Appalachia gathers dissent to gas pipeline bound for eastern N.C.

[theHandpuppet]

Appalachia gathers dissent to gas pipeline bound for eastern N.C.
By Sean Cockerham
McClatchy Washington Bureau
November 11, 2014

WAYNESBORO, Va. — Fred Powell was born under the misty mountain ridges that hug southwest Virginia , beneath the Appalachian Trail and where Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive turns into the Blue Ridge Parkway, in a farmhouse his great-great-grandfather built in 1832.

Time passes slowly in the rolling green landscape. Part of the so-called “Breadbasket of the Confederacy” during the Civil War, farmers have long worked the land, raising cows and crops, joined in recent years by wineries and craft breweries that attract day-trippers from the college town of Charlottesville.

This quiet area is being roiled by plans announced in September to put it in the path of a 42-inch pipeline from West Virginia through North Carolina. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, primarily a project of Dominion Resources and Duke Energy, would ship natural gas 550 miles from the fracking fields of the Marcellus and Utica shales to economically struggling counties in eastern North Carolina, where there are hopes it will help to attract industry.

Powell, like others in Virginia’s Nelson and Augusta counties, is refusing to allow Dominion Resources to come through his farmland and survey for the pipeline right of way, saying they’ll do whatever they can to try to stop the $5 billion project....

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/11/11/246509/appalachia-gathers-dissent-to.html#storylink=cpy

[A Little Weird]

1. I hope they can successfully fight the pipeline

The threat of eminent domain won't sit well with anyone - regardless of their political persuasion.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Getting folks interested in anything that happens in Appalachia is damned hard

Look at all the folks who are up in arms about the Keystone pipeline. Run a pipeline through Appalachia, no big deal.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Monroe residents protest proposed gas pipeline

The Beckley Register Herald
Beckley, West Virginia
Monroe residents protest proposed gas pipeline
By Tina Alvey REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

UNION — The Monroe County Commission was forced to move a portion of Wednesday's regular session to larger quarters when nearly 50 people showed up to protest the impending construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Spanning approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, the MVP is a joint venture between EQT Corporation and NextEra US Gas Assets LLC, according to the project's web page. Plans call for the pipeline to be in service during the fourth quarter of 2018, carrying at least two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions.

As shown on the project's web page, the pipeline's proposed path cuts through the middle of Nicholas County, western Greenbrier County and southeastern Monroe County, clipping a corner of Summers County.

Commission President Shane Ashley told the crowd gathered in the Monroe County Courthouse on Wednesday morning, "We (county commissioners) have no legal authority over the pipeline at this point."....

MORE at http://www.register-herald.com/news/monroe-residents-protest-proposed-gas-pipeline/article_1a2523b7-7080-576a-94d8-85b5bf8b396c.html

[theHandpuppet]

4. Pipeline opponents seek to influence FERC decision

Pipeline opponents seek to influence FERC decision
Sunday, November 9, 2014 12:00 am
By Duncan Adams

One woman in the crowd reacted emphatically to longtime environmental lawyer Joe Lovett’s self-described, hard-won cynicism about federal agencies.

“Our power is in our numbers and we will stop this pipeline,” declared Carolyn Deck, a resident of Floyd County.

Deck referred specifically to the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 300-mile long, 42-inch diameter buried interstate natural gas transmission pipeline that would pass through five regional counties.

She spoke during an anti-pipeline meeting Oct. 28 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation church in Blacksburg. Lovett, executive director of West Virginia-based Appalachian Mountain Advocates, was a featured speaker. He addressed a crowd of more than 225 people....

MORE at http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/floyd_county/pipeline-opponents-seek-to-influence-ferc-decision/article_c39353cb-271f-50b9-9062-ffeb25b3c423.html