Category Archives: Mountain Valley Pipeline

FERC Won’t Stop the Pipelines, but the States Might

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There are several very big pipelines that are proposed for West Virginia, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Mountaineer Xpress, and others.  There’s a lot of debate over whether these pipelines are good, with most of the lines being drawn over environmental/economic arguments.  Basically, if the environment is more important to you, then you oppose the pipelines and if the economy is more important to you then you support the pipelines.

If you oppose the pipelines, then this article in the Register Herald holds a tasty tidbit for your consumption.

Autumn Crowe with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition said that even if the FERC green lights [the pipeline], if West Virginia fails to issue one of the permits, the project comes to a halt.

That’s something I had not realized until now, and I think a lot of other people hadn’t realized, either.

When I first started researching the pipelines it took about two seconds to discover that they would have the power of federal eminent domain.  In other words, once the FERC gave permission for the project to proceed, any property the pipeline wanted to cross automatically and immediately belonged to them.

I didn’t think there was any way to stop that from happening.

FERC, after all, has only turned down a small handful of projects in its 39 years of existence.  One Atlantic Coast Pipeline official I talked to said only four.

However, if you can show that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection shouldn’t issue one of the permits that the pipeline requires, it seems you can actually stop the process.

As I have become more opposed to the pipeline (not on environmental grounds) this gives me and my clients some hope.

Mountain Valley Pipeline: Close to Homes

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pipeline-pic-2The Roanoke Times has published numerous articles regarding the Mountain Valley Pipeline, both for and against.  Their latest article, by Duncan Evans, digs into the issue of the risk of having a pipeline close to a home, a school, or a building of any sort.

The article features a couple whose home is within 65 feet of the center line of the pipeline.  Can you imagine your house being that close to a 42 inch pipeline?  I can.  I have a client whose home is within 125 feet of the center line of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.  When I walked from the house out to the pipeline location and turned around it was shocking.  It feels invasive.  It feels dangerous.  Regardless of how well engineered and well built the pipeline is, it would never feel completely comfortable.

That doesn’t take into account how disruptive the construction of the pipeline will be to those folks’ lives.

I’m no opponent of either pipeline project.  I see them as beneficial to West Virginia’s economy.  They’ll provide short term construction jobs and long term natural gas development and production jobs.  They’ll provide some nice tax dollars for a while, and some nice financial windfalls to surface owners.  They’ll provide a cleaner-burning fuel for power plants.

I am an opponent of putting pipelines too close to peoples’ houses.

 

Pipelines: Trespass in West Virginia

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Last year, Judge Irons in Monroe County, WV ruled that the Mountain Valley Pipeline couldn’t survey private property without the permission of the owner.

There must be some owner’s still refusing to allow surveying.  The MVP has gone to the West Virginia Supreme Court to get that ruling overturned.  They probably wouldn’t do that unless they needed it.

I hope that the Supreme Court upholds the ruling.  I think that was the right ruling, properly interpreting West Virginia eminent domain law and trespass law.

I am strongly of the opinion that if a pipeline company wants to use someone’s surface they should work out an agreement with that person.  If they can’t, they should go around them.  It might be more expensive, it might be harder, and it might take longer.  Shoot, it might even make the project impossible.  But a person should be able to control their property.

I know that there are a lot of people who disagree with my position.  The good of the many outweighs the good of the few and such.

If the few choose to sacrifice themselves for the many, that’s fine.  That’s what the few should do.  But the many can’t force the few to sacrifice for them.  Our government is based on the rule of law.  The rule of law is meant to protect the few from the many.

The MVP shouldn’t have the right to force landowners to allow surveyors on their property.

UPDATE: November 17, 2016

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld Judge Irons’ opinion.  You can’t survey on property in West Virginia for FERC projects without the permission of the landowner.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Opposition

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There are several groups that oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.  The Southern Environmental Law Center, the Appalachian Mountain Advocates, and several local county groups.  There are probably some others I don’t know about.  Most of the opposition is focused in Virginia, but there is a little bit of organized opposition in West Virginia.

We’re in favor of the pipeline, as the additional takeaway capacity should increase the amount of development in West Virginia, and increased development here will increase the amount of business we do.

At the same time, it kind of hurts to see long stretches of West Virginia become less wild and wonderful.

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This may not be West Virginia, but it sure looks a lot like what I’ve seen.

 

 

On the other hand, all but a few thousand acres of West Virginia was clear cut by the first few decades of the 20th century, so it wouldn’t be the first time that West Virginia has come back from intense environmental impacts.

That’s all beside the point, though.

These pipelines are going to be in the ground for decades.  Why?  There is enough gas in West Virginia to produce for decades, and in spite of the green movement (nothing against them, I think solar, wind, geothermal, and wave/tide are really cool tech) stating it can provide enough energy, the numbers just don’t support the claims.  It’s going to be decades before green energy is more than just a small proportion of total energy output.  So we’re going to need these pipeline for decades.  There will probably be more in the future, too.

In spite of the claims of the pipeline opposition groups, we do need these pipelines.  They do need to be done safely, and they do need to be done with as little environmental impact as possible, and the landowners’ needs have to be met.  But they do need to be done.

 

Pipelines: FERC isn’t Going to Stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline or the Mountain Valley Pipeline

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Here is a well-reasoned editorial published in the Roanoke Times that makes a really good case for the argument that the FERC isn’t stopping the pipelines.  It points out (perhaps accidentally) that the FERC doesn’t do a good job of making anybody happy, but it does an excellent job of doing what it’s supposed to.  I won’t steal the article’s thunder as it’s not exactly long and is well written.

Pipeline News Article with some Substance

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It’s rare to see a news article about either the Atlantic Coast Pipeline or the Mountain Valley Pipeline to have much other than environmental or company rhetoric.  This one is the exception, including quotes from a Virginia attorney who obviously has some experience with pipeline easements, quotes from some actual easement agreements, a bit of analysis, and some hard numbers.  It was nice to see.  Please pop over to the article and read it.

Three West Virginia Pipelines, or One?

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Gas Pipelines in Columbia

Here’s an article with some food for thought.

The gist of it is, there are three proposed pipelines that run through West Virginia which originate in the same general area and end in the same general area.  It makes a lot of sense to run all three pipelines on the same right of way.  The only thing is, nobody is thinking of doing that.  FERC is the only governmental entity that has the power to approve/disapprove of any of these projects, and it doesn’t appear to be thinking of them together.  The companies have their own interests, and don’t seem to think that working together will benefit them.  So running the pipelines along the same route is just not likely to happen.

While having three separate pipeline routes benefits this firm, as there will be more agreements to negotiate, we also don’t see the point of using up more land than necessary.  This is an idea that has merit, and there should be a conversation about it.

By the way, here’s a link to more information about the Appalachian Connector project.

Additionally, the Mountaineer Xpress Pipeline will be running through roughly the same areas, as will the

EDIT: It was pointed out to me that this article appeared to be unfinished.  I came back to look, and sure enough, it ended as you see it above.  Guess I must have hit Publish when I meant to hit Save Draft.

I suspect that I was thinking of checking the maps to see exactly where the Mountaineer Xpress and the Rover pipelines ran.  Both are farther north and farther west than the Atlantic Coast and the Mountain Valley.

This article was intended to express support for the idea of running both the ACP and the MVP along the same routes up to a certain point.  I still think that would have been a great idea.  It would have required the ACP and MVP to team up.  The FERC actually doesn’t have the authority to look at these pipeline together unless they are presented to the FERC together as one project.  They don’t connect, they’re not the same company or sister organizations, and they pull gas from slightly different areas and deliver gas from slightly different areas.  It’s quite unfortunate that it couldn’t have been done.  It would have been efficient, and I like efficiency.  It would have had a smaller impact on the environment, and even though I don’t consider myself an environmentalist, there’s no sense cutting two swaths through the mountains when one will do.