U.S. Supreme Court greenlights Mountain Valley Pipeline

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, at least for now. Thursday the court overturned a lower appeals court and said work on it can resume, "potentially moving the project closer to completion as a legal fight continues," The Wall Street Journal's David Harrison reports.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., won "a provision in the bipartisan debt-ceiling bill signed into law last month [that] stripped the lower court of its jurisdiction over the natural-gas pipeline and mandated that it be completed," Harrison notes. "The environmental groups behind the suits argued that stopping legal challenges before the Fourth Circuit violated the separation of powers clause of the Constitution, in effect giving Congress the power to decide the outcome of judicial proceedings. The Fourth Circuit agreed to pause the project while it sorted out the effect of the debt-ceiling law, prompting [pipeline owner] Equitrans Midstream to appeal to the Supreme Court. As is typical in emergency orders, the Supreme Court didn’t explain its ruling. There were no noted dissents. The court’s ruling didn’t dismiss the legal challenges to the pipeline entirely, allowing project opponents to continue making their case before the Fourth Circuit," which had a hearing scheduled Thursday.

The pipeline "has aroused controversy ever since it first was proposed almost a decade ago. Opponents, including adjacent landowners and environmental groups, have challenged the project’s environmental permits, delaying the project for years," Harrison notes. "Last year, the Biden administration struck a deal with Manchin: He would agree to provide the pivotal vote for the administration’s climate bill, and in exchange the White House and Senate Democratic leaders would support Manchin’s efforts to get the pipeline finished."

Appeals court blocks Mountain Valley Pipeline again, in suit that says Congress overstepped its authority to spur it

UPDATE, July 15: The pipeline company asked Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency appeals from the 4th Circuit, to dissolve the circuit court's order.

"A federal appeals court has again blocked construction on a segment of a contentious natural gas pipeline being built through Virginia and West Virginia, this time doing so even after Congress ordered the project’s approval," Matthew Barakat of The Associated Press reports.

"The stay issued Monday by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond comes after Congress passed legislation last month requiring all necessary permits be issued for construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The law also stripped the 4th Circuit from jurisdiction over the case. Environmentalists, though, argued that Congress overstepped its authority by enacting the law, saying it violates the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution."

The pipeline builder, Equitrans Midstream, "said Tuesday it is evaluating all legal options, including an emergency appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court," Reuters reports. The company said, "Unless this decision is promptly reversed, it would jeopardize Mountain Valley's ability to complete construction by year-end 2023."

Mountain Valley Pipeline gets permit for water crossings

The pipeline will go to one that serves eastern states. 

"A final permit issued Friday may be enough to get the Mountain Valley Pipeline across the remaining rivers, streams and wetlands that have long blocked the project’s path to completion," reports Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke Times.

The permit came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "for construction through hundreds of water bodies in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia, as it was required to do by a recently passed federal law that fast tracks the controversial project," Hammack writes, noting the law's main backer, conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, where the pipeline will gather its gas.

The permit covers all the "water resources" the pipeline needs to cross, which are so numerous that an exact count wasn't available Friday. "Mountain Valley has previously said that it has completed more than half of the nearly 1,000 water-body crossings along the pipeline’s 303-mile route," Hammack notes. "But one thing seemed clear Friday: Mountain Valley now has approval to complete a natural gas project that has been delayed for more than four years by permitting complications and legal challenges."

In a partial win for a Chippewa band in Wisconsin, a federal judge orders a section of oil pipeline to close in three years

The Bad River Band's insignia shows the river's watershed
inside the reservation. (Image from Bad River Tribe website)

A federal judge's ruling gave a partial victory to members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, who were suing Canadian oil firm Enbridge "over a stretch of pipeline that crossed over tribal lands," reports Zack Budryk of The Hill. District Judge William Conley "ordered the firm to shut down a section of its pipeline in Wisconsin. . . . The tribe has argued the area of the pipeline is at risk of rupture, while erosion of the banks of the Bad River has left only about 15 feet of land separating the pipeline and the river. . . . Conley agreed with the tribe on the environmental risks of the situation but did not agree a state of emergency warranted an immediate shutdown."

Reservation and pipeline (WNMU map)

Conley, a Barack Obama appointee and native of Rice Lake, 80 miles southwest of the reservation, ordered a "gradual shutdown within three years, and he ordered the energy firm to pay the tribe $5 million in damages for trespassing," Budryk reports. "His ruling expressed concerns that an immediate halt to the pipeline would disrupt energy security in the area and make consumer fuel costs spiral." The judge pointed out Enbridge's delay in building a bypass pipeline, noting that "'Enbridge has now had 10 years since losing its rights of way, including four years of litigating, to move its bypass forward. Considering all the evidence, the court cannot countenance an indefinite delay. . . . Nevertheless, the court will give Enbridge an additional three years to complete a reroute.'"

Enbridge said the ruling was a partial win, but it plans to appeal. "Mike Wiggins, chairman of the Bad River Band, told Budryk that its "victory is not a cause for unqualified celebration . . . We are under no illusion that Enbridge will do the right thing. We expect them to fight this order with all of their corporate might. This is just one step in protecting our people and water."

EPA aims to reduce methane leaks from oil and gas facilities

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a regulation Friday "that agency officials said would, by 2035, lower the amount of methane emissions from oil and gas operations by 36 million tons — more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from all coal-fired power plants in a single year," The New York Times reports. Methane is "a greenhouse gas that scientists say is one of the most powerful contributors to climate change."

"The rule is part of a global effort led by the United States to control methane," the Times notes. "Although the pollutant gets far less attention than carbon dioxide, it is 80 times more powerful at heating the atmosphere in the short run. Last year, more than 100 countries joined a coalition led by the United States and Europe to cut 30 percent of methane emissions by 2030. This year, U.S. leaders are leaning on other countries to produce their plans for making good on their pledge."

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “We must lead by example when it comes to tackling methane pollution, one of the biggest drivers of climate change.” The proposed regulation buts flesh on the bones of the agency's existing plan to reduce methane emissions, and is the hand in the glove of the tax-and-climate bill Congress passed recently, which includes "money to stop methane leaking from oil wells, pipelines and other sources," the Times notes. "The new law includes fines of up to $1,500 per ton of methane released, to be imposed on the worst polluters. There also is $1.55 billion in the package to help companies avoid those fines by upgrading equipment."

The proposed regulation would require more monitoring and reporting by oil and gas operators, and require them to respond to credible third-party reports of significant leaks from their sites.

Manchin's energy-permit deal falls through, for now, but bipartisan compromise with W.Va. seatmate seems possible

Manchin chairs Senate Energy Committee.
(Photo by Shuran Huang, Washington Post)

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin's gambit to speed energy-projects permitting, especially for the Mountain Valley Pipeline for natural gas, was derailed by an unusual alliance of fellow Democrats who didn't like the idea and Republicans mad at him for supporting Democrats' tax-and-climate bill -- something he did in return for a later vote on his measure, which couldn't fit into the bill under Senate rules.

Manchin wanted the measure in the latest must-pass spending bill to keep the government open, but Republicans stiffed him and supported a measure offered by his Republican seatmate, Shelley Moore Capito. Manchin said after withdrawing his measure Tuesday that he had already spoken to Capito and Republican leaders about getting something into another bill when Congress reconvenes after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called Manchin's legislation a “huge giveaway to the fossil fuel industry,” but The Washington Post editorial board said it is needed to speed construction of new power lines "to transition rapidly off greenhouse-gas-heavy fossil fuels and onto renewables. Aside from more solar panels and wind turbines, perhaps the greatest need is transmission . . . The sun does not shine and the wind does not blow everywhere at the same time. A grid packed with renewables will require transmission lines to zip electricity from the places where weather conditions are favorable to the places people live. Moreover, electricity will have to replace gasoline as the fuel for the nation’s cars and trucks, power heat pumps and water heaters in people’s homes, and run the stoves that will replace natural gas ranges, which means the nation will need more of it — and more wires to move it around the country." The Washington Monthly said much the same.

Manchin could still finish the job, if he and Capito can strike a deal, write Burgess Everett, Josh Siegel and Zack Colman of Politico. Capito told them, “This issue is so important that, I think, getting people to the table, we can forge a bipartisan compromise.” Politico reports, "Thus far Republicans have preferred bypassing more environmental regulations than Democrats can stomach in an energy permitting overhaul. But Democrats don’t see the gap as unbridgeable." Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said, “Senator Capito has a history of doing bipartisan deals.”

Another Democratic point person could be Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the other state through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline would pass. "Kaine has proposed legislation that would require notification to landowners of potential pipeline projects that would affect their properties and an explanation to them of how they can participate in the approvals process," report Katy Stech Ferek and Natalie Andrews of The Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE, Sept. 30: The Brookings Institution has a policy brief on clean-energy permitting.

Quick hits: Earmarks return; flooded post offices may not; pipelines leak carcinogens; a monk unites a community . . .

The return of congressional earmarks, with more transparency, is a boon to the selected local governments and their citizens, Route Fifty reports.

Kentucky communities worry the July flood will make them lose their post offices, the Jackson-Breathitt County Times-Voice reports.

How a solitary monk, known for his soup, united a rural community, from The Washington Post.

"A rural doctor gave her all, then her heart broke," from The New York Times.

The Associated Press has a feature story on the Ojibwe of Minnesota harvesting wild rice, imperiled by climate change.

A former county clerk in northeast Arkansas was sentenced to 57 months in prison for stealing more than $1.5 million in the first six months of 2020. He's 34 years old and was already in state prison serving a 10-year term, The Jonesboro Sun reports.

The University of Kentucky has established a center to research medical use of cannabis, following a law passed after a medical-marijuana law couldn't pass the legislature. Read about it here.

A study called "first of its kind" documents carcinogenic emissions from gas pipelines. Read it here.

A rural Virginia county considers deeding a Confederate statue and its plot to a private group in order to fend off possible attempts to remove it, The Washington Post reports.

NTSB blames deadly pipeline blast on bad pipe, failed corrosion protection, flow reversal for fracked gas, lots more

NTSB diagram overlays aerial photo of most of burned area onto satellite image. Flame from pipe went east-northeast.

Pipelines carrying natural gas and other flammable products sometimes blow up, bringing destruction and death to rural Americans. A gas pipeline blew up in Central Kentucky in 2019 mainly because of a manufacturing defect and failure of a system that is supposed to prevent corrosion of the pipe, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report Wednesday.

Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, "Ineffective electrochemical protection, called cathodic protection, on the outside of the pipe designed to prevent corrosion, the report said. The NTSB also said the operator of the pipeline, Enbridge, didn’t accurately assess the condition of the pipeline or properly assess the risks to it. That contributed to the accident, the agency said."

The report also blamed the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Materials Administration's "non-conservative assumptions used to calculate the potential impact radius, incomplete evaluation of the risks caused by a change of gas flow direction [fracked northern gas going south], limitations in data analysis related to in-line inspection tool usage, incomplete assessment of threats and threat interactions, and missed opportunities in training and requalification practices."

The 30-inch Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline blew up at 1:23 a.m. Aug. 1, 2019, between Moreland and Junction City, rural communities south of Danville, releasing over 100 million cubic feet of gas that ignited, causing one death, six injuries, destruction of five homes, damage to 14 other residences, other property damage including the burning of 30 acres, and evacuation of more than 75 people. The same line "also failed in November 2003 near Morehead and in February 1986 in Garrard County. The Garrard County incident injured three people," Estep reports. A parallel line "blew up in April 1985 in Metcalfe County, killing five people and injuring three others."

Manchin won promise from key Democrats to complete controversial pipeline as part of reconciliation package

As part of last week's surprise reconciliation bill from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Manchin secured a promise to complete the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline to carry natural gas from West Virginia to market, Lisa Friedman reports for The New York Times.

Manchin's office revealed Monday "details of the side agreement he struck with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden," Friedman reports. "It would ensure that federal agencies 'take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation' of the gas line."

A federal appeals court has overturned permits issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, "saying that their analyses about adverse impacts on wildlife, sedimentation and erosion were flawed," Friedman reports. "The delays have been so extensive that the project’s certification from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will expire in October. The developers are seeking an extension for a second time."

The deal would give the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit jurisdiction over all future legal challenges, "taking the case away from the Fourth District, where environmentalists had found success," Friedman notes.

What Joe Manchin got in the climate bill for West Virginia, energy industries, sick coal miners, Toyota and himself

Manchin (Tom Williams, CQ-Roll Call, via Getty)

"Congress is suddenly poised to pass the most ambitious climate bill in United States history, largely written by a senator from a coal state who became a millionaire from his family coal business and who has taken more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any of his colleagues have," Brad Plumer and Lisa Friedman of The New York Times write of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate-to-conservative Democrat who holds much power in the 50-50 Senate.

So what did Manchin get in his deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer? The federal government would lease more public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling, forcing President Biden to break a campaign promise. Tax credits for carbon capture technology that "could allow coal or gas-burning power plants to keep operating with lower emissions" would be expanded, the Times reports. And Manchin got a vote on a separate bill "to speed up the process of issuing permits for energy infrastructure," such as a West Virginia gas pipeline, the Times reports.

There's more. The trust fund for coal miners with black-lung disease would become permanent; new incentives would be offered "to build wind and solar farms in areas where coal mines or coal plants have recently closed," and there would be "generous tax credits for nascent technologies like carbon capture and storage and low-emissions hydrogen fuels, which Mr. Manchin has supported."

“Those are his pet projects,” James Van Nostrand, a law professor at West Virginia University, told the Times. “I think he’s going to say, ‘I used my strategic position to bring back benefits for West Virginia.’ And he’ll probably do pretty well in the next election.” Some environmentalists complained about more oil and gas leasing, "but energy analysts and many of the country’s biggest environmental groups said that any additional emissions from fossil fuel leasing would be dwarfed by the clean-energy provisions in the bill," the Times reports.

The bill was a long time coming, and "At every step of the way, Mr. Manchin shaped the legislation," the Times reports. He killed a plan to pay utilities to replace fossil-fuel power with renewables and "bigger tax credits for consumers who bought union-made electric vehicles, a measure that was opposed by Toyota Motor, which operates a non-union plant in West Virginia. And he ensured that the tax credits for electric vehicles could not be used by the wealthiest Americans." He won a lower fee for leaks of methane and "ensured that longstanding tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry, which many Democrats wanted to repeal, went untouched."

Natural-gas storage fields' faulty equipment leaks methane

"Infra" is Latin for "under," but "infrastructure" often seems to mean mainly things on the surface: roads, rails, runways, etc. People are aware of pipelines, sewers, etc., but they don't think about them because they don't see them. Most people are probably not aware of one of the largest elements of energy infrastructure: giant, deep underground caverns where natural gas is stored for later use. And most surely don't know that some of those storage fields leak the main component of natural gas: methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Phil McKenna of Inside Climate News tells us about that with the help of Alex Rozier of Mississippi Today, and their object example is the Petal Gas Storage Field in southeast Mississippi, which "emits the greenhouse gas equivalent of 87,000 automobiles—more than any other gas storage facility in the United States." Created by watering a salt dome and pumping out the brine in 1951, it is in the first underground salt dome carved out for gas storage, and it is the leakiest. It's only the 41st largest storage field, but emits three and a half times as much methane as the next biggest leaker, also owned by Gulf South Pipeline and parent firm Boardwalk Pipeline Partners.

"Gulf South and Boardwalk have begun to curb emissions at the Petal facility, cutting them in 2020 by nearly 50 percent of what they were in 2019, a year when Petal’s emissions were more than five times larger than any other underground gas storage facility in the country. Boardwalk executives said they slashed emissions again, this time by 54 percent, in 2021," McKenna and Rozier report. "EPA has not yet verified Petal’s 2021 emissions. . . . The Petal facility’s emissions do not violate any state or federal laws, but they call into question the ability of the oil and gas industry to voluntarily curb its own climate pollution. Emissions from the transmission and storage sector account for approximately 25 percent of the total methane emissions from the natural-gas industry. A draft rule proposed by the EPA last November includes what would be the first mandatory methane emission reductions for existing gas transmission and storage facilities."

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says methane is not toxic, but health experts say it is often accompanied by volatile organic compounds and toxic gases. Petal Alderman Gerald Steele, whose ward includes the gas field, "expressed surprise that the Petal plant’s emissions were the highest from such facilities in the nation," Rozier and McKenna report. "He said that the company is an important financial contributor to the city through its employment and tax contributions." The reporters say the leaks come from faulty equipment, not the geology of the infrastructure, and their story has useful diagrams that explain.

Fact-checking assertions about oil and gasoline prices

Who or what is to blame for the record-high price of gasoline, which does disproportionate harm to rural areas? A video ad by former Vice President Mike Pence's political group "falsely blames" President Biden for increased purchases of Russian oil, thus helping the invasion of Ukraine, Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler concluded March 9. A week later, Kessler produced a much longer fact check, headlined "The truth about gas prices and oil production." With his permission, we republish it.

By Glenn Kessler

In a moment of national unity against Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Democrats and Republicans are fighting passionately over the steep increase in the cost of gasoline. Prices have already risen sharply since Biden became president — and he acknowledged that his ban on Russian oil and gas exports could send them even higher.

Figuring out the root causes of inflation is subject to interpretation. Biden has been quick to claim that it’s mostly the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, tagging the latest inflation report as “Putin’s price hike.” But a credible case has also been made by some economists, including former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and former Obama treasury official Steven Rattner, that the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan passed by Congress helped spark the current rise in prices across the board.

A separate debate is taking place over U.S. oil production and whether Biden administration policies have played a role. Partisans on all sides, as is often the case, are misrepresenting the facts, obscuring the complicated truth about oil production, gas prices and the role of renewables. Here’s a guide to that issue.

Gasoline prices have soared overnight. How is that possible?

The war — and efforts by the United States and its allies to stem purchases of Russian energy products — sent the price of crude oil skyrocketing. Many gasoline stations have only two or three days of product in stock, and so price gasoline at what it will cost to refill those tanks underground. This is an economic term known as “replacement cost.”

Every $10 increase in the price of crude oil adds about 24 cents to the cost of each gallon of gasoline and is quickly reflected in what you pay at the pump. It’s not an example of price gouging. Still, the price of gasoline is nearing — or may exceed — previous inflation-adjusted highs reached in 1918, 1981 and 2008.

Is the United States ramping up its oil production, or holding it back?

The oil business in the United States is run by private companies, not the U.S. government. It’s also a cyclical business and oil prices have been low for some time and drilling has also been low.

During the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic, when oil prices fell sharply, to about $23 a barrel, production plummeted because it was no longer as profitable. Now, with crude oil above $100 a barrel, there is more of an incentive to ramp up U.S. production, though it is still below the high reached in 2020 before the pandemic struck.

In February 2020, U.S. oil production reached 13.1 million barrels a day. Two years later, in February of this year, production was about 11 percent lower — 11.6 million barrels a day.

Gasoline prices have steadily risen in the United States since April 2020, when the weekly price dropped to as low $1.77 a gallon. It had already risen to $2.38 a gallon when Biden took office.

There’s little evidence that Biden’s policies have had any direct impact on oil production. However, the U.S. government can have an effect of shaping market perceptions that on the margins can affect prices.

As soon as he took office, Biden terminated the Keystone XL pipeline and signaled a hostility to the fossil fuel industry with a major push for clean energy, including a pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Keystone XL still would not have been built by now even if Biden had permitted it to go forward — and even if it were in place, the impact in prices would be measured in pennies. Moreover, even without Keystone XL, imports from Canada have increased about 50 percent over the past decade. But Biden’s actions early in his tenure, some experts say, sent “yellow light” signals to the market that cost of drilling for oil might rise and so caution was warranted.

The reverse can also be true. The Trump’s administration’s opposite “green light” approach — few regulations and no restraints — led some oil drillers to invest in unprofitable wells.

Biden also issued an executive order that paused new oil and gas leases on government land, but within months a federal judge blocked it. After his first year, Biden had outpaced Donald Trump in issuing drilling permits on public lands.

Just because a company has received a permit to drill, it has no obligation to do so. One important metric is what is known as a DUC — a drilled but uncompleted oil or gas well. In other words, production equipment has not been installed and so the well cannot yet produce hydrocarbons. The number of DUCs reached a high of 6,340 in June 2020, and as of February had dropped to 4,372, according to EIA.

Can the U.S. truly change oil prices by encouraging more drilling and allowing pipelines?

Not really. The United States in 2020 was the biggest oil producer in the world and also the biggest consumer, but it is just one player in a global oil market. (“Oil” includes crude oil, all other petroleum liquids, and biofuels.) Much of what happens in the market is beyond the government’s control.

In 2021, the United States slipped to third place in oil production, behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. That’s mainly because large shale companies committed to Wall Street that they would continue to limit production and return more cash to shareholders — “an effort to win back investors who fled the industry after years of poor returns,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, told investors in February: “$100 oil, $150 oil, we’re not going to change our growth rate.”

U.S. oil producers boosted output by more than 50 percent between 2016 and 2020, so it’s certainly possible for the United States to once again become the world’s biggest oil producer. But investors are demanding that companies do not overspend on new investments this time around.

If the United States is a top oil producer, why do we still need to import oil?

The United States actually exports more oil than it imports. In 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration, the United States imported about 8.47 million barrels per day of petroleum, compared to exports of 8.63 million barrels per days. Crude accounts for about 35 percent of those exports. One key reason is that foreign countries use more diesel than the United States and the United States uses more gasoline.

The boom in U.S. shale oil has certainly reduced reliance on foreign oil imports, but not all crude is the same. Refiners on the Gulf Coast, for instance, have been optimized for Venezuelan crude, which has a high sulfur content. When the Trump administration put sanctions on Venezuelan petroleum, refiners started imported Russian petroleum products because they are roughly similar. Now that Russia has been sanctioned, refiners probably will have to adjust to a cleaner type of crude.

In other words, the United States cannot be an island in the worldwide energy market. But it is more secure as a net exporter of petroleum.

Would funding more renewables help make the U.S. energy independent?

Not in the short run. Renewables replace natural gas or coal. You still need oil to drive cars and trucks and fly planes. At this point, the electric-vehicle market is not growing fast enough to make much of a difference in the current standoff with Russia. But long-run investments over time could begin to make a difference.

Landowners' and environmentalists' objections to CO2 pipelines test future viability of carbon-capture programs

Navigator CO2 Ventures' proposed Heartland Greenway System
would store liquified carbon dioxide underground in Illinois

Heavy opposition to two proposed carbon-dioxide pipelines in the Midwest throws the future of carbon-capture programs into question. The pipelines would collect and liquefy carbon dioxide from Midwestern ethanol, fertilizer and other industrial-agriculture plants, then carry it thousands of miles and store it deep underground. But dozens of farmers are refusing to sell and other organizations are also rallying opposition, Leah Douglas reports for Reuters.

If the companies—Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions and Texas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures—are forced to resort to eminent domain to get the land, the pipelines could remain in limbo for years while messy courtroom battles play out, Donnelle Eller reports for the Des Moines Register. In Iowa alone, more than 400 people "have filed objections with the state's regulatory agency, questioning whether the pipelines are needed, safe and should be allowed to cross valuable farmland that's been passed down through multiple generations."

The technology is relatively untested, and landowners worry that it could damage crops or harm people. Douglas notes, "A 2020 liquid CO2 pipeline rupture in Yazoo County, Mississippi, for example, sickened dozens of people."

Summit Carbon Solutions' pipeline would store CO2 in North Dakota.

Iowa's Sierra Club chapter and other environmental groups think carbon capture and sequestration are "a lifeline to carbon-based industries, at a time when the world needs to be ending its dependence on fossil fuels in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change," Kate Payne reports for Iowa Public Radio.

"The companies say the projects would help ethanol and other energy-intensive ag industries remain viable as the nation seeks to cut net greenhouse emissions in half by 2030 to address climate change. Summit says carbon sequestration would lower ethanol's carbon footprint to net zero by 2030 and allow it to be sold into California and other states with low carbon fuel standards," Eller reports. "Summit says it has the capacity to capture up to 12 million metric tons of carbon annually, an amount equal to removing 2.6 million vehicles from the road each year. Navigator says its pipeline has the capacity to capture about 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of removing 3.2 million vehicles from the road."

Atlantic Coast Pipeline was canceled, but landowners still unsure what will happen to easements on their property

Atlantic Coast Pipeline proposed route (Associated Press map)

Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers used eminent domain to force thousands of landowners to sell them narrow strips of land to bury the pipeline. But in July 2020, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy canceled the project. Over a year later, those landowners still don't know what will happen to the easements crossing their property.

"Some landowners have miles of the pipeline already installed on their properties. Contractors for Duke and Dominion also cleared trees along more than 110 miles across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, leaving about half of the felled trees on the property," Emily Allen reports for Mountain State Spotlight. From West Virginia to North Carolina, "The proposed pipeline would’ve crossed more than 2,600 easements, covering nearly 4,300 acres of land — all of which Duke and Dominion now own the rights to," according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Dominion spokesperson Christine Mitchell told Allen in an email that the company will hang onto the easements for the next few years to "develop the most responsible approach" for restoration. "We plan to keep the easements until all restoration and monitoring are complete," she wrote. "However, we will evaluate individual landowner requests on a case-by-case basis."

Landowners fear the easements could be sold to another pipeline developer after the land is restored in one to two years, said Isak Howell, a Roanoke-based lawyer with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, which represents dozens of landowners in ACP cases. FERC hasn’t addressed the relinquishment of easements, Allen reports.

Quick hits: Docuseries explores why people live in rural areas; Biden drops nominee to head ATF after pushback

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A seven-part docuseries called "Rural by Choice" tells the story of why people choose to live in rural Minnesota. The first episode will premiere on Sept. 12, with the rest of the episodes premiering each week afterward. Click here for more details, including how to watch.

The White House has withdrawn David Chipman's nomination for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after sustained pushback over his record of gun-control advocacy. Read more here.

As cell-cultured meat gets ever closer to hitting store shelves, the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service is seeking consumer comments on how such products should be labeled. Suggestions will be accepted until Nov. 2. Read more here.

"In summer 2020, a federal court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency showed too much deference to Bayer when it approved the company’s dicamba herbicide. This invalidated the approval. But, weeks later, Bayer began working the EPA again, according to newly obtained emails," Jonathan Hettinger reports for the Midwest Center for Investigation. Read more here.

Mountain Valley Pipeline developers have filed a subpoena seeking to find out the names and phone numbers of the people who run a Facebook group critical of the project. Read more here.

Local food is all the rage, but what makes food local? Read more here.

A recently published study found that single rural residents with heart disease face more hopelessness. Read more here.

A tech business owner and Columbia University professor discusses why rural students need to learn about artificial intelligence in school and what kind of education and training is needed so they can compete with their suburban and urban peers for high-paying tech jobs. Read more here.

Registration is open for a symposium on sustainable ranching practices. The event will be held Oct. 14-15 in Kingsville, Texas, and online. Read more here.

Scientists are trying to control emerald ash borers with tiny parasitic wasps. The strategy will hopefully go better than previous attempts to kill pests by using other natural predators (see: cane toads) because the wasps they're testing can't sting people and only go after the borers. Read more here.

The Rural Health Information Hub has updated its guide to critical-access hospitals to include two new FAQs on 340B eligibility and Rural Emergency Hospitals. There is also updated info on reimbursement, eligibility, funding, legislation, and more. Read more here.

Developers officially scrap Keystone XL pipeline project

Wikipedia map

TC Energy, the firm behind the Keystone XL pipeline, officially scrapped the project on Wednesday, months after President Biden revoked a cross-border permit for the controversial pipeline and more than a decade after political wrangling over its fate began," Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson report for The Washington Post. "The pipeline, which would have stretched from Alberta’s boreal forests to the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, became the center of a broader controversy over climate change, pipeline safety, eminent domain and jobs. Those same concerns have spawned similar battles to stop pipelines in states including Montana, Minnesota and Virginia, part of an effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

Anti-pipeline activists and many Democratic lawmakers lauded the news; one activist told the Post that it was a sign that protests against "Big Oil" work. Republican officials and petroleum industry officials criticized Biden for rescinding the pipeline's border permit on his first day in office, saying he essentially guaranteed the death of a project that would have provided thousands of construction jobs. "However, with most of the pipeline construction complete, including the fully operating southern leg, relatively few jobs are still at stake," the Post notes.

Jury awards rural Virginia couple $430,000 for land taken by Mountain Valley Pipeline; could invite similar lawsuits

On Friday a jury determined that Mountain Valley Pipeline developers under-compensated a rural Virginia couple for land seized through eminent domain, and ordered the company to pay them $430,000.

James and Kathy Chandler didn't want to sell the 8.6-acre swath of land, half a mile long and 125 feet wide, which passes about 500 feet from the custom-built home on their 111-acre property on Bent Mountain. But when they refused, developers forced the sale through eminent domain in 2018 and paid them $89,343, Laurence Hammack reports for The Roanoke Times in Virginia.

During the trial, the Chandlers testified about how they had spent years looking for the perfect piece of land, and called their property a "slice of heaven," Hammack reports. Though the pipeline, now under construction, will be buried, it will occupy a cleared right-of-way through the forest on their land that will always serve as a "visual reminder," James Chandler testified. "Nothing will be normal."

The five energy companies developing the pipeline struck voluntary land-purchase agreements with about 85% of the landowners along the pipeline's proposed path. "In October 2017 — about two weeks after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found there was a public need for the natural gas that will be pumped through the pipeline at high pressure — Mountain Valley sued the owners of about 300 parcels in Virginia who had refused to sell," Hammack reports. "Mountain Valley often makes lowball offers while using its eminent domain authority as leverage over landowners, according to Mark Jarrell of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights, an anti-pipeline coalition."

FERC decision to consider proposed pipelines' greenhouse-gas emissions could have major infrastructure implications

"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to assess a proposed natural gas pipeline's contribution to climate change could have major implications for gas infrastructure, analysts say, including nearly unheard-of project rejections," Arianna Skibell reports for Energy & Environment News. "For the first time ever, FERC last month weighed greenhouse gas emissions related to a Northern Natural Gas Co. pipeline replacement project running 87 miles from northeast Nebraska to Sioux Falls, S.D. The independent agency ultimately approved the project. . . . The landmark order signals that the five-member commission under Democratic Chairman Richard Glick could begin assessing emissions for all projects in its purview, from interstate gas pipelines to liquefied natural gas terminals. Glick has long called for carrying out such reviews."

The decision could lead to FERC approving fewer pipelines. "Since adopting its natural gas pipeline policy about 20 years ago, FERC has approved roughly 475 pipelines and rejected two," Skibell reports. "The commission weighs a host of environmental factors when permitting natural gas infrastructure under [the National Environmental Policy Act], but commissioners have long argued, largely along partisan lines, about whether and how to weigh greenhouse gas emissions."

This week FERC is expected to consider Enbridge Pipeline's request to intervene in the Northern Natural case; if the request is approved, the company could sue to challenge the decision to account for pipeline greenhouse-gas emissions. "Experts agree the move could lead to FERC denying certification for major natural gas projects, though not for all proposals," Skibell reports.

Jennifer Danis, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, told Skibell: "Chairman Glick has made it quite clear: It doesn't mean zero pipelines will be approved. ... If you really have data that a project would displace a high-carbon-intensive fuel source like coal, then those are data that ought to go into the commission's analysis, along with project-driven emissions."

Biden to rescind border permit for Keystone XL pipeline on his first day as president, sources tell CBC and Politico

Map from Wikipedia

On his first day as president, Joe Biden "will rescind the cross-border permit for TC Energy's Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office," Politico reports, citing three unnamed sources and following up on similarly sourced report by Kyle Bakx of Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

"The move is billed as one of Biden’s Day One climate change actions, according to a presentation circulating among Washington trade groups and lobbyists, a portion of which was seen by Politico," Lauren Gardner and Ben Lefebvre report. "It's the latest development in a decade-long fight over the controversial pipeline and solidifies a campaign promise the Canadian government had hoped was negotiable." One oil-and-gas lobbyist told Politico, "The only question has always been whether labor can stave off the death sentence. And they never had a chance."

"Rescinding Keystone XL would negate one of President Donald Trump's own first actions in office and kill a project that had become a political totem in the fight between climate activists and the oil industry," Politico notes. "Despite many analysts saying the boom in U.S. shale oil made new sources of Canadian crude less important, TC Energy has fought years of legal challenges against it obtaining the needed state permits that would all it to build the pipeline.

Alberta Premier Kenney said Sunday night that he would work with TC Energy "to use all legal avenues available to protect" the province's interest in the pipeline, which would provide a better outlet for heavy crude mined from oil sands in northern Alberta.

Federal and West Virginia regulators rewriting environmental rules to pave the way for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Federal regulators and West Virginia agencies are once again rewriting environmental regulations to facilitate construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Ken Ward Jr. reports for ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight.

The proposed gas pipeline has been repeatedly delayed by court rulings that regulators improperly approved key permits. In November, "the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that environmental groups are likely to prevail in a case arguing federal and state regulators wrongly approved the Mountain Valley Pipeline through a streamlined review process for which the project isn’t eligible," Ward notes.

The same court blocked the same pipeline in 2018 for similar reasons. "But rather than pausing or rethinking the project at the time, the state Department of Environmental Protection rewrote its construction standards so that the pipeline would qualify," Ward reports. "After their most recent court loss, West Virginia officials are once again rewriting their restrictions to help pave the way for the pipeline to qualify for that streamlined permitting process."