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Pipelines

Denial Of Essential Permit Deals Serious Blow To Potomac Pipeline

A Maryland administrative board has denied Columbia Gas a necessary permit for it to build a controversial gas pipeline across the Potomac River. By a unanimous vote, the Maryland Board of Public Works rejected a right-of-way easement for the Eastern Panhandle Expansion, commonly known as the Potomac Pipeline. Without the permit, the gas company cannot lay pipeline underneath the Maryland Rail Trail, putting the entire project in jeopardy. The Board of Public Works consists of the governor, the comptroller and the treasurer. Governor Larry Hogan, who cast one of the three no votes, said that he was surprised that the easement was even on agenda for January 2...

Mountain Valley Pipeline Protested With Tree Sitter

Two people face removal from trees because they are blocking the Mountain Valley Pipeline project near Elliston, a pipeline attorney said in court papers. A person who said he is one of the protesters expressed defiance Thursday. The person, who identified himself as 24-year-old Phillip Flagg, said only “if the pipeline were stopped” would he leave the tree voluntarily. He said he was speaking from about 50 feet above the ground in a chestnut oak near Yellow Finch Lane. He said he has ample supplies to stay alive, and another tree-sitter is nearby. The location is a steep slope below Poor Mountain in eastern Montgomery County, he said.

2nd Camp Set Up To Block Pipeline Company’s Access To Wet’suwet’en Land

A second checkpoint has been put up on a remote B.C. forestry road to block construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, days after a court ordered that the first one must stop preventing the company from accessing the road and a bridge. An interim injunction order from a B.C. court last Friday ordered the individuals at the Unist'ot'en camp, a self-described re-occupation of Wet'suwet'en land, to stop impeding Coastal GasLink from gaining access to the logging road and bridge it argues is on a critical path it needs to access as part of pipeline construction. The pipeline is part of an estimated $40 billion natural gas project slated for construction in B.C.

Energy Transfer, Banks Lost Billions By Ignoring Early Dakota Access Pipeline Concerns

Roughly four years ago, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) filed a federal application to build a 1,172 mile oil pipeline from North Dakota’s Bakken shale across the U.S. to Illinois at a projected cost of $3.8 billion. Before that application was filed, on September 30, 2014, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with ETP to express concerns about the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) and fears of water contamination. Though the company, now known as Energy Transfer, had re-routed a river crossing to protect the state capital of Bismarck against oil spills, it apparently turned a deaf ear to the Tribe’s objections.

Virginia Rejects Dominion Plan And Pipeline

Today the Virginia State Corporation Commission issued an order rejecting Dominion Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan, which lays out the utility’s plans for meeting energy needs for years to come in Virginia. This is the first time the Virginia SCC has ever outright rejected a plan from the energy company. Also today, Dominion in contending with a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals order to stay a key permit of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has now temporarily shut down construction on the entire project. Today the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Fish and Wildlife Service approvals for the ACP, which must be in place before Dominion can harm threatened and endangered species.

Beginning Of The End For Canada’s Tar Sands Or Just A Blip?

When hundreds of activists protesting the Keystone XL pipeline were arrested at the White House in 2011, their ultimate target lay thousands of miles away: Canada's tar sands. If they stopped the pipeline, they argued, that could slow the growth of this particularly dirty source of oil and score a limited but significant win for the climate. This week, with the market saturated and prices depressed, Alberta's premier announced that her government would temporarily curtail the province's oil production, chiefly from the tar sands, because there isn't enough pipeline capacity to ship the crude to market.

Pipeline Protests Continue Near Lindside

LINDSIDE — Another pipeline protester in Monroe County was found attached to a piece of heavy equipment at a work site on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). A protester climbed and locked him(her)self to a boom tractor, about 20 feet in the air, as supporters gathered nearby, according to Appalachians Against Pipelines. Hanging from the equipment was a banner reading “ANTIPATRIARCHY, ANTIPIPELINE.”  The protest was staged on Ellison Ridge, north of Lindside and West Virginia State Police troopers were on the scene working to get the protester down. On Nov. 19, a protester was perched on top of an excavator at an MVP work site on Rt. 219 in Lindside all day. West Virginia State Police eventually removed the protester, identified as Steffi Alexandra Klosterman, 25, of Morgantown.

The Time Is Now: #Unistoten

Yesterday TransCanada tried to enter Unist’ot’en territory to begin work on their Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline. They were respectfully turned away by Johnny Morris of the Gidimt’en Clan. None of the Wet’suwet’en Clans consent to this project, and the hereditary chiefs have been clear that TransCanada does not have permission to build pipelines through our unceded and occupied homelands. (Please share the October 2018 Press Release:  BC and Canada Ignore Wet’suwet’en Title Holders To Push Pipeline Agenda) Unfortunately, TransCanada has decided that the best time to begin confrontations with the Unist’ot’en is while we are facing an ongoing family crisis.

Report: 90% Of Pipeline Blasts Draw No Financial Penalties

A striking report has revealed that 90 percent of the 137 interstate pipeline fires or explosions since 2010 have drawn no financial penalties for the companies responsible. The article from E&E News reporter Mike Soraghan underscores the federal Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (PHMSA) weak authority over the fossil fuel industry for these disasters. The government levied a mere $5.4 million in fines for the 13 pipeline explosion and fire cases in the last eight years, the analysis found. "That's less than one day of profits for one major pipeline company, TransCanada. It's $2 million less than what [TransCanada CEO Russ Girling] made last year," Soraghan explained in a tweet.

Protests And Legal Actions Promised Against Enbridge Pipeline In Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota regulators reaffirmed their support Monday for Enbridge Energy's proposal to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline across the northern part of the state, while dozens of protesters walked out of the overflow hearing to make a point about climate change. The Public Utilities Commission unanimously rejected a motion by opponents to reconsider its previous decision to grant a certificate of need for the project. And the commissioners agreed that Calgary-based Enbridge has met several conditions that they imposed when they approved the plan in June. "Line 3 is a climate change disaster so we will stop Line 3," several protesters in the main hearing room chanted early during the proceedings. Other opponents watching from an overflow room took up the chant and marched across the street to the Capitol...

Army Corps Suspends Atlantic Coast Pipeline Permit

Following requests from Appalachian Mountain Advocates (Appalmad) attorneys, the Norfolk, Huntington, and Pittsburgh districts of the Army Corps of Engineers have each suspended its authorization of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. As a result, ACP lacks authorization to do any instream or wetland construction anywhere along its route. Appalmad has argued this action was necessary in light of a recent federal court ruling that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s reliance on Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 was improper. The NWP was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. It allowed contractors to trench through the bottom of streams and rivers.

Park Service Can Still Say No To TransCanada And Drilling Under Potomac River

Hagerstown, Md. — To transport gas from the fracking wells in Pennsylvania and Ohio to the Eastern Panhandle, Columbia Gas, a subsidiary of TransCanada, needs to drill under the Potomac at Hancock, Md. But if things go wrong, it could mean disaster for the river and all who depend on it. “This pipeline may only be less than five miles long, but it is a senseless pipeline carrying fracked gas that poses a number of risks to our water, to our property, to our health and quality of life,” Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls said today outside the office of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park in Hagerstown, Md. The C&O Canal, managed by the National Park Service, runs 185 miles along the Potomac, so if Columbia wants to lay pipeline across the river, it also has to cross the C&O Canal.

“Pumpkins Not Pipelines”: Activists Stage Halloween Parade Outside The Governor’s Office

Richmond residents from Broad Street to North 9th were witness to a parade of costumed protesters Wednesday, warning of “a place where the air is so polluted it causes headaches, nosebleeds and illness. A place where your water is the color of toxic mud.” “On this Halloween day, you may think we are giving the details of a horror story,” said Stacy Lovelace of the Virginia Pipeline Resisters, speaking through a megaphone. “But sadly this is, and will be, the reality for those along the path of the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines.” The activists marshaled outside the Governor’s Office at the Virginia State Capitol, as they have every week since early February, in protest of the Northam administration’s continued approval of the Mountain Valley (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipelines (ACP).

Mountaineer Gas Pipeline: Rockwool Foes Zero In On ‘Blood Supply’ Of Unwelcome Factory

Hundreds of people packed the room at the Shepherd University Student Center Wednesday night to deliver impassioned statements to the West Virginia Public Service Commission on a permit for a gas pipeline extension in the Eastern Panhandle. The proposed extension of the Mountaineer Gas Pipeline would cut through Jefferson County to supply a new industrial park near Charles Town. At the moment, the only customer is the Rockwool mineral wool factory, which has just begun construction under a cloud of controversy. Opponents of Rockwool are incensed that local and state governments subverted the county’s comprehensive plan, manipulated zoning codes and negotiated generous tax breaks and subsidies in secrecy.

Water Protectors Lock-Down Dallas Mansion Of Kelcy Warren, CEO Of Energy Transfer Partners

DALLAS, TEXAS 10/19 – On Friday morning, Water Protectors locked themselves to gates at the entrance of the residence of Kelcy Warren, CEO and Chairman of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), demanding the company abided by a court-order mandating it provide an evacuation route for the African-American community of St. James, the terminus for their controversial Bayou Bridge pipeline and the end of their Dakota Access Pipeline. The community of St. James lies in the heart of what is dubbed, Cancer Alley, where cancer rates among residents is far higher than the average due to the toxic infrastructure of chemical plants, refineries and pipeline export facilities.

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