Today, attorneys for the Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Advocates filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court to ensure that a deal for fracked gas shipping capacity is reviewed for conflicts of interest. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline presents a major conflict of interest because the companies that own the pipeline, including Dominion Energy, also own the utilities that have purchased shipping capacity on the pipeline.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has rejected a vital part of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s (ACP) construction process. ACP cannot start construction in North Carolina without DEQ’s approval of this plan and now must either submit a revised plan or contest the rejection.
The Associated Press broke the news that Dan Weekley, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Dominion Energy, told a gathering of fracked gas industry insiders that the company had plans to extend the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline into South Carolina, despite only releasing maps that show it ending in North Carolina. This revelation contradicts not only what Dominion told the public, but what they told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina regulators, as well.
The Sierra Club notified the Wolf administration that Transco has suspended air quality monitoring at two locations during its construction of the fracked gas Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, the Sierra Club filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a challenge to Florida Southeast Connection’s (FSC) request for fast-track authorization to extend the fracked gas Sabal Trail Pipeline, in what is called the Okeechobee lateral project. The project would supply a massive new gas-burning power plant that FSC’s affiliate, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), wants to put into service in 2019.
Today, Appalachian Mountain Advocates (Appalmad), on behalf of the Sierra Club, filed a request for rehearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) calling for a new and comprehensive examination of whether the NEXUS fracked gas pipeline is necessary.
The Sierra Club and its partners filed two letters with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) arguing that body must do new analyses of two fracked gas pipelines. While FERC has already issued Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), neither sufficiently considered the pipelines’ impacts, including the long-term effects of the greenhouse gases produced from burning the gas transported by these pipelines.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission upended Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rejection of the fracked gas Valley Lateral Pipeline. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, states must certify that a pipeline will not violate their clean water standards before construction on that pipeline can begin. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation previously refused to give the Millennium Pipeline Company the section 401 certificate it needed and today’s move by FERC overrides that.
WEST TRENTON, N.J. -- Today, Governors Tom Wolf (PA), Andrew Cuomo (NY), and John Carney (DE), commissioners of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), voted to direct the executive director to prepare a revised set of draft regulations on fracking within the Delaware River Basin. This would start the process of enacting a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River watershed, including 42 counties across Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, an area that provides drinking water for more than 15 million people.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection filed a motion in federal court to invalidate its earlier approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, individual states must certify that interstate gas pipelines will not have significant effects on water quality before construction can begin.
MONROE COUNTY, OH - Yesterday, the US Geological Survey reported an earthquake in Monroe County with the epicenter located at 39.6663º N, 81.244º W. The 3.0 magnitude earthquake was located in the Marietta Unit of the Wayne National Forest. Approximately 40,000 acres of the forest are slated for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) by the Bureau of Land Management.
Yesterday, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in a letter to a federal regulator, announced its intention to “vacate and remand” their approval of the certification for the proposed fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline.