Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Mountain Valley Pipeline To Start Moving Gas

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by

Steve Haner
in , , ,

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the full operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Gas from West Virginia will now flow. Environmentalist heads are exploding, but this is the best news for Western Virginia’s economy in a long while, and an encouraging sign of hope for energy sanity.

A decade ago both this 303-mile, 42-inch line and the long-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline project were announced, and more than one prognosticator doubted both would be built. But it is important to remember both started with bipartisan support, in an era before Democrats sold their souls to foreign wind and solar manufacturers.

The regulatory and legal battle has been impressive, with the result being mainly delay and higher cost. But they didn’t stop the project in the end. The added costs will end up as part of any future customer bills, but the underlying cost of gas itself remains low and very competitive against any and all energy alternatives.

As the attached map shows, there are taps for the local gas distribution networks in the Roanoke Valley and in nearby Franklin County, which should be magnets for future industry. The pipeline owners claim the gas is fully subscribed — two billion cubic feet a day of heat, light, and economic value. 

Now on to the project needed to shore up natural gas supply into the Hampton Roads region, which would have been served by the failed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.   —  SDH

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23 responses to “Mountain Valley Pipeline To Start Moving Gas”

  1. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    Let's make some Hydrogen – It's a gas! Seriously NC is betting big on H2, I do not know why we Virginia don't at least have our foot in the door now. The idea would be for trucks on I81 and perhaps power gen etc. In my day job I used to title some Excel sheets/functions: ItsAGas.xls …funny right?

  2. kls Avatar
    kls

    "The regulatory and legal battle has been impressive"…you forgot to list the environista's sabotage, blockading, and illegal tampering with the equipment along the line's route — mostly from outside professional agitators.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Sadly they might not be done. These are people who throw paint and soup on artwork in the Louvre and D'Orsay or documents in the U.S. Archive….

      1. Irene Leech Avatar
        Irene Leech

        A few of them may eventually join those groups, but most are regular people just like you and me. Our neighbors. Don't believe everything without verifying.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          oh it sounds better to lump them all into vandals and stuff.

          Yes, many of them are property owners whose property was taken by a private entity, not a govt or VDOT.

          And surprised they got a go ahead… sounded like dozens of erosion problems and pipeline leaks just days ago,

  3. Rosie Avatar
    Rosie

    To be fair, the oil and gas industries weren’t buying any more souls, so democrats had to shop around.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      🙂

    2. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
      energyNOW_Fan

      Ultimately I am thinking MVP is or was originally a utility project with ConEd as partner. Which is sort of explains why Dominion, not to be outdone, wanted to do ACP. ACP was I believe designed to be a huge monster of a pipeline, probably D bit off more than it could chew, size wise…same as Wind Turbine size. Utilities like to think humongous all the time.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        I guess I thought if we can build powerplants closer to where the coal is, we could do similar for gas. Why pipe it all that way if you could just put a powerplant nearer to the source?

        I'm thinking the pipeline is for other purposes including exporting it which means the price will get set by the highest bidders in the world market.

  4. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Cool flag! Where can I get one?

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      I sent my last one to Mrs. Alito. 😉

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    The pipeline will be beneficial to maintaining a reliable grid, I'm okay with that.

    but here's a lefty Dem whose head is not exploding and also working towards an even less polluting grid that if it happens could strongly compete against natural gas producers and do to natural gas what EVs are doing to gasoline.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa6d87e64461fa37cafb2c5055ad2109f37580e32ba625c68efd59e24a12f480.png
    Others are working on hydrogen and a half dozen other and chances are pretty good that over the longer run all this culture war
    back and forth will go away with the deniers/skeptics saying that all along they were in favor of non-polluting fuels!

    And here's another newsflash:

    "We found that electric vehicles could displace oil demand of 2 million barrels a day as early as 2023. That would create a glut of oil equivalent to what triggered the 2014 oil crisis."

    https://www.iene.eu/heres-how-electric-cars-will-cause-the-next-oil-crisis-p3240.html#:~:text=We%20found%20that%20electric%20vehicles,it's%20a%20very%20aggressive%20forecast.

  6. Irene Leech Avatar
    Irene Leech

    A key phrase is "the pipeline owners claim." We can't tell you how many times they have s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d the truth about this pipeline! Their FERC filings are often missing critical information – like a pipe blew up during water testing but FERC and PHMSA trust the company and ignore our pleas for safety.

    The last segment of the line was completed from the top of Poor Mountain in Roanoke County – in easy sight from my house. They were still blasting rock about 2 weeks ago. The terrain is almost straight up and down. Typically 5-7 bulldozers were linked and positioned with blades in the ground, with one working machine at the bottom. That's what it took to keep the equipment from falling off the mountain!

    We watched from afar as they welded the last pieces. You can find the photos and video on Facebook. And as they sifted – yep sifted – dirt on top of the pipe. So far it has not been packed, the trench is far from filled, never mind seeded and finished. We have no faith that the pipe will stay in place. Cathode protection has not been activated. Key steps have not been taken to complete the pipeline! It will be surprising if everything is done a year from now!

    Neighbors are honestly frightened. We saw the blown pipe. We understand over 100 problems were found during testing. The community has been provided no documentation of repairs and no information about why the pipe failed – it appeared to be a manufacturing problem. This piece of pipe was in the ground about 18 months. Could other places be weak? Fast take eminent domain was demanded because pipes couldn't be out for more than 6 months. We also fear that the coatings were not adequately repaired after sitting uncovered in the sun for years.

    The decision maker in DC has not been here and has not seen the situation. They trust the company. The process allows the company to select the inspectors. All we can do is post things to the FERC docket – and we have – but we have no evidence they've ever been read. We know they've not been addressed.

    PHMSA, the agency now responsible for safety since FERC has approved the line being in service, does not have sufficient staff to oversee the miles and miles of pipe that exist. It hasn't for decades. Yet we've been building new pipelines as fast as possible. When we met with PHMSA about our safety concerns last fall they told us they have to triage – they don't have enough staff to cover everything so they have to decide what is most serious at the time. The industry has a proven strategy of slowing down PHMSA's actions over and over, keeping regulations from being put into effect after Congress passes law, and hiding information from the public at every turn.

    Say what you want, but none of the people forced to live in the blast zone of this infrastructure – whose lives and property is at risk for no personal benefit – have any reason to expect safety and fair treatment. This gas is going somewhere else. IF a small amount is used in Roanoke or Franklin County, it will only be a minuscule of the gas that is expected to flow through 42 inch pipes that an adult can crawl through. We are sacrificial – not important enough for the government or the company to ensure safety. They conclude society's loss of us would not be sufficient to give us safety.

    We've been fighting for ten long years. We never got a real chance to get safety. Ironically, MVP demanded approval to put the pipeline in service within 24 hours on the 25th anniversary of the pipeline explosion in Bellingham, WA that killed three. We watched on Zoom as PHMSA's leaders told everyone that much had changed since that explosion. However, the process we've seen and experienced gives us no reason to believe them.

    There is no way this infrastructure is ready to go into service safely! We'll be glad to give you a tour and show you what we're living with. Give us a day of your time and we'll show you what the media doesn't and what the company flat out lies about. Then see if you can stand by these words of support for this project.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      When I leave my cousin's house in Blacksburg I sometimes take that rural route back toward VA 311 in Craig County, so I've been through the zone you are talking about. A mess at the time, no question, but in a year or so I suspect it will look like the line that passes near me here in Henrico. A green strip through the trees and if there was no pump station, I'd never know it was there. I know you have lost faith in the good intentions of the company. Weren't you also impacted by the proposed ACP route at another property?

      1. Irene Leech Avatar
        Irene Leech

        Yes I have dealt with 2 pipelines for the last decade. I've learned much I never wanted to know. You'll notice more damage in Montgomery and Roanoke counties. The Montgomery tap is about 4 miles from my house and odds are great that it will become a compression station – exposing us to regular gas releases/pollution.

        I doubt your right of way , which I know has to be wider for us since our pipes have a 43 inch diameter while the ones you reference in Henrico are maybe 10 inches? And our pipes are under significantly more pressure than the ones near you. For us, cut off valves are 20 miles apart and if a break happens, all of the gas has to escape from that huge pipe under that strong pressure. Homes around you could be damaged if a break happens – it would be far less damaging than if it happens to us. And your terrain is pretty flat while our pipes go up, down and around steep mountains. It is hard to reestablish grass – and only grass is allowed – on these rocky slopes. Your pump station is tiny compared with the compressor station.

        Our system for building and using pipelines does not prioritize landowner/ community priorities or safety. Compare a pig path to the beltway to think about the differences between your pipe and mine. I'm pretty sure that if you had as little information and consideration as we continue to experience, you'd be very unhappy.

        I've not just lost confidence in the company. I've realized the things I thought our country stood for are not real. These projects roll over people with absolutely no basic respect for us, our land, or our goals for our property. Law must be changed.

  7. Jim Kibler Avatar
    Jim Kibler

    Thank you Steve for this good news. I have sworn off Bacon's Rebellion for awhile because I can't abide some/much of what is posted here as facts. I appreciate your journalist's approach to what you post.

    Having been involved in the discussions about both MVP and ACP, please discount everything in the comments as 100% Bravo Sierra. Both were conceived to address a large, single, energy-deprived market in Eastern VA and Central/Eastern NC. Both could have been built as designed and operated at a significantly lower cost except for the environmental antifa. And both would have anchored economic development AND lower carbon emissions for the Carolinas and Virginia at a good cost.

    I'll just note that one commenter's assertions about erosion and sediment control for one of the projects might have been better aimed at a large box store in her backyard.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Thanks, Jim. I have long considered Irene a friend and I hope she feels the same. Maybe no more….No question these projects cause major problems for adjoining landowners and when the issue is fair compensation, I might be on their sides. 🙂 But the level of fear is out of bounds. Some of the same SW Virginia leaders who freaked out about this desperately want to build that new interstate 73. Talk about enviro impact and future fatal accidents!

      To the rest of you, I first met Kibler when was a legislative aide to (ahem) one of those traditional Virginia Democrats (still the person I list as one of my favorite legislators ever.)

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Thanks, Jim. I have long considered Irene a friend and I hope she feels the same. Maybe no more….No question these projects cause major problems for adjoining landowners and when the issue is fair compensation, I might be on their sides. 🙂 But the level of fear is out of bounds. Some of the same SW Virginia leaders who freaked out about this desperately want to build that new interstate 73. Talk about enviro impact and future fatal accidents!

      To the rest of you, I first met Kibler when was a legislative aide to (ahem) one of those traditional Virginia Democrats (still the person I list as one of my favorite legislators ever.)

    3. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Thanks, Jim. I have long considered Irene a friend and I hope she feels the same. Maybe no more….No question these projects cause major problems for adjoining landowners and when the issue is fair compensation, I might be on their sides. 🙂 But the level of fear is out of bounds. Some of the same SW Virginia leaders who freaked out about this desperately want to build that new interstate 73. Talk about enviro impact and future fatal accidents!

      To the rest of you, I first met Kibler when was a legislative aide to (ahem) one of those traditional Virginia Democrats (still the person I list as one of my favorite legislators ever.)

    4. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Thanks, Jim. I have long considered Irene a friend and I hope she feels the same. Maybe no more….No question these projects cause major problems for adjoining landowners and when the issue is fair compensation, I might be on their sides. 🙂 But the level of fear is out of bounds. Some of the same SW Virginia leaders who freaked out about this desperately want to build that new interstate 73. Talk about enviro impact and future fatal accidents!

      To the rest of you, I first met Kibler when was a legislative aide to (ahem) one of those traditional Virginia Democrats (still the person I list as one of my favorite legislators ever.)

      1. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
        energyNOW_Fan

        It is difficult siting decisions and probably undoubtedly could be done better. The bigger picture is we need more power lines and gas pipeline infrastructure, and that gets harder and harder. Gas infrastructure of the past assumed we had no natural gas, now with fracking etc, we do have it.

    5. kls Avatar
      kls

      And don't forget the Russian money funneled to local groups fighting the pipeline helping to thwart American energy supremacy.

  8. disqus_VYLI8FviCA Avatar
    disqus_VYLI8FviCA

    Finally! Some good news on the energy front. Natural gas is a critical part of our energy future, clean, reliable, and plentiful. Hopefully more sanity in energy production & transportation in our future.

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