile natural gas project that would have cost at least $8 billion to complete.

Dominion and Duke announced Sunday that they have canceled the project in the face of mounting regulatory uncertainty caused by a federal court ruling in Montana that overturned the nationwide federal water quality permit the project relied upon to cross rivers, creeks and other waterbodies.

“We regret that we will be unable to complete the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” Tom Farrell, chairman, president and CEO of Richmond-based Dominion, said in a bombshell announcement.

Dominion also announced that it is selling its natural gas transmission and storage business to Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $10 billion.

“For almost six years, we have worked diligently and invested billions of dollars to complete the project and deliver the much needed infrastructure, to our customers and communities,” Farrell said.

However, he concluded, “This announcement reflects the increasing legal uncertainty that overhands large-scenergy and industrial infrastructure development in the United States. Until these issues are resolved, the ability to satisfy the country’s energy needs will be significantly challenged.”

For opponents, the abandonment of the project represents vindication of grass-roots opposition that arose along the pipeline’s path.

“It’s all about the people,” said Nancy Sorrells, who helped form the Augusta County Alliance against the project in 2014 and represents the county in the Alliance of the Shenandoah Valley. “They knew it was wrong from start to finish and just never gave up.”

Rick Webb, a retired environmental scientist who helped lead the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition from his home in Highland County, said of Dominion, “They should have known better. It was a bad idea from the beginning. Dominion, with its ill-conceived project, has done a lot to strengthen the environmental community in the region,” Webb said. “Thank goodness for that.”

The grass-roots opposition also drove an aggressive legal strategy led by the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville and Appalachian Mountain Advocates, which foiled the project by persuading the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to throw out numerous federal and state permits needed to complete the project.

Greg Buppert, who helped lead a wide-ranging legal battle against the project as senior attorney for the Southern Environment Law Center, was stunned by the announcement. “Wow!” Buppert said Sunday. “Wow.”

The law center, based in Charlottesville, won a series of victories against federal and state permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but lost a pivotal fight in the U.S. Supreme Court last month over a permit for the pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Augusta and Nelson counties.

Dominion announced separately on Sunday that it is selling its natural gas transmission and storage business to Berkshire Hathaway by the end of the year.

Berkshire will take on $5.7 billion in debt from Dominion’s transmission and storage business — which does not reflect the parent company’s investment in the pipeline — and pay the company $4 billion, which will allow it to buy back stock to stabilize its earnings.

The sale includes more than 7,700 miles of gas pipelines and 900 billion cubic feet of gas storage. Dominion will keep a 50% interest in the Cove Point liquefied natural gas terminal on the Chesapeake Bay, but Berkshire will receive a 25% interest in the facility and operate it.

Farrell said the deal would allow the company to focus on its electric utilities in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as local gas distribution companies in the Carolinas, West Virginia, Ohio and Utah.

He said the company plans to invest $55 billion over the next 15 years in technologies to reduce emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to global warming, retire fossil fuel power plants, and develop sources of renewable natural gas, including animal waste.

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See also: Atlantic Coast Pipeline faces doubts — As the cost of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline soars, renewable energy is the better option for NC, Ned Barnett, Raleigh News & Observer, March 16, 2020

Pipe lengths awaiting installation after many months of exposure

From an Article by Laura Greenleaf, Blue Virginia, June 22, 2020

On October 13, 2020 Dominion’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate authorizing construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) will expire. Issued three years earlier, the certificate prohibits any construction after that date. With just a few miles of pipeline in the ground six years after originally announcing the project, and with the project billions of dollars over budget, the folks at Dominion now want FERC to give them a two-year extension.

On June 17, 2020, FERC published a Notice of Request for Extension of Time and started the clock ticking on a 15-day intervention and comment period. We have until 5:00 p.m. Thursday, July 2nd to submit comments opposing the certificate’s extension.

In its notice, FERC “strongly encourages electronic filings of comments, protests and interventions in lieu of paper” using the eFiling link at http://www.ferc.gov.

Anyone unable to file electronically should submit an original and three copies of their comments to the Federal Energy regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426. Cite the ACP docket number in your comments, CP15-554.

Send a strong message to FERC: no special favors for a destructive, fracked-gas pipeline that serves no need other than further enriching Dominion Energy and its shareholders, while passing on the cost to customers. For a refresher on why the ACP is unnecessary and Dominion doesn’t deserve a two year extension, visit the Friends of Nelson website.

In its extension request, Dominion claims that it has suffered “unforeseen delays in permitting” and that “markets to be served by the Projects have been chronically constrained in terms of natural gas supply, as interstate natural gas pipeline capacity is either already fully subscribed or nonexistent. The need for the Projects is undiminished.” In fact, Dominion’s case for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been so self-serving and unsubstantiated from the start that the original FERC decision included an unprecedented, robust dissent from Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, who questioned the justification of public need and found the consideration of alternatives to be inadequate. You can read LaFleur’s opinion at the end of the October 13, 2017 FERC issuance. The permit is under review by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Dominion Energy’s SCOTUS victory last week does nothing to change the fact that the corporation still lacks eight permits necessary to construct the 600-mile, 42-inch fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline from the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia through western Virginia to southeastern North Carolina. Revoked permits include four Clean Water Act authorizations, the biological opinion under the Endangered Species Act, and the Virginia air pollution permit for Dominion’s proposed compressor station in Buckingham County’s Union Hill, a majority minority community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War.

The delays Dominion failed to foresee are the result of justice finally being served, and represent a rare rebuke to Dominion’s customary bending of regulatory systems to its will. Now, FERC needs to hear from Virginians that the days of rubber-stamping profit-driven fossil fuel infrastructure must end. File your comments here and cite the ACP docket number in your comments [CP15-554].

There is no environmental justice in such a large diameter pipeline on extremely steep mountain terrain

Update from the Southern Environmental Law Center, June 15, 2020

Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that limited the U.S. Forest Service’s authority to issue a permit to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The original ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stated the Forest Service lacked authority to grant approval for Dominion and Duke Energy’s pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail on federal land. The Fourth Circuit also vacated the Forest Service permit on other grounds not addressed by today’s decision, and the pipeline still lacks that permit in addition to several other approvals required for construction.

“While today’s decision was not what we hoped for, it addresses only one of the many problems faced by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This is not a viable project. It is still missing many required authorizations, including the Forest Service permit at issue in today’s case, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon consider the mounting evidence that we never needed this pipeline to supply power. It’s time for these developers to move on and reinvest the billions of dollars planned for this boondoggle into the renewable energy that Virginia and North Carolina customers want and deserve,” said DJ Gerken, Southern Environmental Law Center Program Director.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes at the same time that the purported need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, proposed in 2014, is receiving renewed scrutiny, as states are steering their energy economies away from fossil fuels. In March, Dominion Energy told Virginia regulators that the build out of new gas-fired power plants is no longer “viable” in the state, and the Virginia Clean Economy Act signed into law in April requires that the utility shut down all of its existing gas plants by 2045. North Carolina’s Clean Energy Plan calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants of 70% over 2005 levels by 2030 and total carbon neutrality by 2050.

“It’s been six years since this pipeline was proposed, we didn’t need it then and we certainly don’t need it now,” said Dick Brooks of the Cowpasture River Preservation. “Today’s decision doesn’t change the fact that Dominion chose a risky route through protected federal lands, steep mountains, and vulnerable communities.”

“This pipeline is putting our farmlands, our water and the livelihood of Virginians in jeopardy,” said Nancy Sorrells with Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, “And all for a pipeline that isn’t even in the public interest of Virginians.”

Meanwhile, the exorbitant price tag for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline continues to climb because of Dominion’s insistence on a harmful and risky route. Under these circumstances and at a time when the region is moving rapidly to 100% renewable energy, it’s unreasonable to expect customers to pay for this obsolete $8 billion fracked gas pipeline.

“With the ACP still lacking 8 permits, this decision is just plugging just one hole on a sinking ship,” said Kelly Martin, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign. “Nothing in today’s ruling changes the fact that the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous threat to our health, climate and communities, and nothing about the ruling changes our intention to fight it. From the day the ACP was proposed, the smart investment for Dominion and Duke would have been clean, renewable energy sources, and with the project billions of dollars over budget, that’s even more true today. Despite this ruling on one narrow question, economics, common sense, and public opinion are still squarely against the ACP.”

Among the permits in question for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline are:

@ — Endangered Species Act permit (Biological Opinion) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

@ — Special use permit and right-of-way grant from the U.S. Forest Service

@ — Right-of-way permit from the National Park Service

@ — Virginia air pollution permit for the Union Hill compressor station

@ — Four Clean Water Act authorizations from the Army Corps of Engineers for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina

@ — The Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s central permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is under review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and arguments are expected later this year. The case will determine if FERC correctly determined that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was needed to fuel gas-fired power plants when it approved the project in 2017.

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About the Southern Environmental Law Center

For more than 30 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center has used the power of the law to champion the environment of the Southeast. With more than 80 attorneys and nine offices across the region, SELC is widely recognized as the Southeast’s foremost environmental organization and regional leader. SELC works on a full range of environmental issues to protect our natural resources and the health and well-being of all the people in our region. For more info see the following: www.SouthernEnvironment.org

About the Sierra Club of the United States

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.