Latest news with #MVPSouthgate
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Duke Energy reviews Helene damage and repairs, MVP pipeline for NC House panel
Helene caused extensive repair work for Duke Energy. (Photo: Duke Energy) Duke Energy restored services to 1.4 million customers in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a company representative told members of a state legislative panel on Wednesday. Although power restoration is complete, crews are still working on other restoration efforts. This includes rebuilding parts of the region's power grid and installing new infrastructure to replace temporary solutions that were used immediately in the storm's aftermath, Duke Energy state government affairs managing director Ryan Minto told the House Energy and Public Utilities Committee. 'As I speak, crews are replacing damaged equipment and clearing dangerous vegetation to protect reliability for our customers,' Minto said. 'Projects like this will continue as we work to restrengthen the grid in western North Carolina, supporting these impacted communities on their path to full recovery.' The damage included 19,000 power poles and at least 9 million feet of wire, Minto shared. More than 23,000 field personnel were deployed for storm response, a historic number for the utilities company. Duke Energy has committed $2.7 million towards disaster relief and readiness since Hurricane Helene, according to Minto. 'Strategic resource staging, helicopter operations, mobile substation deployments and close coordination with local, state and federal partners were critical elements to the success of the company's historic restoration operation in the mountains,' Minto said. In response to a legislator's inquiry, a Duke representative also addressed another utility issue that's been making headlines in recent weeks: the revival of on-again-off-again efforts to construct the controversial MVP Southgate methane pipeline project. As NC Newsline reported on February 20, owners of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which traverses parts of West Virginia and Virginia, are seeking to extend the pipeline into north central North Carolina in Rockingham County for the purpose of delivering methane gas to Duke. While the proposed addition would be shorter in length than a previous proposal, the pipeline would be wider in diameter and has drawn opposition from local residents and environmental advocates. Rep. Pricey Harrison, whose Guilford County district is close to the proposed pipeline path, asked whether the project is truly necessary. 'The case being made is this increased use of natural gas,' Harrison, a Democrat, said. 'Can you make do with the current pipeline capacity as is?' Kevin McLaughlin, Duke Energy's vice president of government affairs and external relations, said the pipeline would allow for cheaper natural gas to enter the state, as opposed to from the Gulf of Mexico. This would yield savings for Duke Energy's customers, McLaughlin continued. 'We are supportive of additional natural gas pipelines into North Carolina or their expansion,' McLaughlin said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments last week in a challenge brought by environmental advocates to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to extend the project's construction deadline. No ruling has yet been issued.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Environmental advocates challenge FERC on MVP Southgate gas pipeline project
Workers began laying portions of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Roanoke County, Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway. (Photo: Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) The long-simmering controversy surrounding the MVP Southgate natural gas pipeline project has surfaced again. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in a challenge brought by environmental advocates to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) decision to extend the project's construction deadline. As a result of the extension order, MVP retains the authority to take property through eminent domain with the Southgate methane gas pipeline addition that's proposed to run from southern Virginia into north central North Carolina. Lawyers from Appalachian Mountain Advocates argued the case on behalf of the environmental petitioners Appalachian Voices, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Haw River Assembly, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Wild Virginia. 'The damage to our waters and our communities caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline are an ugly predictor of the destruction the Southgate project will cause,' Wild Virginia conservation director David Sligh said in a statement. 'It is inexcusable for FERC to ignore that evidence and allow the same kind of costs and pain to be imposed on the people and environments along Southgate's proposed path.' The MVP Southgate project has faced substantial opposition since its initial proposal in 2018. Though originally slated to run through both Rockingham and Alamance Counties, the current plan only includes Rockingham. Earlier this month, project developers submitted an amendment to FERC for the Southgate section. The updated proposal changes the project to shorten the pipeline's length while increasing its diameter and adding Duke Energy as a customer. The developer, MVP Joint Venture, made an amendment request in lieu of submitting a new application. It says the new proposal will 'bring a much-needed new supply of reliable, affordable, domestically produced natural gas to North Carolina.' Environmental petitioners on Thursday argued that FERC's decision disregarded MVP's admission that it intends to construct a significantly different 'redesigned' project in lieu of the FERC-approved project, and that the agency did not uphold its legal obligation to conduct a thorough environmental and public interest review. Opponents to the project said there should be a new application since the new proposal's route and impact vary from FERC's original Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, issued in 2020. 'It has a different purpose. It's much shorter, but it's moving more gas,' Greg Buppert, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, told NC Newsline. 'This is a long-term investment in greenhouse gas emissions, and an investment that can't be easily undone.' Buppert said these decisions are made based on available data that could change rapidly, meaning the facts present in the future could vary drastically from today. The original MVP Southgate proposal in 2018 sparked controversy and faced hurdles. The project did not move forward. The updated plans for Southgate would change the route, length, and pipe diameter to include 31 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline in North Carolina and Virginia, increasing methane and greenhouse gas emissions in the southern portion of the country. 'There is no sensible scenario where all this gas including MVP Southgate, is truly needed by Southern communities,' Megan Gibson, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. 'This ultimately will hurt consumers and businesses within our region.' Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator at Appalachian Voices, described the Southgate project as 'unnecessary' and 'dangerous' to the communities and environment in its proposed path. 'We've seen the abject misery that Southgate's developers inflicted with their Mountain Valley Pipeline, and that history should not be repeated — FERC should deny this amendment,' Sims said in a statement. MVP Southgate is one of three large natural gas pipeline projects proposed for North Carolina in recent years. The others are T15 Reliability Project and Southeast Supply Enhancement.
