Pipelines draw support at energy conference in Roanoke, while opponents gather outside

Thursday Apr. 18, 2019

American Electric Power is working to diversify its energy mix with more renewable sources, but it won’t happen as quickly as some critics want, the company’s top official said Thursday…

…Later in the day, opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline — a natural gas transmission line currently under construction in Southwest Virginia — questioned what they called the conference’s ties to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Mountain Valley and other pipeline-related companies sponsoring the conference “have brought suffering, heartbreak, destruction and a diminished future to our region by building the MVP,” Cynthia Munley, an organizer of Preserve Salem, said during a news conference at the nearby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge. Despite problems controlling muddy runoff from construction sites, Mountain Valley has been allowed to move forward by state and federal regulators. The company says it hopes to regain permits suspended in two areas — the Jefferson National Forest and streams and wetlands to be crossed by the 303-mile pipeline — in time to complete construction by late this year.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Munley: Investors should pull plug on MVP

Monday Apr. 15, 2019

Cynthia Munley is an organizer of Preserve Salem.

Export-sized MVP is racing to complete its hopscotch pipeline (skipping waterways and National Forest) to reach global LNG markets but won’t catch up. MVP’s 2019 completion date is CPR to artificially vivify the MVP scam. Who in “tar-nation” will buy MVP’s superlatively-expensive and still hypothetical gas?

West Texas Permian basin natural oil drilling gas is selling at $0 or less. West Virginia shale gas cannot compete. To reach LNG markets, add transport to South Carolina, liquefaction, distribution costs and tariffs. MVP’s LNG gas reaches $11.29-$13.29/dekatherm (compared to $2.50 locally) — non-competitive with European prices — especially as Nordstream-2 comes online. As European supplies increase and Europe seeks to reduce reliance on U.S. gas, MVP’s gas might not have a market anywhere, according to energy expert/CEO Thomas Hadwin. Locally, Roanoke Gas will force MVP gas into the cheaper, older gas supply — needlessly raising regional homeowner/business energy costs.

MVP faces near insurmountable challenges: lost permits, expired carcinogenic, chalking epoxy coatings, legal challenges galore, use of Class 2 pipes instead of required karst-traversing Class 4. If you are going to build a killer pipeline, at least do it right — don’t allow shedding carcinogens into watersheds. Safety demands that MVP replace its pipes!

Read the full Roanoke Times commentary

Cathcart: Mountain Valley Pipeline is a Titanic mistake

Sunday Apr. 14, 2019

Foe of Mountain Valley Pipeline allowed to participate in Roanoke Gas rate increase case

Friday Apr. 12, 2019

The Sierra Club will be allowed to participate in the regulatory review of a proposed rate increase by Roanoke Gas Co., which the club says is connected to the company’s involvement in the contentious Mountain Valley Pipeline. A hearing examiner for the State Corporation Commission on Thursday denied a motion by Roanoke Gas to exclude the environmental organization from participating in the commission’s review of the rate increase, which is scheduled for a June 26 public hearing. In motions filed with the SCC, Roanoke Gas argued that the Sierra Club lacked standing and that its role in the case amounted to “a fishing expedition to gather information which it can use in its campaign to ‘stop and oppose’ the MVP.” But at Thursday’s hearing in Richmond, hearing examiner Alexander Skirpan rejected that assertion — allowing the Sierra Club to move forward in its efforts to obtain information from Roanoke Gas through the discovery process.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Trump signs orders making it harder to block pipelines

Wednesday Apr. 10, 2019

CROSBY, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump’s support for shifting more power to states took a back seat Wednesday to his affinity for oil and gas production as he aimed to make it harder for states to block pipelines and other energy projects due to environmental concerns. At the urging of business groups, Trump signed two executive orders designed to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects. The action came after officials in Washington state and New York used the permitting process to stop new energy projects in recent years. “Too often badly needed energy infrastructure is being held back by special interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies and radical activists,” Trump complained…The Trump administration insisted it was not trying to take power away from the states but, rather, trying to make sure that state actions follow the intent of the Clean Water Act…

…Trump’s orders were not expected to impact the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which began construction through Southwest Virginia last year. Mountain Valley obtained a water quality certification from Virginia in December 2017, shortly before starting work. The State Water Control Board later decided to consider revoking its certification, but reversed course at a meeting in March and let the permit stand. Other setbacks to the project — the loss of a U.S. Forest Service permit for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest and the suspension of an Army Corps of Engineers approval for more than 500 stream and wetland crossings — were imposed by a federal appeals court and would not be affected by Trump’s order.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Yancey, Hammack lead Roanoke Times state press winners

Saturday Apr. 6, 2019

…Hammack’s winning entry included a series of stories on the Mountain Valley Pipeline project as well as pieces on Natural Bridge and a planned Botetourt County wind farm. His work on the pipeline also was recognized with a first-place award in general news writing.

After 212 days, tree-sitters are still standing against the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday Apr. 5, 2019

ELLISTON — The 212th day was a lot like the first, which for foes of the Mountain Valley Pipeline was a good thing. Since Sept. 5, 2018, two people have occupied tree stands in a white pine and a chestnut oak, perched about 50 feet off the ground while supporters camped on the ground sent up food and water in plastic buckets and kept watch over the peaceful protest. On Thursday, they celebrated another day of blocking tree-cutting for the controversial natural gas pipeline, which is destined to run across this wooded slope in eastern Montgomery County on its way from northern West Virginia to Chatham. One thing new to the scene was 69-year-old Scott Ziemer, who earlier in the week climbed up the white pine to replace another protester. He joined Phillip Flagg, a millennial who has been living in the oak tree since October. For Ziemer, Flagg and the protesters who preceded them, the tree-sit is now the longest active blockade of a natural gas pipeline on the East Coast, according to Appalachians Against Pipelines, a group that has helped organize the effort.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Pipeline’s coating carries health, safety risks

Tuesday Apr. 2, 2019

We’ve heard of the many negative impacts from the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines. Nevertheless, like the TV ads say, “But wait, there’s more.” The “more” is more public risk.

Both pipelines are coated with a fusion-bonded epoxy to reduce pipe corrosion and risk of explosion. FBE degrades in sunlight, and it is chalking off the pipes and becoming progressively thinner. Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers admit the pipes have been stored longer than the manufacturer’s recommendation. Experts advise me the pipes may be safe for up to two years, but their safety is questionable thereafter. The ACP pipes have already been stored outside for three years and counting, since the ACP is now on hold. Mountain Valley Pipeline developers testified in court that they are concerned about FBE loss as well. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration confirms the FBE loss, but states that the pipes have been inspected and remain safe. Nevertheless, no inspection results for pipe safety, blasting, hydrostatic tests, welding and backfilling will be available to the public until these dangerous projects are completed, and by then it may be too late to correct public safety issues There have been three catastrophic gas pipeline explosions in nearby states in the past 10 months. Landslides in steep terrain similar to that of the ACP and MVP caused two of them to explode shortly after installation. But wait, there’s more…

 Read the full Wilson (NC) Times article

Va. pipelines set off ‘an alarm bell’ for skeptical energy regulator

Monday Apr. 1, 2019

WASHINGTON — Most Americans have no idea who Cheryl LaFleur is. The wonkish attorney, a Massachusetts native and electricity expert, has spent nearly a decade as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a federal agency that regulates the transmission of oil, electricity and natural gas pipelines, among other responsibilities. It’s not often that she gets recognized in the supermarket. “I believe we have important jobs, but there’s a lot more famous people in this town,” LaFleur told the Virginia Mercury in a recent interview in her office a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. “It’s not like being a congressperson where every time you’re sitting and having a glass of wine with a friend, somebody might be snapping you on their iPhone. Being a FERC commissioner is definitely not like that.”

But while she’s not one of Washington’s best-known policymakers, LaFleur, who is not being nominated for a new term, has been central figure in the battles playing out in Virginia and around the country over the necessity and environmental impacts of gas pipelines — behemoth infrastructure projects that can cost developers billions of dollars and that often ignite fierce opposition campaigns. “LaFleur has been an important voice in mobilizing the conversation for a comprehensive approach to analyzing climate impacts,” said Gillian Giannetti, a staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Read the full Virginia Mercury article

Work continues on Mountain Valley Pipeline, despite repeated problems

Sunday Mar. 31, 2019

Malbon: Pipeline has corrupted our government

Friday Mar. 29, 2019

Elizabeth Struthers Malbon Malbon retired from the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech in 2016, after 36 years of teaching. Known nationally and internationally for her work on narrative criticism of the Gospel of Mark, currently she volunteers as a Trout Unlimited-trained water monitor for streams and springs in the Catawba Valley of Montgomery County.

Northam’s push to overhaul DEQ moving forward

Wednesday Mar. 27, 2019

LEXINGTON — Plans to overhaul the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, launched one year ago, are starting to take shape. A report with recommendations will be released next month pursuant to an executive order from Gov. Ralph Northam, who directed DEQ staff, in consultation with the secretary of natural resources, to review the agency’s permitting, monitoring and enforcement activities. What administration officials call a “revitalization” comes as Virginia deals with the construction of two massive natural gas pipelines, the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other natural resource issues…

…In addition to expressing concerns about the compressor station, the council last year urged Northam to address widespread problems with erosion and sedimentation from construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is farther along than the Atlantic Coast project. A lawsuit filed by DEQ and the State Water Control Board alleges that Mountain Valley crews have violated environmental regulations more than 300 times. Pipeline controversy was mentioned only briefly by Strickler and Northam at the symposium, which is now in its third decade of bringing state officials, business leaders and environmental advocates together for presentations and discussions.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Bowers and Christopulos: Local volunteers honored by Appalachian Studies Association

Tuesday Mar. 26, 2019

Pipeline opponents meet with German environmental activists

Thursday Mar. 21, 2019

Anatomy of a Farce, Part 2: How Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and the State Water Control Board Ignored the Law to Protect Corporate Criminal Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday Mar. 19, 2019

In part one of this series, we explained how in December 2017, the Virginia State Water Control Board issued a certification that allowed construction to begin on the 300 mile long, $4.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline. We noted that the certification said it was “subject to revocation for failure to comply with the above conditions and after a proper hearing.” We also noted how fourteen months later, on March 1, the board went into a secret session for four hours with staff from the Department of Environmental Quality and a junior attorney from Attorney General Mark Herring’s office, then emerged to announce, without explanation, that it had no authority to revoke after all. Even though Mark Herring has himself sued MVP for over 300 violations during construction. Even though MVP is under criminal investigation by the US. Attorney’s Office as a result of its actions. As we put it, the board and Mark Herring’s office “folded like so many cheap suits.”

To date, no state official has publicly described how the board could possibly have concluded that it could not revoke its own certification, particularly when the certification itself says that it can. Their silence speaks volumes. Privately, however, people with knowledge of what transpired in that secret meeting have described to this author what happened. And it’s not pretty.

Read the full Medium article

Delegate Chris Hurst calls for immediate stop work order for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Monday Mar. 18, 2019

“I applauded the efforts (during the 2018 legislative session) to enact emergency legislation to address concerns the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines would potentially harm existing stormwater management and erosion and sedimentation control laws,” wrote Hurst in the letter. “Unfortunately, the landowners in my district and many others cannot continue to guess what it will take for a reasonable stop work order for the Mountain Valley pipeline project.” SB 698 and SB 699 allow DEQ to issue a stop work order on a part of the construction site that has caused “substantial and adverse impacts to water quality or are likely to cause imminent and substantial adverse impacts to water quality,” according to a news release from Hurst.

Earlier this year, DEQ directed Attorney General Mark Herring to file a lawsuit against MVP, alleging more than 300 violations between June 2018 and November 2018. The lawsuit, filed in Henrico County Circuit Court, is still pending.  “Clearly there is evidence of violations and a lack of seriousness on the part of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC,” said Hurst. “What remains unclear is a lack of action to enforce these laws today.”

Read the full WSLS news report

Pipeline to pay $500,000 toward renovation of Bent Mountain Community Center

Wednesday Mar. 13, 2019

State board’s vote in Mountain Valley Pipeline’s favor raises questions for opponents

Sunday Mar. 10, 2019

For nearly four hours, while members of the State Water Control Board huddled with their attorney behind closed doors, observers we re left to wait and wonder what the board would do about the Mountain Valley Pipeline. They eventually found out what, but they’re still asking why. At a March 1 meeting, the citizen panel charged with protecting Virginia’s water voted to withdraw its earlier decision to hold a hearing on whether to revoke a water quality certification it issued for construction of the natural gas pipeline in December 2017. After emerging from a closed session, several members expressed concerns that the board lacked authority to revoke the certification. The state’s earlier approval was premised on a “reasonable assurance” that pipeline construction would not pollute nearby streams and wetlands; since then there have been widespread problems with erosion control measures. Board members said they were relying on advice from an assistant attorney general. But no legal explanation of why the board was powerless to stop construction — or even try to — was provided to the public before the board’s unanimous vote.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Editorial: Something’s not right with water board

Thursday Mar. 7, 2019

Organic farmers say known carcinogen found in pellets dropped in MVP construction

Wednesday Mar. 6, 2019

(Greenville, WV) In September of 2018 suspicious pellets rained down on an organic farm near the path for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Now, those pellets have been found to contain a cancer causing chemical- and are continuing to be dropped in Monroe County. Organic farmers near the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline say suspicious pellets dropped from a helicopter in the sky are ruining their livelihood. Beth and Neal Laferriere own Blackberry Springs Farm. Beth said of the pellets, “It has effectively decimated our business.” According to an EPA spill report, the pellets are Earth Guard, a product to prevent erosion and provide soil stabilization. Blackberry Springs Farm is adjacent to a path cleared for the pipeline. The pellets fell over a quarter of a mile away from the pipeline path, contaminating the organic certified farm. Beth said,“Our organic certification is destroyed.” According to the manufacturer’s GHS sheet, the pellets were found to contain a chemical called acrylamide. The FDA says acrylamide is a known animal carcinogen and human neurotoxicant, which means it can cause cancer and birth defects. Neal said of the chemical, “It’s in our water system.”

Read the full WVVA news report, view the video clip

Mountain Valley Pipeline, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and State Water Control Board Members Fold Like Cheap Suits

Saturday Mar. 2, 2019

In December 2018, Virginia’s State Water Control Board voted 4–3 to begin the process of revoking a permit it had issued one year earlier to allow construction in Virginia of the 300-mile, $4.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The surprising vote came on a motion by new Board member James Lofton, who had been put on the Board by Governor Ralph Northam to replace Roberta Kellam. Weeks earlier, Northam had fired Kellam after she raised serious questions about the damage being wrought by MVP to the water and land resources of southwest Virginia, which has been documented in photos, videos and drone footage by concerned citizens and landowners.

Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) simply ignored the Board’s directive — until it received a stunning letter from MVP on February 12. In that letter, MVP not only objected to the Board commencing a revocation process, but argued that the Board had no authority to do so (“Unilateral action by the board at this time cannot amend or invalidate that license or otherwise block construction”), and that MVP would sue the Board if it went any farther. In a stunning demonstration of corporate arrogance, MVP told the Board that if Virginia actually revoked the state permit, MVP would simply ignore the action and continue construction anyway as long as it had a federal permit.

Read the full Medium article

State water board reverses course again on Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday Mar.1, 2019

RICHMOND — After starting a process that could have pulled a key permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a state board responsible for protecting Virginia’s water reversed course Friday. On a unanimous vote, the State Water Control Board withdrew its earlier decision to hold a hearing to consider revoking a water quality certification it issued for the controversial natural gas pipeline in December 2017. Coming after a four-hour closed session, the vote shocked and angered a crowd of pipeline opponents.

“Shame on you!” One person in the audience shouted at the board members as others joined in. “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

Read the full Roanoke Times article

MVP asks state board to discontinue process aimed at stopping pipeline construction

Thursday Feb. 28, 2019

A failure to act by the water board on Mountain Valley Pipeline will allow more violations

Thursday Feb. 28, 2019

On Friday, the Virginia State Water Control Board will meet to discuss whether it should revoke a key permit previously issued to Mountain Valley Pipeline. The permit in question, the 401 Water Quality Certification, authorizes pipeline construction in upland areas; essentially everywhere except wetlands and stream crossings. Crucially, this permit does not authorize MVP to discharge water, sediment or other materials into waterways in Virginia, and was issued by the board after it determined “there is reasonable assurance that [MVP] activities covered by this certification will be conducted in a manner that will not violate applicable Water Quality Standards.” Now that MVP is being sued by the state for more than 300 individual violations — an average of more than one violation per day during construction — and is also under federal criminal investigation for illegal construction activities, the board has no choice but to suspend its prior issuance of the water quality certification.

Read the full Virginia Mercury article

Munley: Northam should intervene on pipelines

Wednesday Feb. 27, 2019

Cynthia Munley is an organizer of Preserve Salem.

Editorial: How quickly will water board act?

Monday Feb. 25, 2019

If the Mountain Valley Pipeline never gets built, it won’t be because of some protesters sitting in trees to block construction crews. It will be because of people like Jean Ann Salisbury, an analyst for a New York investment management company you’ve probably never heard of. But it controls $538 billion worth of assets —or a bigger pile of money than the gross domestic product of Belgium, Norway and most of the other countries in Europe. The tree-sitters are colorful but, ultimately, inconsequential. A Wall Street analyst who specializes in natural gas pipelines is not necessarily the former, but is potentially the latter. Environmentalists who see the pipeline as an unnecessary polluter that will only heat up the earth even faster may not think of Wall Street money-managers as natural allies, but in this case they might be.

In January, analysts with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC briefed their clients — and in the process issued some warnings about the two pipelines being routed through Virginia. Let’s quote what S&P Global Market Intelligence had to say about the briefing:

Read the full Roanoke Times editorial

Court won’t revisit ruling that tossed Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s permit to cross Appalachian Trail

Monday Feb. 25, 2019

Bowers and Limpert: Water board should revoke MVP certificate

Sunday Feb. 24, 2019

Full Fourth Circuit Urged to Stop Pipeline Land Grab

Wednesday Feb. 20, 2019

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) – Landowners impacted by the construction of a natural gas pipeline through the Appalachian Mountains filed an appeal late Tuesday asking the en banc Fourth Circuit to reconsider a three-judge panel’s approval of a “take first, pay later” approach to eminent domain. The Fourth Circuit’s 2004 ruling in East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. v. Sage created a loophole under the Natural Gas Act allowing companies to take land and begin construction prior to compensation being paid out for the property. This precedent, landowners argue, has shifted the balance of power in eminent domain claims in favor of gas companies and violates the separation of powers doctrine. The Sage ruling was cited two weeks ago by a three-judge Fourth Circuit panel that lifted an injunction blocking construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the path of many landowners. Now the landowners are asking the Fourth Circuit to rehear the case en banc and overturn the 15-year-old precedent, in the hopes of evening the playing field.

Read the full Courthouse News Service article

Court dismisses challenges to MVP’s federal government approval

Tuesday Feb. 19. 2019

An appellate court made short work Tuesday of a sweeping challenge of the federal government’s approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, dismissing 16 claims made by opponents. “None of the challenges succeeds,” a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia wrote in a five-page order. In perhaps the most comprehensive legal attack on the controversial pipeline, opponents had hoped to find a fatal flaw in the key approval it received from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in October 2017. The determination by FERC that there was a public need for the natural gas to be transported through the 303-mile pipeline opened the gate for a series of other approvals by state and federal agencies. Although several of the permits have since been suspended, Mountain Valley construction crews have been able to continue work over the past year with FERC’s ultimate authority intact.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Al Gore Among Guest Speakers Opposing Pipeline Construction in Buckingham County

Tuesday Feb. 19, 2019

BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) .The debate over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the compressor station proposed for a historic African-American section of Buckingham County is the center of a community conversation Tuesday evening. Several community leaders and former Vice President Al Gore spoke out against the pipeline on Tuesday, February 19, saying it will do more harm than good. Tuesday’s event was part of the former vice president’s environmental justice tour.

Read the full NBC 29 news report, view the news clip

Read the Charlottesville Daily Progress article on the same event

Criminal investigation of Mountain Valley Pipeline underway, document shows

Friday Feb. 15, 2019

One of the companies building the Mountain Valley Pipeline has confirmed the project is facing a criminal investigation into possible violations of the Clean Water Act and other federal laws. EQM Midstream Partners, the lead company in the joint venture, made the disclosure in an annual report filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Since construction of the buried natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia started last year, crews have repeatedly run afoul of regulations meant to keep muddy runoff from contaminating nearby streams and rivers. Although Mountain Valley has been named in enforcement actions brought by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Mark Herring, this week’s filing is the first confirmation of a criminal investigation.

On Jan. 7, EQM received a letter from the U.S. attorney’s office in Roanoke stating that it and the Environmental Protection Agency were looking into both criminal and civil violations related to pipeline construction, according to the SEC filing. About a month later, a grand jury subpoena was issued “requesting certain documents related to the MVP from August 1, 2018 to the present,” EQM reported in the filing.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Mountain Valley still on track to complete pipeline this year, company officials say

Thursday Feb. 14, 2019

Despite a series of legal and regulatory road bumps, the Mountain Valley Pipeline remains on track to be completed by the end of the year, executives of the joint venture’s lead company said Thursday. “I think where we are right now is where we are, until we have different information,” Thomas Karam, CEO of EQM Midstream Partners, said during a teleconference to discuss 2018 year-end results with financial analysts. EQM of Pittsburgh is one of five companies that make up Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC. It will foot $2.2 billion of the project’s $4.6 billion cost and will operate the 303-mile pipeline, which will transport natural gas at high pressure from northern West Virginia to connect with an existing pipeline in Pittsylvania County. Since work began last February with tree-cutting, Mountain Valley has run afoul of environmental regulations meant to control erosion and sedimentation at construction sites.

Two sets of key permits — one that will allow the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest and another for it to burrow under more than 1,000 streams and wetlands — were thrown out last year by a federal appeals court.Company officials say they are working with federal and state agencies and expect to have the permits restored. Yet at the same time, Virginia’s State Water Control Board has begun proceedings that could lead to the revocation of a water quality certification it issued for the pipeline in December 2017.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Can the pipeline be stopped? State board ponders its next move on MVP

Sunday Feb. 10, 2019

Wading back into what could become a legal quagmire, the State Water Control Board may soon decide whether to revoke its earlier approval for a natural gas pipeline under construction in Southwest Virginia. The unusual proceeding was initiated in December, when the board voted 4-3 to reconsider a water quality certification for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. When it first issued the certification in 2017, the board determined there was a reasonable assurance that work on the buried pipeline would not contaminate nearby streams and wetlands. Since then, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has found more than 300 violations of erosion and sediment control measures. What will happen next seems as clear as the muddy water that frequently flows from construction sites. If the board were to reverse its earlier position, “it doesn’t necessarily kill the project, although it’s possible that it could,” said Jill Fraley, an associate professor at the Washington and Lee School of Law who specializes in environmental law.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Appeals court allows quick-take of land for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday Feb. 5, 2019

An appeals court has upheld the “take first, pay later” approach to building the Mountain Valley Pipeline, in which the company condemned private property in the project’s path before paying opposing landowners for their losses. The ruling Tuesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a blow to pipeline foes, who have long decried the use of eminent domain to take parts of family farms and rural homeplaces to make way for a 303-mile natural gas pipeline. In their appeal, the landowners did not contest the laws that allowed Mountain Valley to obtain forced easements through nearly 300 parcels in Southwest Virginia. But they challenged a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Dillon, who granted Mountain Valley immediate possession of the disputed land before deciding how much each property owner should be compensated.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Kellam: DEQ’s oversight of pipeline is lax

Sunday Feb. 3, 2019

Environmental groups attack federal approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Monday Jan. 28, 2019

WASHINGTON — The good of the Mountain Valley Pipeline — a steady supply of needed natural gas — met the bad Monday, when opponents told a federal appeals court there’s really no public need for a project that is already polluting Southwest Virginia. In a sweeping attack, a coalition of environmental groups asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reverse a federal agency’s approval of the 303-mile pipeline.  When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission green-lighted the pipeline in October 2017, it voted 2-1 that its public benefits will outweigh any adverse impacts. But in finding there was a market demand for the natural gas, FERC relied entirely on contracts between the pipeline’s owners and its shippers, which are all part of the same corporate structure. The complex affiliations of Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC were not the result of “arms-length negotiations” that would have demonstrated a true market based on public need, the court was told by Ben Luckett of Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a nonprofit law firm that represented pipeline opponents during Monday’s oral arguments.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Holes in Pipeline Approval Provoke DC Circuit Scrutiny

Monday Jan. 28, 2019

WASHINGTON (CN) – Digging its teeth into plans for the already delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline, the D.C. Circuit appeared critical Monday of a glaring hole in the government’s environmental research. Critical to this morning’s hearing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed off on 300-mile pipeline after determining that the daily transportation and burning of 2.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas would generate 48 million metric tons of carbon dioxide downstream emissions every year.  The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to consider “reasonably foreseeable” environmental impacts of projects they approve, but the commission did little to probe the downstream effects here. U.S. Circuit Judge David pressed FERC attorney Lona Perry in particular Monday for arguing that downstream effects are not “reasonably foreseeable” because the end destination of the gas remains unknown.  where the gas will go after it is shipped out.

Read the full Courthouse News article

Appeals court set to review FERC’s approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Sunday Jan. 27, 2019

Munley: Prayers to stop the pipeline

Saturday Jan. 26, 2019

Bad news for environmental justice in Virginia

Thursday Jan. 24, 2019

Sam Bleicher was a member and vice-chair of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board until November 2018. He is also a member of the Board of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters.

On Jan. 8 — after months of public protest, two postponements and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) ham-handed removal of Rebecca Rubin and me from the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board after we questioned the suitability of the site Dominion chose — the remaining four Air Board members unanimously approved the air pollution permit for the Buckingham Compressor Station, an integral part of Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The practical impact of the decision is not as enormous as it seems. Contrary to the dreams of pipeline opponents, rejection of the Buckingham permit would not have ended its construction. The only legal grounds for denying the permit would have been based on the specifics of the chosen site, in the heart of Union Hill, a community founded by freed slaves. Dominion could have avoided those issues at some expense by moving the compressor station to a location a few miles away and applying for a new permit.

Read the full Washington Post article

Pipeline protester ‘Nutty’ gets 14 days in jail for 57 days on pole

Thursday Jan. 24, 2019

Roanoke attorneys seek criminal investigation of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019

Read the full Roanoke Times article 

U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear challenge of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday Jan. 22, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case in which a group of landowners argued that their property was illegally taken through eminent domain laws for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. In October, about a dozen landowners along the pipeline’s route asked the high court to reverse the dismissal of their lawsuit, heard in Roanoke’s federal court, that challenged the way developers of the natural gas pipeline were allowed to obtain forced easements through their property. In an order filed Tuesday, the Supreme Court did not explain why it is not taking the case…

…Among the constitutional questions raised by the lawsuit was whether eminent domain — a power normally invoked by governmental bodies for projects such as highways and power lines — should be awarded to a private company in pursuit of profits. In what the lawsuit called “a government sanctioned-land grab,” Congress through the Natural Gas Act has allowed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to delegate the power of eminent domain to companies like Mountain Valley, once it determines there is a public need for the natural gas they plan to ship through massive buried pipelines.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

New proof: entire Mountain Valley Pipeline project based on known falsehoods

Tuesday Jan. 22, 2019

Before approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had to show that it would do no substantial environmental harm, supposedly demonstrated in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) they issued on June 23, 2017 (Accession No. 20170623-4000). In granting the FEIS, the FERC relied on MVP’s stream scour and erosion analyses and plan containing specific information about pipeline construction at stream crossings along the entire pipeline route. Yet within months of starting the project, MVP submitted a variance request asking permission to change its plan. In doing so, MVP admitted to the FERC that:

Read the full Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club posting

Six senators vote against Northam’s pick to lead environmental agency

Tuesday Jan. 22, 2019

Gov. Ralph Northam disappointed some members of his transition team and left environmental groups seething last year when he reappointed David Paylor to his longtime job as director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Business interests, including the state’s big utilities, chief among them Dominion Energy, like Paylor’s light touch with the regulatory powers his office wields. Conservationists loath his agency’s deference to polluters, from the utilities to poultry farms and industrial emitters. On Monday, that debate spilled onto the Senate floor. Six senators, three Republicans and three Democrats, cast a vote to pull Paylor’s reappointment out of a list of gubernatorial appointments for Senate confirmation. Sen David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, led the unsuccessful charge. As is customary in the Senate, though, there was no mention of Paylor’s name or floor debate on the appointment…

…Paylor’s agency has been the lightning rod at the center of controversial state regulatory board votes on the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines and he has faced major criticism in the past for accepting a trip to the Masters golf tournament on Dominion’s dime. The agency has also been blasted for its handling of permits that would allow Dominion to close coal ash ponds at four sites across the state.

Read the full Virginia Mercury article

Letter: We don’t need pipelines

Saturday Jan. 19, 2019

Former state board member was accused of ‘working for the opposition’ after raising concerns about pipeline construction damage

Friday Jan. 18, 2019

Roberta Kellam recently served two terms on the Virginia State Water Control Board and previously was an instructor of environmental law and policy at the University at Buffalo Law School and in private practice in upstate New York. She lives in Northampton County.

Visiting the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction corridor in southwest Virginia was a promise I made to  local residents while I was a member of the State Water Control Board. It was a promise that wasn’t kept until Jan. 2, when I toured many farms and residential lands impacted by the MVP construction activities. Unfortunately, it came after I was removed from the board by Gov. Ralph Northam. My visit was timely though in that it came weeks after Attorney General Mark Herring had filed a complaint against MVP alleging several hundred water quality-related violations. The board had voted to consider revoking the MVP Water Quality Certification it issued for the project in late 2017. Based on what I observed along about 30 miles of MVP construction, it continues to be unclear to me why the DEQ has not instructed MVP to stop work in accordance with its authority.

Read the full Virginia Mercury article

Court filing asks judge to deny Mountain Valley’s request for injunction against tree-sitters

Thursday Jan. 17, 2019

A federal judge should not act as an “enforcer” for the Mountain Valley Pipeline by using her power to remove two protesters from trees blocking the path of the controversial pipeline, supporters are arguing in court. U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Dillon was asked in a brief filed Wednesday to deny Mountain Valley’s request for a preliminary injunction, which the company says it needs to evict two people identified in court records only as “Tree-sitter 1” and “Tree-sitter 2.” Since early September, two protesters have been living in tree stands about 50 feet above the forest floor on a steep mountainside in eastern Montgomery County, frustrating Mountain Valley’s efforts to complete tree-cutting. But Mountain Valley is “improperly seeking to enlist this Court to act as its enforcer in its dealings with persons opposing pipeline activities and construction,” Roanoke attorney John Fishwick wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the tree-sitters.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Mountain Valley Pipeline starts the new year with new complications

Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019

When work began last February with tree-cutting, the plan was to have the Mountain Valley Pipeline completed by now. Instead, developers of the natural gas pipeline are facing what could be another setback for the project, which has already seen construction delays and cost overruns caused by legal challenges from opponents. The latest twist came last week, when the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reopened a public comment period for modifications to a combined state and federal permitting process that Mountain Valley must complete before it can dig trenches through streams and wetlands for its buried pipeline. With written comments now being taken through March 4, it appears that Mountain Valley will have to wait longer than expected before seeking what’s called a Nationwide Permit 12 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Such a permit — which clears the way for the 42-inch diameter steel pipe to cross through more than 1,000 waterbodies on its 303-mile route through West Virginia and Southwest Virginia — was issued by the Army Corps in December 2017. But the permit was struck down last year by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Siding with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, the court ruled that the Army Corps lacked the authority to bypass a requirement by West Virginia regulators that pipeline stream crossings must be completed within 72 hours to limit environmental harm.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Franklin County supervisors approve permit for natural gas gate station

Tuesday Jan.15, 2019

Letter: Stop work on MVP’s operation

Tuesday Jan. 15, 2019

Mountain Valley Pipeline files response to state’s lawsuit

Friday Jan. 11, 2019

Widespread erosion during construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline was caused by “extraordinary” rainfall and other uncontrollable forces of nature, attorneys for the company said Friday in response to a lawsuit filed by environmental regulators. In its first detailed reply to a legal enforcement action brought by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the State Water Control Board, the company asked a judge to dismiss some of the claims. But the 28-page filing in Henrico County Circuit Court also indicated that Mountain Valley is interested in a “potential negotiated resolution” of a lawsuit that accuses it of violating environmental regulations more than 300 times. It was unclear to what degree a settlement has been discussed.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Pipeline opponents renew call for stop work order

Wednesday Jan.2, 2019

ROANOKE CO., Va. (WDBJ7)  Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline renewed their call for a stop work order, during a meeting Wednesday afternoon in Roanoke County. Recent court rulings have restricted construction on National Forest land and at stream crossings in Virginia and West Virginia. Opponents of the natural gas pipeline project say work should be suspended along the entire length of the project. Tammy Belinsky is an attorney who has worked with groups that oppose the pipeline. “We are very appreciative that the State Water Control Board finally heard us, finally recognized the concerns, valid concerns, and whether or not their duty had been fulfilled,” Belinsky told the audience at the Bent Mountain Community Center, “but they didn’t stop work.”

Also attending the meeting was former State Water Control Board member Roberta Kellam. Kellam visited several sites in Franklin and Roanoke Counties, where landowners say pipeline construction has caused problems with erosion and sedimentation. Later, she said the Governor and Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources should get a firsthand look at conditions along the pipeline corridor.

Read the full WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Opponents want Mountain Valley Pipeline to stop work until lawsuit date is set

Wednesday Jan.2, 2019

BENT MOUNTAIN, Va. (WSET) — Today, Mountain Valley Pipeline opponents came together calling for a stop to building, saying the recent lawsuit against the pipeline is meaningless unless officials make them stop work. Attorney General Mark Herring and the Department of Environmental Quality filed a lawsuit in December, saying the pipeline committed several hundred environmental violations, but as of right now there is no set date for the hearing. The suit alleges that between June and November, DEQ inspectors found more than 300 violations, mainly improper erosion control and storm-water management. The complaints include things like “sediment in the spring” or “cloudy or milky water”.

Read the full WSET news report, view the news clip

Daniel: What does trespassing on your own property mean?

Monday Dec.31, 2018

Adam Daniel is a surveyor, naturalist, urban farmer and science educator who worked at the Science Museum of Western Virginia for four years, taught at William Fleming, and with the Virginia State Parks. He lives in Roanoke. 

Pipeline company wants Elliston-area tree-sitters out

Thursday Dec.27, 2018

Two people face removal from trees because they are blocking the Mountain Valley Pipeline project near Elliston, a pipeline attorney said in court papers. Even though the project has by slowed legal and regulatory impediments related to alleged environmental violations, Mountain Valley recently said in court papers the company “intends to seek removal of these individuals,” calling them Tree-Sitter 1 and Tree-Sitter 2. It’s not clear from the filings whether Mountain Valley knows their names. While they don’t own any of the land involved, they can be sued as “persons claiming an interest in the property,” Mountain Valley’s Dec. 20 filing said. “The tree sitters are occupying the property with the express purpose and intent of preventing MVP from exercising its rights under the Court’s order.”

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Supreme Court deciding whether to hear Mountain Valley Pipeline lawsuit: the case deals with eminent domain and the Natural Gas Act of 1938

Wednesday Dec. 26, 2018

ROANOKE, Va – A lawsuit involving the Mountain Valley Pipeline may be headed to our nation’s highest court. Wednesday, Virginia landowners filed a reply arguing their case does have merit to be heard after non-decisions by lower courts.They want to challenge the constitutionality of eminent domain before the United States Supreme Court, arguing the system is flawed and needs re-working. It even has the backing of some conservative legal scholars.

Read the full WSLS article, view the news clip

Munley: Herring’s lawsuit against MVP doesn’t go far enough

Stream crossing issues are complicating work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Saturday Dec. 15, 2018

PEMBROKE — The clear, cold waters of Little Stony Creek cascaded over granite bedrock as Rick Sizemore watched from the banks and wondered. How could a natural gas pipeline run through this wild trout stream, on a piece of wooded property so sacred to Sizemore that he named it after a Bible verse and promised in court records never to develop the land? How will the company building the pipeline, after taking his land and water, return them to their natural state?  “How do you put something back that God did?” Sizemore said.

The developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have a plan to part the waters — “kind of like Moses,” in the words of a federal judge — long enough to bury a 42-inch diameter steel pipe under Little Stony Creek and more than 1,000 other streams and wetlands in the project’s path. Or they had a plan, until the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals intervened.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

State board to reconsider key permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday Dec. 14, 2018

Lawsuits claim false arrests by Mountain Valley Pipeline’s security company

Friday Dec. 14, 2018

Federal court throws out permit for Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross Appalachian Trail

Thursday Dec. 13, 2018

Ellerbrock: Of pipelines, people and principles

Monday Dec. 10, 2018

Mike Ellerbrock is director of the Center for Economic Education at Virginia Tech, vicariate deacon for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, and appointed member of U.S. EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and Governor Northam’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice.

When economics and ethics clash, bet on the dollar. For example, where the Mountain Valley (MVP) and Atlantic Coast (ACP) pipelines traverse rural counties (< 29 people per square mile), they are allowed to use thinner Class III pipes, whereas citizens in urban localities are better protected with thicker Class I pipes. Also, since EQT’s MVP crosses much rural landscape, it will not include a chemical odorant (Mercaptan) to alert neighbors of a dangerous natural gas leak. Why? Because Mercaptan is expensive. The benefit/cost ratio speaks clearly: Urban lives are considered more valuable to protect than rural lives. When finance trumps integrity, we all lose.

Read the full Roanoke Times commentary

Letter: We are financing an unneeded pipeline

Sunday  Dec. 9, 2018

Virginia Attorney General, DEQ sue Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday Dec. 7, 2018

Together, the two are suing the Mountain Valley Pipeline for repeated environmental violations.

See the WSLS video news report

Virginia files lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday Dec. 7, 2018

First grants awarded from Mountain Valley Pipeline mitigation fund

Friday Dec. 7, 2018

How money stokes divide of historic black community in Virginia pipeline battle

Friday Dec. 7, 2018

BUCKINGHAM, Va. — The battle at Union Hill began four years ago, when Dominion Energy fired the opening shot: Not only was Virginia’s largest utility proposing that its multistate natural gas pipeline traverse this wooded countryside, but it also suggested that a sprawling gas-fired compressor station must be built nearby. As Dominion sought the proper permits for the pipeline and the station, the historically black community of Union Hill in Buckingham County joined a growing number of environmental groups concerned about the health and climate risks — and critics who say projects like it disproportionately burden minorities and lower-income people. But the energy company, in a push to win the hearts and minds of the county’s 17,000 residents, has taken a different turn, unveiling a series of long-sought benefits to residents who live closest to the compressor station site — a move that has further divided a populace already strained by an undercurrent of suspicion.

“Dominion is an expert at the divide-and-conquer tactic,” said the Rev. Paul Wilson, a leader of two historically black churches in Union Hill who was arrested in 2016 during an anti-pipeline protest outside of the Virginia Governor’s Mansion in Richmond, the state capital. “There’s a group of people who are even moving to get me out as pastor. Once you inject money into the conversation, it becomes a wedge.”

Read the full NBC News article

Hileman: Northam should reinstate air board members

Thursday Dec. 6, 2018

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.

On Dec. 10, the State Air Pollution Control Board will vote on whether to approve an air permit for a highly controversial compressor station for Dominion Energy’s equally controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Notably, the board is expected to do so without two of its long-standing members, who were recently removed by Gov. Ralph Northam. Now, an already contentious vote has suddenly been thrust into the national spotlight, and Gov. Northam’s administration is scrambling to contain the fallout. Compressor stations are necessary for moving natural gas over long distances, and at high pressure, through pipelines. They are large, loud, polluting, and potentially explosive beasts you don’t want in your backyard. In this case, the metaphoric backyard is the majority Black community of Union Hill, which was founded by freedmen – former slaves – at the end of the Civil War. While the board was supposed to vote on the air permit at a Nov. 9 meeting, it decided to delay the vote until Dec. 10 in response to grave concerns raised about environmental injustice. Two members of the board, Samuel Bleicher and Rebecca Rubin, were especially outspoken in their questioning of the siting of the compressor station. It is precisely these two members who were relieved of their positions, and in spite of Gov. Northam’s efforts to explain away the controversy, it is exceedingly unlikely this was a routine changing of the guard.

Read the full Roanoke Times commentary

Letter: Roanoke Gas should disinvest in MVP

Tuesday Dec. 4, 2018

Roanoke Gas Company’s October 30 Facebook Halloween post says: “What’s scarier than ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night?… Dig with CARE and Keep Virginia Safe!”  I wish we could believe that Roanoke Gas Company has safety concerns for the public. However, RGC’s recent one percent investment in the Mountain Valley Pipeline demonstrates a disregard for the disastrous 100 miles of trenching in our area which will harm our area’s water supply.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Congress considers changing law for pipeline crossing of Appalachian Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway

Monday Dec. 3, 2018

Legislation is pending in Congress that would give the National Park Service clear authority to allow construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline beneath the Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Parkway, both potentially critical obstacles under litigation pending in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dominion Energy, lead partner in the $7 billion project, confirmed the legislative proposal, which first surfaced in a blog post from an Alabama group that suggested aid for the 600-mile natural gas pipeline is “tucked into the omnibus spending bill” being negotiated by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee..

…Environmental groups have waged war in federal court against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as well as the Mountain Valley Pipeline under construction in Southwest Virginia.

Read the full KPVI (Pocatello, ID) article

Letter: Natural gas exploitation

Monday Dec. 3, 2018

Saturday Dec. 1, 2018

Member of Appalachians Against Pipeline Group uses body to stop pipeline construction

Tuesday Nov. 27, 2018

UNION, WV (WVNS) – Driving through Monroe County, certain residents make it apparent they do not a agree with pipeline construction. The protest group, Appalachians Against Pipelines, makes it their mission to take action against the cause; this time to new heights. For more than eight hours, a member of the Appalachians Against Pipelines group locked his body to a boom tractor, suspended in the air, to block construction at a Mountain Valley Pipeline site off Ellison Ridge Rd. on Tuesday, November 27. Supporting protesters told 59 News this person hiked almost 30 minutes to the site early Tuesday morning to use himself as a human shield and stop a fracking gas operation. Something they believe is detrimental to the environment. “It’s known to cause earthquakes and contaminate aquaphors,” a protester said. “All research shows it’s an incredibly unnecessary and environmentally destructive way of extracting natural gas.”

Read the full WVNS news report, view the video clip

Judge dismisses charges against Roanoke County women who sat in trees to block pipeline

Thursday Nov. 15, 2018

A judge dismissed charges Thursday against a mother and daughter who for more than a month lived in the trees, trying to save them from a pipeline cutting its way through their Bent Mountain homeplace. Theresa “Red” Terry, 62, and Theresa Minor Terry, 31, had a “good faith” belief that they could protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline by occupying two tree stands in its path, Roanoke County General District Court Judge Scott Geddes ruled. “Stepping into the shoes of the defendants … the court has serious doubts that the Terrys intended to commit a criminal offense by their actions,” Geddes said before dismissing charges of trespassing, obstruction of justice and interfering with the property rights of the pipeline company.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Tree-sitters in Montgomery County maintain protest against Mountain Valley Pipeline

Thursday Nov. 15, 2018

A tree-sit protest of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Montgomery County, now in its third month, is playing out more quietly than other such attempts to block work on the controversial natural gas pipeline. Since Sept. 5, two protesters have been camping out in tree stands along the project’s route on a steep wooded slope off Yellow Finch Road near Elliston. About a dozen similar aerial blockades have gone up in Giles, Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke counties and Monroe County, West Virginia, since tree-cutting began in February. All of those protesters came down voluntarily or were removed by police.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Leech: Dominion wants to fleece its customers for an unneeded pipeline

Monday Nov. 12, 2018

Charges heard against Roanoke County mother and daughter who sat in trees to block a pipeline

Friday Nov. 9, 2018

Mountain Valley submits application for new pipeline to North Carolina

Wednesday Nov. 7, 2018

The developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have taken the first formal step in seeking federal approval for a 73-mile extension of the natural gas pipeline into North Carolina. An application filed Tuesday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission details Mountain Valley’s plan for a new project that will begin in Pittsylvania County, at the end point of a 303-mile pipeline the company is currently building in West Virginia and Virginia. Called MVP Southgate, the underground pipeline would run to Alamance County and provide gas to PSNC Energy, a local distribution company that plans to expand a system that serves more than 563,000 customers in North Carolina.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Roanoke Gas Co. applies for increase to base rates

Wednesday Oct. 31, 2018

Customers of Roanoke Gas Co. will see their monthly bills go up by nearly 11 percent if regulators approve the company’s request for a base rate increase. An application filed with the State Corporation Commission states the company is seeking $10.5 million in new revenue from the increase. Roanoke Gas needs to recover costs associated with ongoing infrastructure investment programs, increases in operations and maintenance expenses, and a new utility plant, it said in a statement Wednesday…

…The company said the increase is not related to its partnership with the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Some opponents of the controversial project have argued that its massive price tag — which recently rose to $4.6 billion — would lead partners in the venture such as Roanoke Gas to pass the cost along to their ratepayers.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Opponents target Roanoke Gas for partnership with Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday Oct. 30, 2018

olding up anti-pipeline signs and chanting, about a dozen demonstrators gathered Tuesday outside the headquarters of Roanoke Gas Co. to question its involvement with the Mountain Valley Pipeline. As one of five corporate partners in the project, Roanoke Gas plans to tap into the 42-inch diameter pipe at two locations, expanding its service area to parts of Montgomery and Franklin counties. The company has a 1 percent ownership stake in the pipeline, which for the most part will transport natural gas at high pressure to other parts of the country.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

U.S. Supreme Court is asked to hear pipeline eminent domain case

Thursday Oct. 25, 2018

A group of landowners whose property was taken against their wishes for a natural gas pipeline is seeking relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeal, which involves the use of eminent domain by Mountain Valley Pipeline, is believed to be the first time the nation’s highest court has been asked to consider a challenge involving the controversial project. Whether that will happen is far from certain; the court agrees to hear oral arguments and render a decision in only about 80 of the approximately 8,000 cases that get filed each year. “We are hopeful,” said Mia Yugo, one of three attorneys from the Roanoke firm of Gentry Locke involved in the case, “because of the gravity of the issues involved.”

Thirteen landowners along the pipeline’s route are appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit, filed last year in Roanoke’s federal court, challenging the way Mountain Valley used a law that allows the condemnation of private land for a public use. Among the constitutional questions raised is whether eminent domain, a power normally invoked by governmental bodies for projects such as highways and power lines, should be awarded to a private company in pursuit of profits.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Mountain Valley Pipeline loses another water-crossing permit

Wednesday Oct. 24, 2018

Federal regulators have pulled another permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction project, which now lacks authority to build through streams and wetlands along the project’s entire 303-mile route. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended its authorization of water body crossings for the first 32 miles of the natural gas pipeline, starting where it originates in Wetzel County, West Virginia. In a letter Friday to Mountain Valley officials, Jon Coleman of the Corps’ regulatory division in Pittsburgh cited an Oct. 2 federal appeals court decision that vacates a similar permit issued by a different division for the rest of the pipeline’s route through West Virginia.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

6 arrested at Mountain Valley Pipeline site in West Virginia

Tuesday Oct. 23, 2018

BECKLEY (AP) — Six protesters who blocked traffic into a Mountain Valley Pipeline site in West Virginia for three hours have been arrested. The Register-Herald reports that the protesters were part of a larger group that blocked trucks from entering and exiting the lay down yard alongside U.S. 19 near the border between Raleigh and Fayette counties on Monday. An Appalachians Against Pipelines news release says one protester was locked to a truck that was hauling pipe. Each protester was charged with multiple misdemeanors, with total bail set at $17,000. The 300-mile (483-kilometer) natural gas pipeline will run through Virginia and West Virginia and connect to new and existing pipelines. Protests and legal challenges concerned with environmental impact have set back its estimated completion and increased its cost by approximately $1 billion.

Read the WV News article

Montgomery County supervisors OK permit for gate station to tap Mountain Valley Pipeline

Monday Oct. 22, 2018

Advisory council asks Northam to stop pipeline work, but governor passes

Thursday Oct. 18, 2018

Asked by his own advisory council to suspend work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Gov. Ralph Northam made no such promise in a letter sent to the panel this week. The Governor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Justice recommended in August that Virginia’s water quality certification for construction of the natural gas pipeline be “rescinded immediately.” The same request was made for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which like Mountain Valley has drawn fierce opposition from those who say the projects will mar rural landscapes, pollute streams and invade private property.

Read the full Roanoke Times article here

In Virginia, local pipeline votes come with economic stakes attached

Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018

County supervisors who opposed Mountain Valley Pipeline now face decisions that could bring gas and jobs to their communities…

…Montgomery County’s planning commission has also endorsed plans to build a gate station. In both localities, the board of supervisors must vote on the project for it to receive county approval. Both have been loudly opposed by residents and pipeline opponents, and yet the boards look likely to approve both gate stations, in part due to hope that natural gas service may result in more economic development and job creation.

Read the full Energy News article

Munley: We don’t need zombie pipelines

Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018

Opponents seek a stop to ‘reckless’ construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018

Reynolds: Virginia’s ‘gold rush’ or rush to the gold will never materialize

Monday Oct. 15, 2018

What happens when a “ad project gets worse, then really heads south?? Yes I’m talking about the rumbling disaster called the Mountain Valley Pipeline. In this particular case, a smooth operating big-money energy company tried to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes except Virginia’s in-the-know power-brokers, and political insiders, and fast-track a dangerous, mammoth fracked-gas pipeline down the throat and across the lands of a large section of hard-working Virginia citizenry.

Read the full Roanoke Times commentary

Flood carries a piece of the Mountain Valley Pipeline into the hands of opposing landowner

Friday Oct. 12, 2018

Wednesday Oct. 10, 2018

Beth Garst lives on a farm at the foot of Cahas Knob in Franklin County, 200 yards from the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Stream-crossing permit suspended for Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia

Friday Oct. 5, 2018

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended a permit allowing the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross more than 500 streams and wetlands in Southwest Virginia. The action comes three days after a similar permit for West Virginia water crossings was vacated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Uncertainty about the process prompted the corps to pull the Virginia permit to “await clarity on this issue,” William Walker, chief of the regulatory branch of the corps’ Norfolk division, wrote in a letter Friday to Mountain Valley officials.  “Effective immediately, you must stop all activities being done in reliance upon the authorization under the NWP,” the letter stated, referring to a Nationwide Permit 12 authorization that was issued to Mountain Valley in January. Mountain Valley recently stepped up work digging trenches along stream bottoms to bury its natural gas pipeline, and the suspension marked the latest in a number of setbacks for the $4.6 billion project.

Read the full RoanokeTimes article

Blue Ridge Caucus: Del. Chris Hurst honored for pipeline opposition efforts

Thursday Oct. 4, 2018

Stabilization plans approved while pipeline work is on hold in Jefferson National Forest

Wednesday Oct. 3, 2018

Court vacates pipeline stream-crossing permits in West Virginia

Tuesday Oct. 2, 2018

Work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline hit another hitch Tuesday when an appeals court vacated a permit the project needed to cross streams and rivers in southern West Virginia. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, less than a week after hearing oral arguments in the latest legal challenge to bedevil the controversial natural gas pipeline. The Sierra Club and other conservation groups asserted that the Army Corps overlooked a requirement, imposed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, that work on four major river crossings should be completed within 72 hours to limit potential environmental harm.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

MVP pellets rain down on organic farm

Wednesday Sept 26, 2018

(Summers County, WV) A pelleted substance rained down on a farmer and his children while harvesting ginseng on their property near Grassy Meadows. Neal Laferriere owns Blackberry Botanicals, an organic certified farm that sits adjacent to the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. He explains saying,”A helicopter flew over and about ten seconds after it flew over pellets started to come out and drop through, pelting myself, my children.” According to an EPA spill report the pellets are Earth Guard a product to prevent erosion and provide soil stabilization. The pellets were intended for the path of the pipeline but fell over a quarter of a mile away from the pipeline path. The EPA spill report says the pellets were dumped two more times on the farm. Neal Laferriere says the pellets have covered nearly three fourths of his farmland.

Read the full WVVA report, view the news clip

Peckman: Regulators were fooled by pipeline

Wednesday Sept 26, 2018

Fourth Circuit Chief Justice Questions Validity of Eminent Domain

Tuesday Sept 25, 2018

RICHMOND (CN) – The chief justice of the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday questioned the validity of eminent domain laws, describing them as a holdover from the days when Americans were royal subjects. In a case involving the planned Mountain Valley Pipeline, one of two controversial projects that are currently the subject of appeals before the circuit, Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Roger Gregory questioned the long-standing precedents that allow the government to seize land. The case before the court on Tuesday was brought by landowners in Virginia and West Virginia who are challenging the “quick-take” authority granted the pipeline developer by federal regulators and a lower court which said the project could go forward despite the fact property owners have not been compensated. As Tuesday’s hearing got underway, Gregory began by question a ruling the circuit handed down 14 years ago in the case  East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. v. Sage.

Read the full Courthouse News Service article here

Estimated cost of Mountain Valley Pipeline increased to $4.6 billion

Tuesday Sept 25, 2018

he projected cost of building the Mountain Valley Pipeline has increased by nearly $1 billion. In a revised estimate announced this week, the developers of the natural gas pipeline said they now expect to spend $4.6 billion on the project, a jump of about 25 percent over their previous calculation of $3.7 billion. About half of the cost increase was attributed to a lull in construction for most of August, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered that work be stopped after two key permits were invalidated by a federal appeals court.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Trespassing charge against pipeline protester taken under advisement

Friday Sept 21, 2018

Montgomery Co. planners support plan to tap into Mountain Valley Pipeline

Thursday Sept 20, 2018

CHRISTIANSBURG — An advisory arm of the Montgomery County’s governing body voted Wednesday night in favor of a special use permit needed for the proposed construction of a natural gas gate station near the border of Montgomery and Roanoke counties. The 4-2 vote from Montgomery County’s planning commission came amid overwhelming opposition from local residents who spoke out against the gate station during a public hearing Wednesday. The permit, which will need to be approved by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, was requested by Roanoke Gas, which services approximately 60,000 customers across the Roanoke Valley and a tiny section of eastern Montgomery County.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Judge issues stay in Summers County MVP case

Tuesday Sept 18, 2018

HINTON — Summers and Monroe County Circuit Judge Robert Irons issued a temporary stay Tuesday to work being done in Summers County on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Specifically, the stay will halt work being done on property where the pipeline will enter the Greenbrier River in Pence Springs. The motion was brought before Irons by Greenbrier River Watershed Association, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Ashby Berkley, and Ty and Susan Bouldin, after Berkley was made aware that tree removal had begun on his property last week. Among concerns over due process, the petitioners have argued that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permit for the crossing is not in compliance with the Natural Streams Preservation Act.

Read the full Beckley WV Register-Herald article, view the video

Atlantic Coast Pipeline gets green light after federal agencies issue new permits

Tuesday Sept 18, 2018

Federal regulators on Monday allowed construction to resume on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline after U.S. agencies reissued two critical permits that a federal appeals court had vacated last month. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lifted the stop-work order it imposed on Aug. 10 on the 600-mile pipeline. It had imposed the order in response to a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that tossed out permits allowing the project to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway and affect the habitat of endangered or threatened animal species…

…Late last month, Turpin authorized construction to resume on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, weeks after the commission halted work on the 303-mile project in response to a 4th Circuit decision that vacated its permit from the U.S. Forest Service to cross national forest lands.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Letter: Where does Gov. Northam stand on the pipeline?

Tuesday Sept 18, 2018

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered by Gov. Ralph Northam’s lack of response to the gas pipeline controversary facing the people of Virginia. After calling his office for an answer to my question, “Where does the governor stand on the pipeline issue?” Although a direct question to my governor, the first answer I received from his assistant was he could not speak for the governor. Undeterred, I called the governor again. Asking the same question again I got no answer. During the third call I left my email address and was promised a reply…none was received. It’s a simple question, Either you are for clean air, clean water and the health of the people of this state or you’re for the greedy corporations.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Hileman: Northam will be judged by what he does on pipelines

Monday Sept 17, 2018

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.

To Dr. Ralph Northam, governor of Virginia:

 On Aug. 21, I was one of countless Virginians who stared mouth agape at the Machiavellian farce that was the State Water Control Board meeting where members reconsidered permitting for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). During an unhinged four-hour session, I watched leadership from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) repeatedly ignore, gloss over, and misrepresent the overwhelming evidence that this pipeline should never have been approved, has already resulted in numerous violations of state water quality laws, and will continue to violate laws the state is obligated to enforce…

…Gov. Northam, if you continue to side with pipelines over the people you were elected to serve, please tell me: what do you and the DEQ know — or fear — that forces you to disregard the law, science, and mountains of legally defensible evidence documenting environmental catastrophes along 103 previously pristine miles of Virginia? Alternatively, please share the evidence the DEQ has presented that gives you confidence this pipeline can be built and operated safely in our state. One thing is certain: whether or not this pipeline ultimately gets built, you will forever be judged by your ongoing silence and lack of action.

Read the full Roanoke Times commentary 

Thursday Sept 13, 2018

(By Barbara Gottlieb) As Hurricane Florence churns menacingly toward the Mid-Atlantic coast, residents of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia hold their breath, wondering where the massive storm surge, howling winds and torrents of rain will hit hardest. More than 300 miles inland, southwest Virginia residents may also face dangerous flooding, and some worry that Florence may exacerbate the threats from a different, manmade hazard: the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Hurricane Florence is projected to be an “extremely dangerous” storm, poised to inflict life-threatening impacts on low-lying coastal communities—and it may also dump vast quantities of rain over a limited area after making landfall, catastrophic rainfall and flooding as Hurricane Harvey did last year to Houston, Texas. Forecasters don’t know where such flooding will occur, but one possible target is the Appalachian Mountains, including mountainous southwest Virginia—the site of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)…

…Anti-pipeline activist Tina Smusz, a retired Emergency Medicine physician who has lived in the region’s mountains for 33 years, is monitoring conditions. She notes, “If we have as much rain as they’re predicting, we’re expecting landslides. We’ve already had one road closed by eight inches of mud washing down from a worksite. And that was not an extraordinary rain. We have bare soil and denuded slopes all along the pipeline corridor,” she added. “Trees, brush and vegetation have been removed, tree roots have been pulled out. So you’re looking at highly erodible soil expanses and the danger of massive erosion on our slopes.” In addition, Smusz worries about the impact that erosion would have on buried pipes once gas is flowing through the line: “Those pipes may be exposed as the soil over them is churned off when we have torrential rain. That could lead to pipeline ruptures, with the pipe buckling on itself” as the supporting soil under the pipe is washed away.

Read the full EcoWatch article

Mountain Valley Pipeline halts construction as Hurricane Florence takes aim at Carolinas, Virginia

Tuesday Sept 11, 2018

Devastating erosion from Mountain Valley Pipeline could result from significant rainfall. With Hurricane Florence forecast to make landfall later this week, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) halted construction on its 303-mile pipeline project on Tuesday and is taking measures to prevent extensive damage to its construction zone. Forecasters are expecting an unprecedented amount of rainfall from Florence across portions of Virginia, starting late this week and continuing through the weekend. MVP said it is taking “all possible precautions in Virginia” in consultation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to maintain erosion and sediment controls along the pipeline’s right of way.

Locals, however, worry about the impact heavy rainfall will have on the land. From the tree-clearing phase to the laying of the 42-inch-diameter pipe into trenches, MVP has faced problems with erosion and sediment controls when it rains. In July, the Virginia DEQ served the company with a notice of violation for failing to install proper erosion controls.

Read the full Think Progress article

Construction halted on Mountain Valley Pipeline as storm approaches

Tuesday Sept 11, 2018

Heavy rain contributed to Beaver County pipeline blast

Monday Sept 10, 2018

An explosion from a natural gas pipeline operating for only a week sparked a fire early Monday that destroyed a Beaver County home and two garages and prompted authorities to evacuate about two dozen other homes in the area. The 24-inch pipeline’s owner, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Corp., said it was investigating but an early assessment of the explosion site showed there had been “earth movement in the vicinity of the pipeline. ”Center police Chief Barry Kramer attributed that to heavy, continuous rain over the weekend, but he said he’d leave determining the exact cause “up to the experts.” Nearly 5 inches fell between Friday night and Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Read the Southwestern PA Trib Live article

Gas explosion rocks western Pennsylvania community

Monday Sept. 10, 2018

Additional photos

Pipeline protesters take to the trees near Elliston

Wednesday Sept.5, 2018

Mountain Valley Pipeline opponents regroup as construction resumes

Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018

A pair of developments last week were a setback for pipeline opponents but left doors open for new strategies against the project.

The push to cut, clear, grade and trench the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline across the central Appalachia is underway once more. A pair of developments last week allowed construction that had slowed through August to resume at near full force. The setbacks for pipeline opponents left activists questioning their momentum as well as contemplating new legal and regulatory strategies against the project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is one of two being laid from West Virginia to terminals that will connect the gas fracked in the Marcellus Shale region with markets in the Southeast and beyond. Much of the conflict hinges on the effects of pipeline construction on waterways, which provide drinking water for local residents and drain into major watersheds on both sides of the eastern continental divide.

Read the full Energy Network News article

Federal court allows stream crossing work for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Thursday August 29, 2018

Work on Mountain Valley Pipeline allowed to resume

Wednesday August 28, 2018

Montgomery Co. supervisors hear about proposal for nature park

Tuesday August 27, 2018

…The land trust is hoping to win a share of an expected $3 million in first-round grants this year from a Mountain Valley Pipeline forest mitigation fund. The grant money the land trust is seeking this year is being administered by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The mitigation funds come from the pipeline project’s payments to the state to offset forestland impact caused by the pipeline’s construction…

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Bent Mountain construction a continuing concern for pipeline opponents

Friday August 24, 2018

ROANOKE CO., Va. (WDBJ7) A construction site on Bent Mountain continues to be a focal point in the fight over the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Crews have been working on both sides of Route 221 near the point where the pipeline passes underneath the highway. Residents of the area say the work raises fresh concerns, about the impact of the project on groundwater, and their supply of drinking water. “And again the trench has been opened here,” Roberta Bondurant told WDBJ7. ” It’s like reopening sutures. The sanctity of this pipe is in question.” A spokesperson for the company said work in the area is part of the stabilization plan authorized by federal regulators.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the video clip

Northam unveils Giles County sculpture; pipeline protesters demonstrate

Thursday August 23, 2018

State water board declines to reconsider stream-crossing permits for pipeline

Wednesday August 22, 2018

RICHMOND — Facing a crowd that went from frustrated to furious, the State Water Control Board voted 4-3 Tuesday against reconsidering a stream-crossing permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A second proposal, with more general language aimed at tougher enforcement of environmental regulations, then passed unanimously — but failed to appease the nearly 200 pipeline opponents who packed a hearing room. Throughout the four-hour meeting, board members and officials with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality were repeatedly interrupted and heckled by those who say the state is failing to protect streams and wetlands from pollution caused by pipeline construction…

…“It’s a travesty for the state to see DEQ not stand up and not have enough backbone to do what’s right, and that’s to help the people,” James Hargett, who has been monitoring issues in Franklin County, said during a public comment period Tuesday that was dominated by pipeline opponents. When the meeting ended, some members of the crowd approached the dais — prompting police officers who had been standing guard to form a line that prevented them from getting any closer to the board members and DEQ Director David Paylor.

“Fire David Paylor!” they chanted as he left through a side door. “Fire David Paylor!”

Read the full Roanoke Times article 

State Water Control Board calls for aggressive enforcement, declines to revoke pipeline permits

Tuesday August 21, 2018

RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ7) The State Water Control Board has approved a motion calling for aggressive enforcement on two natural gas pipeline projects. But on Tuesday afternoon, the board stopped short of revoking permits for the controversial projects. Opponents of the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines marched through downtown Richmond, rallied in Capitol Square and packed the meeting of the State Water Control Board.

J.B. Hargett came from Franklin County. “And I’ll show you mud washed down in driveways,” Hargett told board members. “I’ll show you ponds that are beyond use. I’ll show you streams where the fish are dead because of the mud.”

Read the WDBJ news report, view the video clip

Bernard and Limpert: State Water Control Board should look anew at pipeline permits

Monday August 20, 2018

Anne Bernard lives in Franklin County on land the Mountain Valley Pipeline would pass through. Bill Limpert lives in Bath County on land the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would pass through.

As state board takes up pipeline permits, thousands of comments await

Sunday August 19, 2018

The Mountain Valley Watch has seen enough. After three months of monitoring construction of the largest natural gas pipeline ever to plow through Southwest Virginia, the citizen watchdog group has reached a conclusion about the Mountain Valley Pipeline: “This project cannot be constructed through steep, mountainous, rocky terrain without causing severe water quality damages to downstream properties and communities,” the monitoring group stated in a report sent to the State Water Control Board.

When the board meets Tuesday in Richmond, the report urges it should rethink its earlier finding that construction of the pipeline will not pollute the more than 500 streams and wetlands it will cross.

Filled with technical analysis, photographs and case studies, the Mountain Valley Watch report runs for 34 pages — yet represents just a tiny piece in a pile of reading material.ore than 13,000 written comments have been submitted to the water board since it invited public comment on the sufficiency of federal permits granted to Mountain Valley and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a similar project that will run through Central Virginia.

Read the full Roanoke Times article. Click on link above to read the Mountain Valley Watch report.

Mountain Valley Pipeline cuts workforce, delays project completion to late 2019

Friday August 17, 2018

As construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline decelerates, the company says a temporary stop-work order has forced it to release half of its workforce and push back an expected completion date to late next year. The actions were taken “to address an idled workforce and protect the integrity of the project,” read a statement posted to the company’s website. About 2,100 people were working on an approximately 100-mile stretch of the natural gas pipeline in Southwest Virginia earlier this summer. It was not clear how many remained Friday.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Letter: Jobs do not override dangers of pipeline

Friday August 17, 2018

Your editorial of August 9, “The great disconnect”, emphasizes the role of jobs as the reason to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Certainly, job creation is very important. But jobs do not justify the social and environmental havoc wrought by this pipeline. It rides roughshod over the property rights of citizens in its path, endangers the public through risk of explosions, destroys forests, worsens climate change and aggravates air pollution.

Read the Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Head of Jefferson National Forest temporarily reassigned as pipeline controversy continues

Thursday August 16, 2018

Northam: Working to build a Virginia economy for everyone

Wednesday August 15, 2018

Pipeline opponents warn of economic harm

Tuesday August 14, 2018

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ7) Opponents of two natural gas pipelines say the projects are bad for Virginia’s economy. Waynesboro’s Thomas Hadwin has worked for utilities in other states. Tuesday, he joined local activist Freeda Cathcart outside the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. They said the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines aren’t needed to meet demand for natural gas, won’t generate permanent jobs and will raise energy costs. “This is not a good economic deal for Virginia,” Hadwin told reporters. “So why should we sacrifice our mountains, our clean water and all of those other issues just so that we pay more, and a few energy companies make more.”

Read the WDBJ news report, view the video clip

Plan to stabilize the shutdown Mountain Valley Pipeline approved by federal regulators

 Monday August 13, 2018

Pipeline raises drinking water concerns on Bent Mountain

Tuesday July 24, 2018

People who live on Bent Mountain and oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline continue to press their case for a stop work order.

View the WDBJ news clip

Environmental regulators cite Mountain Valley Pipeline again

Tuesday July 24, 2018

Letter: High pressure pipeline energy poses danger

Tuesday July 24, 2018

The opinion article “West Virginia explosion shows danger of pipelines” by Irene Leech (June 20), sparked my interest in the mechanical (pressure) energy carried in a 42-inch natural gas pipeline pressurized at 1,440 psi. An approximation can be calculated using the gas energy equation from my undergraduate thermodynamics course. Using data for methane (the primary component of natural gas) I found a 42-inch methane pipeline pressurized at 1,440 psi is holding 4,224,608 ft-lbs of mechanical energy per foot of pipe. This energy is in addition to the chemical energy released by gas combustion that frequently accompanies a pipeline failure.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Photos: A pipeline’s progress

Monday July 23, 2018

These aerial photos track the development of the Mountain Valley Pipeline route across Southwest Virginia, including areas of Roanoke, Franklin and Montgomery counties.

See the full Roanoke Times photo spread

Letter: The Assault – An Allegory

Monday July 23, 2018

CASEY: ‘Under-the-radar’ law, and vacancy on SCC, fuel concerns about pipeline safety inspections

Sunday July 22, 2018

Pipeline worker hurt in Montgomery County ATV accident

Wednesday June 20, 2018

Leech: West Virginia explosion shows danger of pipelines

Wednesday June 20, 2018

2 pipeline projects draw more than 13,000 public comments

Tuesday June 19, 2018

More than 13,000 written comments have been submitted to a state board that invited public input on how two huge natural gas pipelines will impact Virginia’s water bodies. It could take weeks to process the information and present it in a meaningful form to the State Water Control Board, a spokeswoman said Monday. Pipeline opponents are calling on the board to take swift action in reviewing a federal permit that governs how streams, rivers and wetlands will be crossed by the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Southwest Virginia and a similar natural gas transmission line to the east, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Del. Sam Rasoul calls for a stop work order on the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Monday June 18, 2018

ROANOKE, Va. (WSET) — Citing concerns about water quality, more than two dozen activists gathers Monday afternoon to ask the state to stop work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The group, led by Delegate Sam Rasoul (D- Roanoke) says the Department of Environmental Quality and the state water board should stop work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline while they read over more than 11-thousand comments that have been submitted regarding water quality concerns.

Read the WSET news report

Pipeline opponents share concern about pipeline impact on waterways

Monday June 18, 2018

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ7) — A federal agency is upholding a decision to approve the construction of the Mountain Valley pipeline. Dan Crawford takes daily walks along the Greenway and visits Wasena Park to practice the drum. He uses his time in the park to share his thoughts about the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. “Some people don’t think we can stop them, “said Dan Crawford of the Sierra Club. “My opinion is first we have to try, and secondly as an individual we do have power. We just have to exercise it.” Last week The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decided to uphold approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project. The agency denied a request for a rehearing by pipeline opponents. : “On one hand I wasn’t surprised but it’s another serious slap in the face for the citizens of the country and especially Virginia,” sad Crawford. Other activists are speaking out about the pipeline impact on the environment.Cynthia Munley is coordinating a press conference with Delegate Sam Rasoul about the alleged erosion control violations from pipeline construction that haven’t been issued to MVP. “Our water resources for the region are in dire threat right now,” said Cynthia Munley of Preserve Salem. According to Munley the cost to remove sediment from the water ways would fall on tax payers. “My children and grandchildren are living here and I don’t want them living near incineration zones,” said Munley. “It affects future generations.” Organizers are hosting a press conference on Monday, June 18 at Wasena Park. They also said there will be a March in Richmond proposing the Water Control Board to take action.

Read the WDBJ news report

FERC upholds approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline project

Saturday June 16, 2018

A federal agency that green-lighted construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline with a key approval last year has voted 3-2 to uphold its decision. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied a request for a rehearing filed by pipeline opponents in a 172-page order Friday. Although the ruling has no immediate impact on a construction project that is already well underway, it gives opponents the final decision they needed to pose a direct legal challenge.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Hileman: Why Northam should delay pipeline construction

Wednesday June 13, 2018

Regulators cite Mountain Valley Pipeline a second time for erosion problems

Thursday June 7, 2018

Charge dismissed against pipeline protester after arresting officer accused of lying

Thursday June 7, 2018

CASEY: Pipeline opponents try a different tactic

Thursday June 7, 2018

Is grassroots opposition to the development of the Mountain Valley Pipeline growing, as crews begin clearing a right-of-way for the 42-inch, pressurized natural gas pipeline? Some recent events make it seem that way.

Mountain Valley Pipeline resistance sees parallels with civil rights tactics

Thursday June 7, 2018

Christopulos: A few questions for Mountain Valley pipeline supporters

Wednesday June 6, 2018

Three Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters arrested in Monroe County

Tuesday June 5, 2018

LINDSIDE — Three Massachusetts residents were arrested Monday morning after attaching themselves to equipment to stage a work stoppage on the construction site of a natural gas pipeline road crossing in Monroe County. Sgt. C.K. McKenzie, with the Union Detachment of the West Virginia State Police, said the protesters were charged with trespassing, obstructing an officer and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors. Five were initially on the work easement, granted for the Mountain Valley Pipeline that will go under Rt. 219 just east of Lindside. But two protesters were not attached to anything and left when asked.

Read the full Bluefield Daily Telegraph article

Letter: 7 arguments against pipeline

Monday June 4, 2018

With regard to the flooding and mudslides near the Mountain Valley Pipeline destruction sites in various areas including Franklin County, should anyone be surprised? This whole thing is so utterly nonsensical and abhorrent in so many ways.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Environmental watchdogs: A citizens’ group monitors the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Sunday June 3, 2018

Letter: Mountain Valley Pipeline and the curse of Cassandra

Saturday June 2, 2018

Anti-terrorism agencies involved in monitoring protesters of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Friday June 1, 2018

Pipeline protester removed from aerial blockade in Giles County

Friday June 1, 2018

Two pipeline opponents arrested in Franklin County

Friday June 1, 2018

FRANKLIN CO., Va. (WDBJ7) Two people were arrested Thursday along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, after a Roanoke federal judge issued a new order and authorized U.S. marshals to enforce it. Crews have been cutting in the area where tree sitters were protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline just a week ago. Thursday morning, federal marshals and state troopers were stationed nearby, as heavy equipment cleared the pipeline right of way. Judge Elizabeth Dillon directed the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce an earlier court order prohibiting interference, and she authorized the marshals to keep people “a reasonable and safe distance” away from any tree-cutting. The marshals service alleges the two who were arrested Thursday failed to comply with an officer’s order.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Bent Mountain landowner, pipeline company spar over disputed burial ground

Thursday May 31, 2018

ROANOKE CO., Va. (WDBJ7) The Mountain Valley Pipeline is facing time-of-year restrictions, a May 31st deadline to finish tree felling in the project’s right-of-way. So the cutting continues on Bent Mountain in areas where the work hasn’t been completed. Wednesday morning, crews were working on the property of the Chandler family, taking down trees near a spring and sensitive wetlands.On another part of the same property, the pipeline right of way passes an area identified by tribal representatives as a native American burial ground.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Mountain Valley Pipeline sued by Franklin County landowners for erosion damage

Wednesday May 30, 2018

Franklin County won’t lease property to Mountain Valley Pipeline for storage yard

Tuesday May 29, 2018

U.S. Army pulls Mountain Valley natgas pipeline permit in West Virginia

Tuesday May 29, 2018

(Reuters) – The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers pulled a permit last week for EQT Midstream Partners LP’s Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia that could delay the $3.5 billion project’s expected late 2018 in-service date.  “This is a big one,” Katie Bays, energy analyst at Height Capital Markets in Washington, DC, said in a report on Monday, noting “The loss of the (Nationwide Permit) is not easy to reconcile and could delay the project.” The permit, known as Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12, authorizes Mountain Valley to discharge dredged and fill materials into several rivers, including the Gauley, Greenbrier and Elk, at 591 locations.

Read the full Reuters report

Letter: Can the earth win?

Tuesday May 29, 2018

The long struggle to stop the pipelines from becoming a reality in our region appears to be over. Though protests continue, the power of FERC, supported by state, environmental regulators and the legal system has apparently prevailed, leaving thousands of Appalachians, especially those living in or near the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline deeply disappointed, some in despair.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Judge to tree-sitters: This is ‘not a game’

Monday May 28, 2018

The last of three tree-sitters on a Rocky Mount farm abandoned his elevated platform late Monday morning, clearing the way for Mountain Valley Pipeline crews to continue toppling trees there. The unidentified protester, known as Ink, climbed down just hours before he was due to appear in court on contempt charges for ignoring U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Dillon’s previous orders to clear the way. He was replaced briefly by a female protester, known only as Sprout. But she didn’t stay long after U.S. Marshals also ordered her to appear in court Monday afternoon.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Tree sitter continues pipeline protest in Franklin County

Friday May 25, 2018

FRANKLIN CO., Va. (WDBJ7) Four Corners Farm was quiet for most of the day.  A tree sitter remained high above Teel Creek. And there was little activity in the Mountain Valley Pipeline right-of-way. Then, late Friday afternoon, crews working for MVP returned with federal marshals. On Thursday, the tree sitter known as “Ink” recorded crews working close to the tree stand. And on the ground, other pipeline opponents were watching the work, to make sure pipeline crews follow state and federal regulations.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Montgomery County landowners fear water woes from pipeline construction

Thursday May 24, 2018

MONTGOMERY CO., Va. (WDBJ7) David Hancock was concerned last Friday when he saw muddy water in a spring-fed pond on his neighbor’s property. “You know I’m 62 years old and we’ve never have seen mud in this area before,” Hancock told us. “There’s no development or disturbed areas around here so it had to come underground.”Hancock alerted Linda Sink, whose family has owned land in the area for almost 75 years…Sink’s property doesn’t lie in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, but it’s close. And the work is moving quickly nearby, where the chainsaws have been replaced by heavy equipment.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Army Corps of Engineers temporarily suspends part of crucial permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Wednesday May 23, 2018

Construction halted at Mountain Valley Pipeline work site following severe erosion in Franklin County

Sunday May 20, 2018

State regulators have put a stop to construction of part of the Mountain Valley Pipeline swamped by a rainstorm, saying work cannot continue until proper erosion control measures are established. Crews were using heavy equipment to cut trees and clear land along the natural gas pipeline’s right of way in Franklin County when heavy rains Thursday night and Friday morning swept away much of the soil they had unearthed. Both lanes of nearby Cahas Mountain Road were covered by up to eight inches of mud.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Letter: Regulators bowed to pipeline company pressure

Sunday May 20, 2018

At a hearing on May 8, Chief Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit described a relationship between the Forest Service and MVP that is valid for every government agency with a duty to protect the public from the destruction caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Read the full Roanoke Times letter-to-the-editor

Mountain Valley Pipeline cited for environmental violations in West Virginia

Thursday May 17, 2018

Lawsuit questions treatment of Mountain Valley Pipeline protester

Wednesday May 16, 2018

Judge fines Franklin County couple for allowing tree-sit protests of pipeline

Wednesday May 16, 2018

Federal appeals court invalidates Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s ‘incidental take’ review

Tuesday May 15, 2018

A federal appeals court Tuesday invalidated a key U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review of the 600-mile Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a decision environmental lawyers who argued the case say should halt construction of the contentious natural gas project. But Dominion vowed to continue to press forward on the project, asserting Tuesday night that the ruling only covers portions of the pipeline’s proposed route. A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with pipeline opponents, who argued that the federal review known as an incidental take statement — meant to set limits on killing threatened or endangered species during construction and operation — was so vague as to be unenforceable.

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Pipeline Protesters Take to The Trees

Tuesday May 15, 2018

As the sun sets on a remote peak along the West Virginia-Virginia border, a tense standoff unfolds between an armed squadron of U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers and a band of campers. Generators are flicked on and prison-style floodlights blast the campers, as well as the protester they are guarding, a young woman in a tree who goes by “Nutty.”

Read the full Rolling Stone article

Editorial: What would it take to change Northam’s mind on pipelines? Some advice for pipeline opponents

Friday May 11, 2018

Letter: DEQ isn’t doing its job on pipeline

Thursday May 10, 2018

Letter: Disappointed in judge’s ruling

Thursday May 10, 2018

Opponents of two pipeline projects rally in Richmond

Wednesday May 9, 2018

RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ7) On a street corner near the Richmond Convention Center, pipeline opponents vied for the attention of drivers, and Dominion Energy shareholders who were meeting nearby. Red and Minor Terry were there, with others from southwestern Virginia who are fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

A summary of legal actions involving the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday May 8, 2018

Construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has sparked numerous legal actions and challenges. Here is a summary of the major civil cases that are pending:

Read the full Roanoke Times article

Federal appeals court hears 2 pipeline cases

Tuesday May 8, 2018

Protesters leaving tree-stands on Bent Mountain after being found in contempt of court

Saturday May 5, 2018

Hileman: Northam should revoke MVP permits

Saturday May 5, 2018

MVP Company asks judge to hold Franklin Co farm owners in contempt of court

Friday May 4, 2018

For the second time in a week, a protest against the Mountain Valley Pipeline has landed in federal court.

View the WDBJ news clip

Judge finds ‘Red’ Terry and her daughter in contempt for tree-sit protests of pipeline

Friday May 4, 2018

Bent Mountain landowner says Native American site deserves protection

Thursday May 3, 2018

ROANOKE CO., Va. (WDBJ7) As tree-cutting for the Mountain Valley Pipeline continues on Bent Mountain, a landowner is trying to protect what experts believe is a native American burial site. The chainsaws haven’t reached Kathy Chandler’s property yet. And she still hopes MVP will adjust the route of the pipeline to avoid the site that was recently identified by tribal representatives. “A cemetery, a place of rest deserves the respect more than to have in this case a pipeline within 10 or 12 feet of what they’ve determined the margins to be,” Chandler told WDBJ7 on Thursday. “And I might add it hasn’t been fully explored.”

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Pipeline opponents: ‘Northam is going to have to answer for what this looks like’

Thursday May 3, 2018

Judge hears arguments for and against two pipeline protesters sitting in trees

Wednesday May 2, 2018

Wednesday May 2, 2018

A Virginia state senator filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday, claiming that federal officials are illegally blocking access to a road in the Jefferson National Forest where several people are protesting construction of a natural gas pipeline. State Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax), who is a lawyer, filed the suit at the federal courthouse in Roanoke after being prohibited from using the road to reach the protesters last week.

Read the full Washington Post article

Mountain Valley Pipeline asks judge to hold tree-sitters in contempt of court

Tuesday May 1, 2018

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ7) Matt Fleenor hit the sidewalk outside the Poff Federal Building Tuesday afternoon, to show his support for the Terry family and his opposition to the Mountain Valley Pipeline. “I don’t think the people of the valley understand how close the pipeline is,” he said, “and the danger it might present to our natural resources.” Inside the building, the first-floor courtroom was packed, but Red and Minor Terry weren’t there. The mother and daughter have been in their tree stands since early April, and continue their pipeline protest on their family’s property.

Read the WDBJ news report, view the news clip

Forest Service apologizes for damage to Appalachian Trail during patrols of pipeline protests

Tuesday May 1, 2018

DEQ invites more public comments on Mountain Valley Pipeline

Tuesday May 1, 2018

State environmental regulators have opened another round of public comments on the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Department of Environmental Quality will take written comments on a limited scope — whether a review process by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is adequate to protect streams and rivers crossed by the 303-mile natural gas pipeline. The public comment period, which will also allow comments on the same question for the similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline, began Monday and will run through May 30.

Read the full Roanoke Times article