Protesting pipeline near nuns' chapel

From an Article by Scott Blanchard, York Daily Record, October 16, 2017

About 26 people who were protesting the construction of a planned natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County were arrested on Monday.

A group of people protested construction Monday at the site of a planned natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County, on land owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a religious community.

The pipeline — Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Company is building a 186-mile pipeline to carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale area of northeastern Pennsylvania to the Transcontinental Pipeline, which covers the East Coast.

The nuns — A Roman Catholic order of nuns, the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, sued to try to stop pipeline construction, telling a federal court that the project will excessively damage God’s creation, the Earth. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Schmehl in Reading ruled in late September that his court lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the suit. The nuns, who had allowed supporters to build a chapel in the pipeline’s path, said publicly they would appeal the court case.

The sisters of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ church allowed opponents of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline to construct a simple chapel in its path.

The protest — The group Lancaster Against Pipelines said in a news release that they planned a peaceful protest at the construction site for early Monday morning. About 70 people showed up and, at around midday, they surrounded an excavator and began singing songs.

Police soon arrived and gave the protesters until 12:45 p.m. to leave. Just after the deadline passed, one protester told others that they’d have to decide whether to stay or risk arrest.

Just before 1 p.m., police began arresting protesters one by one. About 26 stood in front of the equipment, refusing to leave, and were then taken away.

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Photos: Protesting construction of pipeline near nuns’ chapel — A group has gathered to protest the construction of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline at the site of a chapel that was built near its path in Columbia, Lancaster County. Sean Heisey, York Daily Record

"We Cherish. We Will Defend Water & Land"

Pipeline opponents confront survey crews on Bent Mountain

From the Report by Joe Dashiell, WDBJ News 7, May 31, 2017

ROANOKE CO., Va. (WDBJ7) When members of a Mountain Valley Pipeline survey team pulled over on the side of Route 221, pipeline opponents weren’t far behind.

They attempted to block the path onto neighboring property with a banner that read, “We Cherish. We Will Defend Water Land.”

Eddie Conner lives on his family’s property nearby. “I’m just a small portion of everyone in the community that’s losing time from work and their vacation and from their family and their normal lives over what I’m calling legalized thievery,” Conner said Wednesday afternoon. “They’re doing what they want with your land, and you can’t do anything about it.”

Later, the survey team moved a short distance to the intersection with Montuori Way. There they set up some of their equipment, and went to work, but opponents questioned whether they had provided proper notice.

Roanoke County Police arrived, checked IDs and spoke with both sides. The surveyors eventually packed up and left, though it wasn’t clear if they had completed their work, or were putting it off for another day.

Kathy E. Chandler is a Bent Mountain homeowner. “It’s troubling, because I’ve never experienced the need to defend my borders as an every day citizen,” Chandler said. “All of my coming and going on a notice day becomes a situation of alert and defense.”

A recent ruling in Roanoke circuit court upheld MVP’s right to survey other land on Bent Mountain. And a spokesperson says the company is confident it has the legal authority to access the properties, and plans to continue the work in accordance with Virginia law.

Opponents are challenging that authority in cases headed for the Virginia Supreme Court.

Survey teams are expected on Bent Mountain Thursday. Pipeline opponents plan to be there as well.

Following is the complete statement from Mountain Valley Pipeline:

“The importance of conducting these survey activities cannot be emphasized enough, as this work is designed to evaluate and help determine a route with the least overall impact on the environment, landowners, and cultural and historic resources. MVP remains committed to working with each and every landowner along the proposed route to address their individual concerns and minimize the impact of this project on their property and daily lives. This environmental survey work is one of the most important ways we can do that. The MVP project team remains confident that we have the legal authority under Virginia statute to access property for survey activity and expects to continue this important survey work in accordance with the strict requirements of Virginia law. ”

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Virginia Supreme Court temporarily halts pipeline surveying of 3 Bent Mountain properties

From an Article by Duncan Adams, Roanoke Times, June 9, 2017

On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt of work by surveyors for the Mountain Valley Pipeline on three Bent Mountain properties owned by the Terry family.

The court granted a stay sought by Justin Lugar, an attorney representing the family, of a temporary injunction awarded May 26 by Circuit Court Judge David Carson that prohibited the family from interfering with efforts to survey their Roanoke County properties for a route for the proposed natural gas pipeline.

Friday’s order stays Carson’s order “pending resolution of the petition for review in this case.” Carson’s order had noted that pipeline surveyors planned to return to the Terry family properties between June 12 and 16.

“The Terrys are pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to maintain the status quo pending its decision on the merits of the injunction,” Lugar said.

On May 8, when surveyors attempted to survey the Terry properties, an adjoining property owner who is also opposed to the pipeline project summoned assistance from the Virginia State Police. A trooper asked the surveyors to leave and they complied.

Mountain Valley Pipeline then filed for a temporary injunction that would confirm the company’s right to survey the properties and prohibit the Terrys or others from interfering.

At the heart of this dispute and similar pipeline-related conflicts in recent years is a controversial state law that allows natural gas companies to survey private property without an owner’s consent.

The company must follow the law’s requirements for notifying landowners, via certified mail, about their plans and the anticipated dates of entry of survey crews. The law also sanctions surveying work that is “necessary to satisfy any regulatory requirements and for the selection of the most advantageous location or route.”

As an interstate pipeline, the Mountain Valley project needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before construction can begin. FERC is working on a final environmental impact statement for the project.

Carson ruled May 26 that completing the surveying work was necessary for Mountain Valley to submit a sufficient application to FERC. In addition, he found that the pipeline company would suffer “irreparable harm” if surveying did not proceed and that the Terrys would suffer minimal harm if the work, which he described as “minimally invasive,” moved forward on three tracts owned by the family.

Lugar’s petition seeking the stay alleged that Carson erred when granting the injunction. Among other things, Lugar argued that Carson should not have concluded that the surveying was necessary to satisfy regulatory requirements. He had argued in court on May 19 and in briefs that FERC regulations allow companies to apply for commission approval of a project without completing all route surveys.

In turn, Mountain Valley said the surveys were necessary to design the best route for the pipeline — a route that would, for example, do the least environmental damage and affect fewer historical and cultural resources.

Lugar and other lawyers representing property owners along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the separate but similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline have argued — unsuccessfully, to date — that Virginia’s surveying law is unconstitutional.

He and others contend that the law violates constitutional protections against “takings” without related compensation because pipeline companies harvest valuable information when their surveyors study private properties.

The $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline would lie across some 303 miles from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to another natural gas pipeline in Pittsylvania County. Its route would cross five other Virginia counties: Giles, Montgomery, Craig, Roanoke and Franklin. The buried 42-inch diameter pipeline would transport natural gas at high pressure.

The project has received support in some circles but stirred opposition in others.

Cox said last month that more than 97 percent of centerline surveying has been completed for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. FERC has said it will issue the final environmental impact statement for the project on June 23.

Energy & the Environment

Coal, gas drilling bills get hearings as session enters final week

From an Article by Ken Ward, The Charleston Gazette-Mail, April 3, 2017

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Bills to give West Virginia’s coal industry a break on water quality standards and the state’s natural gas drillers help in dealing with unwilling land and mineral owners had public hearings in the House of Delegates this morning as the legislative session entered its final week.

The House Committee on Energy held back-to-back hearings starting at 8 a.m. on a bill to eliminate the requirement that state stream quality measures ensure a diversity of aquatic life and a separate bill that would force unwilling co-owners of natural gas reserves to allow drilling if three-quarters of the owners favor the activity.

Environmental groups and citizens turned out with strong opposition to Senate Bill 687. The Senate-passed “coal bill” started out as a proposal to eliminate almost all state mine safety enforcement, but now does little for safety, while making a significant change in the way the state Department of Environmental Protection would measure stream health.

Among those who spoke against the legislation was Wendy Radcliff, a Charleston attorney who was fired from her former position as the DEP’s environmental advocate by agency Secretary Austin Caperton. Radcliff said that the bill won’t make streams cleaner, just eliminate part of the DEP’s process to accurately analyze the level of pollution downstream from mining operations. “Ignoring pollution is not the solution,” Radcliff said. “The problem is still there, whether we remove the measuring tool or not.”

Jason Bostic, a vice president for the West Virginia Coal Association, said the industry asked for the change to help it respond to lawsuits and court rulings about how water quality rules are established and enforced in the state. “These changes are there only to clarify a loophole to allow an unelected federal judge to substitute his judgment for the people in this body about what West Virginia’s narrative water quality standards should be,” Bostic said.

Energy Committee members also heard testimony on Senate Bill 576, the legislation that natural gas drillers say is needed to help them better take advantage of the huge natural gas supplies in the state’s Marcellus Shale region.

The first to speak in favor of the bill was Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher, whose boss, Gov. Jim Justice, has supported some form of the legislation. “These gas reserves are the way we’re going to work our way out of the morass we are in,” Thrasher said. “Make no mistake about it.”

Opponents, though, said the bill unfairly takes the mineral property of West Virginians without ensuring much-needed protection for surface landowners and modernizing — increasing — the royalty payments contained in decades-old leases to match the economics of the modern industry.

“This bill forces a pooling provision into everyone’s leases without the benefit of any negotiation,” said Jason Webb, a lobbyist for the West Virginia Land and Mineral Owners Association. “It’s difficult for us to understand why the government wants to force that on anyone.”

House Energy Chairman William Anderson, R-Wood, said he expected there to be proposed changes for both bills when the committee puts them on the agenda for consideration Tuesday or Wednesday. The legislative session ends at midnight Saturday. If the House changes either bill, the changes would have to go back to the Senate for its consideration.

– See more at:  http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20170403/coal-gas-drilling-bills-get-hearings-as-session-enters-final-week#sthash.jXo7g8rh.dpuf

From Kathleen Tyner,  West Virginia Rivers Coalition, December 19, 2016

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. You can comment on the DEIS through December 22, 2016.

The DEIS is supposed to be an in-depth analysis of all the environmental impacts that could occur as a result of the project. It should include an assessment of all the concerns raised about the project during the scoping period.You can view maps of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline route here and view the DEIS here. 

We found the DEIS lacking of critical information. Without this information FERC is unable to evaluate the project’s true impact. Please review these suggested comments and follow the directions below to submit comments on the MVP DEIS. If you have any questions about this process, please call 304-637-7201 and we’ll be happy to help. 

1. To submit comments online, you will need to submit an e-comment request.
2. Go to the email account you submitted your e-comment request under and click the link in the FERC email.
3. Half way down the e-comment page, under the yellow search tab, you will need to look-up the MVP DEIS docket. In the “Enter Docket Number” search box enter, CP16-10, click search.
4. Multiple options will be returned, the first option should say “Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC” under the applicant/filer column, click the blue cross on the right.
5. Enter your comments in the box under your name and city. See WV Rivers’ suggested comments.
6. Once finished with your comments, click “Send Comments.”

You can also submit comments by mail. A paper copy of your comments, referencing docket number CP16-10-0000, can be mailed to:

Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426

For more information contact West Virginia Rivers Coalition
www.wvrivers.org - (304) 637-7201

High pressure pipelines are very dangerous

Large Diameter Long Distance Gas Pipelines are a Boondoggle by the Gas Companies

Commentary by S. Tom Bond, Jane Lew, Lewis County, WV

Much about long distance pipelines is fraudulent, as you will see upon examination.

Pipelines are an ideal investment for the big banks. The banks are so large it is expensive to break down the vast sums they have to loan. Long, large diameter pipelines are an ideal way for them to put out big dollar loans. On the other hand, things like housing, retail outlets, consumer spending insert another company between the big banks and the eventual spenders of the money, which reduces the rate of return the bank can get.

Pipeline builders are controlled by the government in several ways. The conditions under which land is acquired is regulated by national and state governments, such things as: (1) can the company come on the private property they wish to take for right of way for surveys; (2) what restrictions will apply because of environment, health, historical, scenic, and other values; (3) what precautions must be taken because of slope, karst, soil conditions; (4) compensation (fair market value?); and a host of other conditions. Government control means these things can be manipulated by money and influence, unlike common law.

So big chunks of money go to the pipeline builders. These are derivative companies, set up so if they fail to build the line, it doesn’t injure the parent gas transporting company significantly. The gas transporting company, in turn, is diversified, so that the risk is minimized on its small investment in setting up the builder. They are connected to the gas company that distributes gas to the customer, but independent. The distributor is set up, by law, on a cost plus basis. Extra cost is passed on to the consumer, who ultimately pays the bill.

These big pipelines, dozens of which are in the planning or construction phase, don’t need to be driven for a need for gas, they are driven by the lead-pipe logic of sure thing investment. Extra gas, putting people to work, increase in business activity aren’t the inducement.

You couldn’t imagine a more efficient way to get a little bit of money from each and every one of us folded into a big chunk to be passed back to the big banks, could you? They don’t teach this sort of thing in high school civics classes, nor in college. You have to figure it out for yourself or get it from a friend.

Now, what fraud is used in justifying the rash of long distance transportation gas pipelines? In calculating need, projections of increasing use of natural gas do not take into account the rising use of solar and wind sure to take place, or the possibility of much needed encouragement of use of more insulation. The cost of solar and wind is decreasing exponentially, in other words, becoming lower more rapidly each year.

Gas will not be cheaper, particularly since it will have to be recovered by the more costly fracking method, and even more expensive if the U. S. follows the foolish course of exporting to Europe and China to counter Russia and Iran, which have, respectively, four and a half times as much as the U. S and three and a third times as much. Qatar has two and a half and Turkmenistan has nearly twice as much, natural gas all of that conventional – no chemicals, no vast amounts of water and much less pollution. Plus all of their gas could be delivered by pipeline, without the loss and cost of liquefaction and re-gasification. One wonders whether even the gas people understand this.

Huge fraud there. Then there is claim that new jobs will be formed. Of course, a few.  But the solar industry uses three times as much labor per kilowatt installed, and it eliminates the dangerous work of gas drilling and heavy equipment operation. Men with solar jobs live at home at night, so no need for “man camps,” and the vice they produce. And no worker exposure to dangerous chemicals. The fact is that natural gas is a very high capital, very low labor, and very dangerous business.

There is fraud involving the effect on the health of neighbors. This is primarily around pumping stations and compressor stations. This is generally ignored in the industry account of economic benefits. They don’t even receive mention. If the subject is brought up, it is denied.

There is fraud about the effect on land values in the neighborhood. The pipeline company typically wants a 75 foot permanent right of way, plus an additional 50 foot temporary right of way. That permanent right of way is constantly theirs forever – not until the use that prompts its acquisition is complete, but forever. It includes the first pipeline, with access to repair it and remove it, which pipeline is size specified plus the contract allows additional pipelines later, plus a road or roads over it, and in some cases, even electrical lines. If you can farm around that, OK, go ahead. But count on trespasser access to the rest of your property, a four-wheeler road for young guys that want a challenge, gates left open (everybody in the community will soon have a key) and illicit hunters if you do not want to play policeman. Plus you get to pay the taxes on it! What an honor!

The temporary right of way will be commandeered each time a new pipeline is put in. If your crop is grass, you will get some (maybe). Land for planted crops will be covered with subsoil. Forest land is worthless. Once cleared it takes 70 years for a merchantable crop to develop under ideal circumstances.

Guess who decides “current worth?” They don’t even have to go through a local firm like the Corps of Engineers does for their takings. The pipeline company, the ephemeral pipeline company, set up as discussed above, has its own captive “experts” to evaluate your property. If you don’t agree you can argue on your own behalf, or hire a lawyer, whose fee must come out of any increase he may or may not be able to get. (Almost as good as the Chinese communist system for getting land , isn’t it?)

Then there is the safety angle. The blast radius for a hole through the pipe, due to breaking or natural causes is one mile. Everything within a mile might be incinerated. In the kind of landscape we have in West Virginia, many people could be caught in some areas with no exit. Those living close would be fried instantly, while those a little further away would take a little longer. Property, including livestock would be lost.

That’s a long time in the future, they claim. Are these areas going to depopulate? Likely, the other way. Never happens to new lines! Some of these new lines will go through terrain that is very steep. Judging from the MVP that is South of where I live, these steep, remote lines will not receive good, prompt cover and reclamation. Many will be left with voids around the pipe because they had to be built through essentially solid rock and only chunky rock was available to use for backfill. Karst and very high altitude locations crossing the mountains to the East also cause percolation of water. In places the coating of the pipe will be scratched.

Neither the pipeline building companies, nor their parent gas transportation companies assume responsibility for community safety. That is wholly the responsibility of the County Government, in West Virginia the County Commission. No one has to tell them. These are older folk, well known and respected, quite competent to rule over local problems, but not very inclined to research, deep thinking or very imaginative. What could happen is totally out of their reach. When the nice men in suits come and talk to them, they resemble the gentry of the county and every word is taken in with total acceptance. Of course the pipeline people don’t alarm them with stories about danger and their responsibilities.

The last seven paragraphs describe a significant burden on landowners and the community. You think anyone who understands what will be obvious after the pipelines are put in will pay the same price as for the unhindered properties? Yet propaganda claim after propaganda claim says they would. In at least one instance the writer claims the pipeline will increase the value of the property! Huge fraud.

The recreational value of the community is decreased. Who wants to go on a drive or camp in a landscape where there are lines of scrub through the forest or water diversions and access roads across the land. Who wants to buy a retirement home where the land is burdened with four-wheeler roads that cross properties nearby. With the possibility of huge accidents? Would you?

One of the biggest frauds of all is ignoring the fact that the huge pipelines encourage the foolishness of, in effect, “exporting coals to Newcastle,” to use an old expression, by exporting an increasingly rare resource when you look at the long future ahead of us. I had a professor at WVU, Charles Lazzel, who once said in Organic Chemistry class, “What a shame to burn coal – you can make so many fine things out of it.” This applies to gas as well – you can make so many finer things out of it. To which we add “if it had not been burned.”

Pipeline building companies in their accounting also fail to recognize one of the most serious world problems, global warming. Pipelines encourage fracking, which will be an inceasingly major source of carbon dioxide as coal mines are shut down, and coal burning declines. How much better it would be to let energy cost rise and encourage substitution of renewables and insulation! The damage done by carbon dioxide is being quantified and the result is called the social cost of carbon, abbreviated SCC.

One non-industry article has appeared which carefully counts the cost (but not the associated SCC resulting from the fracking). The research covers the economic cost of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in four counties in Virginia, Highland, Augusta, Nelson, and Buckingham. The people of these counties, seeing the ridiculous claims of the companies trying to put the pipeline in, got together and hired Key-Log Economics to do careful research on property value, ecosystem services, and economic development. The work was done by Spencer Philips, Ph. D. and coworkers, published in February and updated in May 2016.

It is called Economic Costs of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. A second follow-up research article is the Southern Environmental Law Center funded work done by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, called Atlantic Coast Pipeline Benefits Review.

It is an interesting exercise to search the internet for the title, since it is a topic, as well as a title. When you look at the things that have been put on paper (as my mother used to say) “consider the source” (who wants the APC). It gives an increased meaning to the old saying, “figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.” A balance sheet without debit side is not a “balance.” Remember, “power concedes nothing without a fight.”

>>> S. Tom Bond maintains a cattle farm at Jane Lew in Lewis County.  He is a former chemistry teacher and is active with the Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance and other conservation and watershed groups.

Severe Impacts to Occur All Along the Pipeline

Do the ACP surveyors represent a private company or a regulated utility?

From an Article by the Staff, NBC News 29 (WVIR), September 18, 2016

Augusta County, VA — There’s a big break for those against the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Virginia Supreme Court will now hear an appeal after an Augusta County Circuit Court judge ruled surveyors could come on one Nelson County woman’s private property.

An attorney for the property owner says he’s grateful the state Supreme Court will take up the issue and hopefully clarify private property rights the Virginia Constitution.

The appeal, which was granted Friday, September 16th, found two faults in the original trial rulings.

Court documents indicate Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC cannot use a section of state code on natural gas companies to enter private property. The LLC is the group building the pipeline.

Lawyers say that the ACP-LLC is not registered with the state corporation and should not be considered a public service company.

Court documents also say the original rulings violate the state constitution and infringe the fundamental right to private property.

The property owner’s lawyer says any decision will only affect those who have not given permission for pipeline surveyors to come on their land.

Attorneys will have to argue their cases in front of all seven justices at the Virginia Supreme Court. That will likely happen in January.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

LAND DISTURBANCES -- Pipeline Right of Way plus Access Roads

Some 14 Pipeline Projects in 24 States … Which Will Be the Next Battleground

From an Article by Dan Zukowski, EcoWatch.com, September 22, 2016

Encouraged by the Obama administration’s shelving of the Keystone XL pipeline and its revoked authorization for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on federal lands, activists are now eyeing new battles.

At least 14 new pipeline projects are in the works, carrying both oil and natural gas. These projects involve at least 24 states, adding to the existing 2.5 million miles of energy pipelines in the U.S.—the largest network in the world. Driven by low natural gas prices and the fracking boom, these new pipelines will cross major urban areas as well as important watersheds.

Supporters say that they supply energy needs for many communities, provide jobs and are safer for oil transport than truck or rail. Take the case of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline expansion. Running from Louisiana through the Southeast all the way to Long Island, New York, the project is an expansion of an existing Transco pipeline operated by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Companies.

Counting branch pipelines, Transco is a 10,200-mile system that can move 10.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The company transports 10 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S., but it was built to move gas mainly from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast.

Now, the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania provides lower-cost gas and the Atlantic Sunrise will be reconfigured to move product south. In 2014, 1,370 wells were being drilled in the Marcellus, with high-yield wells using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The Marcellus provides more than 36 percent of the shale gas produced in the U.S.

Williams Companies said that construction of the pipeline expansion in Pennsylvania will create 2,300 jobs for one year, with 15 permanent full-time jobs after that for operation and maintenance. Citing U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics, the company’s website states that “pipelines are the safest method for transporting energy.” They add that their safety practices include 24/7 monitoring of the pipeline.

But critics aren’t convinced. While pipelines are, statistically, far safer than trucks or trains, “When a pipeline does fail, the consequences can be catastrophic,” ProPublica said.

On a quiet Thursday evening, six years ago this month, a massive blast shattered the peace of San Bruno, California, as a tower of fire erupted from a natural gas pipeline under the city of 41,000. Whipped by fierce winds, the blaze killed eight people and severely injured 58. It destroyed or damaged 55 homes.

Last month, a federal jury convicted Pacific Gas & Electric of obstructing the investigation and violating pipeline safety laws both before and after the explosion.

From October 2015 to February 2016, the largest methane leak in U.S. history spewed out of a natural gas storage field near Porter Ranch, California, releasing 94,500 tons of the powerful greenhouse gas. The leak sickened thousands and forced the temporary relocation of more than 5,000 households. Methane absorbs heat more effectively than carbon dioxide.

“In the first two decades after its release, methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Southern California agreed to pay $4 million to settle criminal charges but still faces civil actions. In March, the Los Angeles Times found leaks in 229 natural gas storage fields in California, and said that they “are often left untreated for months.”

Oil-carrying pipelines may leak or rupture, creating dangerous spills. In 2010, an Enbridge Energy pipeline released 840,000 gallons of heavy tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Oil flowed for 17 hours before the pipeline was shut down. Cleanup costs reached $1.2 billion, making this the most expensive on-shore oil spill in U.S. history.

The company agreed to a $177 million settlement, which also included violations relating to a 269,000 gallon pipeline spill in Illinois. And in 2011, an ExxonMobil pipeline spilled 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, agreeing Wednesday to a $12 million settlement.

Enbridge, the company responsible for the Kalamazoo River spill, is now seeking to pump 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin by expanding its Alberta Clipper pipeline. This facility crosses the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, along with tribal lands including Fond du Lac, Red Lake Nation and Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Enbridge is also behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which threatens the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia.

While the Obama administration has put a stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline, it has permitted two pipelines linking the Permian Basin in Texas with customers in Mexico. Despite the administration’s legacy of conservation actions and its role in the historic Paris climate agreement, fossil fuel development continues unabated. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2016 projects a 55 percent increase in natural gas production by 2040.

“The currently planned gas production expansion in Appalachia would make meeting U.S. climate goals impossible,” states a July 2016 report published by Oil Change International.

Which brings us back to the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. The state is enjoying a boom to the tune of more than $10 billion in pipeline projects. Production from the Marcellus gas wells is outpacing the capacity to bring it to market. That’s why the Atlantic Sunrise project is seen as key to the state’s economy. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has voiced concerns about the pipeline.

In a June 27 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), EPA Associate Director Jeffrey D. Lapp criticized FERC’s draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). “[The] EPA is concerned that the selection of the current preferred alternative may result in significant adverse environmental impacts,” the letter states.

The EPA also voiced concerns about “terrestrial resources, including interior forests, aquatic resources, rare, threatened and endangered species.”

The rush to build pipelines may soon result in overcapacity. Referring to two competing projects in the Mid-Atlantic, the Atlantic Coast pipeline and the Mountain Valley pipeline, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a report published last week that they would be unnecessary if the Atlantic Sunrise project is completed and a proposed upgrade to an existing Columbia Gas pipeline goes through.

Hundreds of activists, joined by high-profile allies including Susan Sarandon, Shailene Woodley and Josh Fox, rallied outside the U.S. District Court in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on August 24.

Against this background, activists look askance at every new pipeline proposal. Protests have taken place against the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in both Pennsylvania and at FERC’s office in Washington. The Sierra Club in Pennsylvania is working to stop the pipeline. Elsewhere in the state, both the EPA and National Park Service have condemned FERC’s DEIS for the Penn East pipeline, which would connect the Marcellus Shale to markets in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The proposed Pilgrim Pipeline is under attack in New York and New Jersey by residents and numerous conservation groups. More than 60 towns and cities in the two states have passed resolutions opposing the pipeline, which would carry oil across major groundwater aquifers and two aqueducts feeding New York City’s public water supply.

Another Williams Company project, the Constitution Pipeline in Pennsylvania and New York, used eminent domain to force its way across private property, cutting down hundreds of trees to make way for the pipeline. The company had the approval of FERC to proceed.

“I think the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley [pipelines] are cued up to be the next hot spots. They have river crossings, and there are such historic grounds of American history—literally land given by George Washington to families during the wars,” Bold Alliance President Jane Fleming Kleeb said. As pipeline builders take private property, desecrate sacred Native American land and attack protesters with dogs and mace, angry citizens prepare for future battles.

See: www.FrackCheckWV.net   See also:  www.Marcellus-wv.com