natural gas Story Archives - Page 5 of 29 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Attorney General Sues EPA Over New Power Plant Rules

West Virginia and Indiana are leading a lawsuit, along with 25 other states, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop new rules on existing coal and new natural gas-fired power plants.

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The EPA’s final rules were released at the end of April. Coal plants will have to ultimately cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent or shut down. New gas plants will have to also capture 90 percent of their CO2.

The EPA is working on a separate rule to cut carbon emissions from existing gas plants. About 40 percent of U.S. electricity comes from gas.

The new rules include updated limits on mercury and other toxic pollutants from plants that burn coal. They also include changes to how power plants dispose of the wastewater that results from treating coal emissions to remove toxic pollutants.

Finally, the rules require the cleanup of coal ash disposal sites that were closed prior to 2015.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the rule ignored the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, which said the EPA could not use the Clean Air Act to force coal-fired power plants into retirement.

“This rule strips the states of important discretion while using technologies that don’t work in the real world — this administration packaged this rule with several other rules aimed at destroying traditional energy providers,” Morrisey said. “We are confident we will once again prevail in court against this rogue agency.”

When those rules were announced, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans.”

The power plant rules align with changes that have been happening in the sector in the past decade. Electric utilities have moved sharply away from coal, largely switching to natural gas, and now, renewables and batteries.

“This year, the United States is projected to build more new electric generation capacity than we have in two decades — and 96 percent of that will be clean,” said White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi.

A separate statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council was more blunt.

“While polluters and their allies always complain that whatever technology EPA is requiring is not ready for prime time, in this case their argument is even more ridiculous: In addition to the technology being available, it’s also being supported with billions of dollars of tax incentives via the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Instead of fighting a losing legal battle, power plant owners and states should be locking up their lawyers and turning loose their engineers,” said David Doniger, a senior attorney at the organization.

Morrisey said in a statement that he would also file a motion to stay the new rule as soon as possible.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming joined the West Virginia- and Indiana-led lawsuit.

A Week After Mountain Valley Pipeline Burst, Builder Says Testing Works

Initially, the only way the public knew about the incident was because a landowner reported the sediment-laden water had inundated her property to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

A week after a section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline ruptured during testing, its builder says the failure shows the testing is working as designed and intended.

Part of the pipe burst on May 1 at Bent Mountain in Roanoke County, Virginia, releasing an unknown quantity of municipal water used to pressure test the line.

Initially, the only way the public knew about the incident was because a landowner reported the sediment-laden water had inundated her property to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

For days, the pipeline’s builder and the state and federal regulators supervising the project said little about the rupture.

On Wednesday, Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Equitrans Midstream, said the company notified state and federal regulators about the rupture and that the released water had dissipated by the next day.

“There were no injuries reported, and all appropriate state and federal agencies were notified,” she said. “By Thursday morning, the released water had dissipated and temporarily affected tributaries had returned to pre-hydrotesting conditions.”

Cox said the company has resumed hydrostatic testing of the pipeline, including where it ruptured, and has successfully completed the process on 269 miles of the route.

Cox added that no other sections had failed and that last week’s failure proves the testing works. The damaged section will be sent to a laboratory for analysis, she said.

“Importantly, the disruption of this one hydrotest does, in fact, demonstrate that the testing process is working as designed and intended,” she said.

The 303-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline, which stretches from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County, Virginia, has been one of the most contested fossil fuel infrastructure projects of recent years.

The pipeline’s construction began in 2018 and was periodically paused because of court challenges. Last year, Congress required, as part of a spending deal, that the pipeline be completed.

If the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves the pipeline to begin operating in the coming weeks, the $7.85 billion project will have more than doubled in cost.

Equitrans Midstream has asked FERC to approve the pipeline’s operation by May 23. On Wednesday, a group of 18 Virginia lawmakers sent FERC a letter asking them to deny the request.

Since October, the Mountain Valley Pipeline has been under an agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to ensure sections of pipe maintained their integrity after they were exposed to weather during the long pauses in construction activity.

Pipeline opponents warned the exposure may have degraded the pipe’s corrosion-resistant coating.

When it starts operating, the pipeline will carry as much as 2 billion cubic feet a day of gas.

Tate reported this story from Floyd, Virginia.

Appalachian Fracking Water Contains Lots Of Lithium, Report Says

Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries, and a boom in electric vehicle manufacturing and storage for renewable energy means it’s in high demand.

A new report says the wastewater generated by hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas contains something valuable.

Fracking in Appalachia produces a lot of polluted water. But also, as it turns out, lithium.

That’s what a report from the National Energy Technology Laboratory found.

Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries, and a boom in electric vehicle manufacturing and storage for renewable energy means it’s in high demand.

“The drilling boom in Appalachia created large volumes of produced water that is considered a waste,” said Justin Mackey, the project’s lead investigator. “We found that this fluid is significantly enriched with lithium compared to produced water from other shale formations.”

The laboratory concludes that Pennsylvania’s shale wells alone could provide as much as 40 percent of the nation’s lithium supply.

Researchers say the reason the Appalachian Basin has a higher lithium content than other oil and gas fields is because of layers of volcanic ash.

The report says 95 percent of the wastewater generated by fracking is reinjected into wells.

Harvesting the lithium could help reduce the disposal costs for the wastewater, it concludes.

Federal, State Agencies Quiet About Mountain Valley Pipeline Failure

Groups that oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline say last week’s failure in Roanoke County, Virginia, shows the risks the project poses to communities and property.

This story has been updated with comment from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

The state and federal regulatory agencies that oversee the Mountain Valley Pipeline have said little about a rupture last week during a pressure test.

Groups that oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline say last week’s failure in Roanoke County, Virginia, shows the risks the project poses to communities and property.

Because it is undergoing testing now, Wednesday’s rupture only released water. But the pipeline’s builder, Equitrans Midstream, has asked federal regulators for permission to begin operations at the end of this month.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting asked the company for comment and has yet to receive a reply. We also reached out to the principal state and federal agencies that oversee the project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration have not replied.

After this story was first published, Irina Calos, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said the breach occurred at 10 a.m. on May 1, during hydrostatic testing of the pipe.

“A section of pipe ruptured during this test, and municipal water used in the testing was discharged through the rupture,” she said.

Equitrans Midstream has removed the accumulated sediment, she said. She added that the incident would not affect any state permit approvals.

The public initially became aware of the incident because it was reported to a state database by a landowner.

Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, says her group has received very little information about the pipeline’s failure.

“Much more of a response would be helpful for community members to understand what happens now, what happens next,” she said, “What does this mean for the testing schedule? What does this mean for the overall integrity of the project?”

If FERC approves Equitrans Midstream’s application, 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day could be moving through the 303-mile pipeline next month from West Virginia into Virginia.

Had the rupture occurred then, the public would know much more about what happened and why. For example, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated a 2012 gas pipeline explosion in Sissonville, West Virginia, producing a detailed report.

But Sims says the state agency in Virginia doesn’t even publicly say when testing on the MVP will occur. She also says Freedom of Information Act requests to PHMSA, a small agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, are taking months to complete.

She says state and federal regulators need to be more transparent.

“If there is a problem, how will the community know what has happened?” Sims asked. “And what is the plan in place to communicate that?”

Mountain Valley Pipeline Bursts During Pressure Testing In Virginia

A landowner observed sediment-laden water in her pasture on Wednesday morning and reported it to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

A section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline ruptured during pressure testing Wednesday in Roanoke County, Virginia, according to a report from the state’s environmental agency.

A landowner observed sediment-laden water in her pasture on Wednesday morning and reported it to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

The agency sent a construction compliance expert to investigate the origin of the water.

“The origin of the sediment-laden water reported in the complaint was from the rupture of a section of pipe during hydrostatic testing the morning of 5/1/2024,” wrote the expert, John McCutcheon.

The 300-mile MVP is undergoing pressure testing with water in anticipation of beginning operations later this month.

MVP’s builder, Equitrans Midstream, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to put the natural gas pipeline in service after May 23.

The company entered an agreement with the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last year to ensure sections of pipe that had been exposed to the elements had not lost their corrosion-resistant coating.

Court challenges led to long pauses in construction until Congress last year required the project’s completion.

In its first quarter earnings report Tuesday, Equitrans Midstream said the project’s cost had increased to $7.85 billion, more than twice the original estimate.

McCutcheon’s report indicated that crews were preparing the site of the rupture for repairs.

Hope Gas Asks PSC To Block Pipeline From Supplying Pleasants Plant

Quantum Pleasants is talking to a pipeline developer, Icon New Energy Pipeline, about an agreement to supply the plant with the volume of gas it needs and at a lower cost.

Hope Gas has asked the Public Service Commission to block another supplier from providing gas to the Pleasants Power Station.

The Pleasants Power Station was sold last year to a California Company, Omnis Technologies, that plans to produce graphene and graphite and run the power plant on the hydrogen byproduct.

That will require a lot of natural gas: 100 million cubic feet a year by the end of 2025. The plant, now Quantum Pleasants, told the PSC in a Wednesday filing that Hope Gas cannot supply that volume.

Instead, Quantum Pleasants is talking to a pipeline developer, Icon New Energy Pipeline, about an agreement to supply the plant with the volume of gas it needs and at a lower cost than Hope.

Hope wants the PSC to review whether the arrangement would violate state law because the plant is an existing customer.

Omnis said the law doesn’t apply because the company has never been a customer of Hope. It asked the commission to dismiss Hope’s request.

In its own filing Wednesday, Icon said the PSC does not have jurisdiction over the company except for pipeline safety. It told the commission it supported the Omnis motion to dismiss.

The potential closure of the Pleasants Power Station, which dates to 1979, caused considerable outcry from lawmakers.

The plant shut down, briefly, last June but was reactivated when Omnis agreed to buy the plant from Energy Harbor.

State lawmakers had passed a resolution urging Mon Power to purchase the plant. The sale to Omnis made it moot.