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BREAKING: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project (ACP) Has Been Cancelled!

Duane Nichols — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 07:07:53 +0000

Dominion cancels Atlantic Coast Pipeline, sells natural gas transmission business

ACP pipeline right of way trees cut at highly sensitive location

From an Article by Michael Martz, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 5, 2020

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

US Supreme Court Consolidates Two Cases for Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)

Diana Gooding — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 12:33:38 +0000

ACP path thru mountains to cross Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.

U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Atlantic Coast Pipeline case

From an Article by Sarah Vogelsong, Mercury News, October 4, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will review a decision by a federal court of appeals that threw up a major barrier to construction of a 600-mile natural gas pipeline being developed by Dominion Energy.

The order by the court consolidates two cases brought by environmental groups against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the U.S. Forest Service. No date has been set for oral hearings.

The cases had been appealed to the nation’s highest court after the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals revoked a permit previously granted by the U.S. Forest Service to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline allowing it to cross the Appalachian Trail.

In a lengthy December 2018 ruling that quoted Dr. Seuss, the 4th Circuit declared that “the Forest Service abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources.”

That finding, said the court, “is particularly informed by the Forest Service’s serious environmental concerns that were suddenly, and mysteriously, assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines.”

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the development of which is being led by Dominion Energy in partnership with Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas and Southern Company Gas, disputed the appeals courts’ conclusion in asking the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit decision.

The 4th Circuit, ACP claimed, “ignores key provisions in several statutes, contradicts the longstanding views of every agency involved, and converts a special rule about National Park Service lands into an impregnable barrier dividing energy sources west of the (Appalachian) Trail from consumers east of the Trail.”

Furthermore, the pipeline company complained that the ruling “will stymie this and other needed efforts to serve the Eastern seaboard’s growing energy needs.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has argued the environmentalists’ case in court, has disputed the contention that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is necessary to meet energy demands.

“One issue regulators and the public and decision makers shouldn’t take their eye off is we still don’t have a clear answer on whether the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a public necessity,” said SELC attorney Greg Buppert.

A statement by Dominion Energy quoted by WBOY called the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case “a very encouraging sign.” (Dominion officials have said in the past that the company has a policy against speaking with the Mercury.)

“More than 50 other pipelines cross underneath the Appalachian Trail without disturbing its public use. The public interest requires a clear process for the issuance and renewal of permits for such pipelines, and other essential infrastructure. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline should be no different,” the statement read.

Buppert, however, disputed that the court’s decision to review the 4th Circuit ruling was a victory for the pipeline.

“The fact that the court is taking this case up doesn’t mean Dominion wins,” he said. “This issue is not resolved, and it won’t be resolved until the Supreme Court decides this question.”

Will the US Court of Appeals Halt Construction on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline?

Duane Nichols — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 09:05:27 +0000

Time Out to protect our environment

Federal Court asked to halt ACP construction activity

From Lew Freeman, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, July 5, 2018

A motion was filed late today with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, asking that construction activity on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) be halted until the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) complies with the particulars of the Court’s May 15 order vacating the FWS’s Incidental Take Statement for the ACP. The motion was filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and Virginia Wildlife Committee.

The 4th Circuit’s Order had stated:

” . . . we conclude, for reasons to be more fully explained in a forthcoming opinion, that the limits set by the agency are so indeterminate that they undermine the Incidental Take Statement’s enforcement and monitoring function under the Endangered Species Act. Accordingly, we VACATE the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Incidental Take Statement.”

While it has been over 7 weeks since the Order was issued, the 4th Circuit has yet to issue an opinion explaining the reasons for its decision and the actions that FWS should take.

Today’s SELC motion argues that notwithstanding the May 15 4th Circuit Order, ACP “is racing ahead with construction, including
within habitat of endangered species. An injunction is necessary to stop the potential take of species and to prevent foreclosure of reasonable and prudent alternatives that FWS may require to satisfy its ESA obligations, following the Court’s opinion. An injunction will ensure FWS can appropriately respond to this Court’s instructions and will prevent unnecessary, imminent, and irreparable harm.”

SELC, on behalf of the same three clients, on June 11 requested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoke its May 11 authorization for construction of the ACP in West Virginia given the 4th Circuit Order. To date, FERC has not responded to that request, and in fact has authorized on two separate occasions further work and construction waivers for the ACP.

A copy of the SELC motion filed today with the 4th Circuit is available at: https://www.abralliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Motion-for-Injunction-4th-Circuit-on-ESA-issue-7-5-18.pdf

>>>>> Lewis Freeman, Executive Director, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, lewfreeman@gmail.com

ACP Pipe Installation Sidelined to Protect Endangered Species in WV & VA

Duane Nichols — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:56:52 +0000

Explosive gases at very high pressure

Atlantic Coast Pipeline to Sideline 100 Miles of Construction in Virginia and West Virginia

From an Article by Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch.com, May 23, 2018

Builders of the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline told federal authorities they will delay construction along 21 miles in West Virginia and 79 miles in Virginia until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issues a revised “incidental take statement,” which limits the number of threatened or endangered species that might be accidentally killed or harmed during development activities.

Lead developer Dominion Energy filed documents Tuesday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in response to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last week. The court sided with environmental groups and their lawyers that the FWS’ initial review was not clear enough in the case of the $6.5 billion pipeline and vacated one of its key permits.

Environmentalists worry that the 600-mile fracked gas pipeline from West Virginia to North Carolina could pose risks for a rare bumblebee, the Roanoke logperch and Indiana and Northern long-eared bats and other threatened or endangered species. It will also cut through through forests, pristine mountains and involve the blasting, excavation and removal of mountaintops along 38 miles of Appalachian ridgelines as part of the construction.

In its letter to FERC, Dominion said construction will be avoided along those 100 miles in West Virginia and Virginia where protected species might be put at risk until the revised incidental take statement is issued.

Dominion did not disclose the specific areas it will avoid “because this information contains the locations of sensitive species which are customarily treated as privileged and confidential,” the company stated in a news release quoted by The Exponent Telegram.

The Southern Environmental Law Center—which argued on behalf of the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Virginia Wilderness Committee at the appeals court—believes all pipeline construction cannot continue without a valid permit.

“According to the Federal Regulatory Commission’s own certificate, FERC’s previous notices issued to Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers to proceed are no longer valid,” said senior attorney D.J. Gerken in a statement. “If what FERC is now saying is that developers can proceed to construction without the Fish and Wildlife Service’s valid permit, it is undermining its own requirements.”

SELC recently sent a letter to FERC outlining the impact of an invalid permit on pipeline construction and requests it fulfill its obligations to stop further construction until its resolved.

However, backers of the pipeline insist that construction will move forward as planned. “We will continue to move forward with construction as scheduled and fully comply as required with all permits and agency requirements. We remain committed to taking all reasonable measures to protect the environment and the species while ensuring progress on a project that is essential to the economic and environmental well-being of the region,” Dominion stated.

As The Exponent Telegram noted, Dominion contends that the appellate court’s May 15 ruling only impacts construction in areas where at-risk species and their habitats may be present. Furthermore, the company believes the incidental take statement invalidated by the court does not impact the pipeline route or other required permits.

“It simply removes the shield that protects against an otherwise unlawful take, and for that reason, we will avoid any activities in any areas identified by (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) that would be likely to adversely affect any of the listed species,” Dominion said in the news release.

FERC will determine the next steps once the Atlantic Coast Pipeline documents are officially entered into the record, commission spokesperson Tamara Young-Allen told The Exponent Telegram.

The Southern Environmental Law Center’s requests to halt all construction on the pipeline “are under consideration,” Young-Allen said.

In the meantime, Young-Allen noted, all previously issued notices to proceed are in effect, with the exception of the areas with threatened or endangered species habitat that the pipeline builders agreed to avoid.

Nonetheless, grassroots resistance against pipelines is growing. Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline launched the ninth aerial blockade this week to stop progress of the proposed natural gas pipeline running from northwest West Virginia to southern Virginia.