By Kevin Campbell
and April Keating
Mountaineer Voices for Change
& Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance
Are you paying for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline? Even if you haven’t invested directly, your money may still be used to support it.
If you are a member at any of several banks, including CHASE, Wells Fargo, RBC, Barclays, Bank of America, Scotiabank, and Citi, you are invested (though you may not receive shareholder benefits) and you will be affected by this project if it is granted its certificate of approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This could happen as early as this October, unless the regulating agencies responsible for permitting suddenly grow a conscience.
You see, the FERC guarantees up to a 14 percent rate of return on the infrastructure projects it approves. And here’s another piece to the puzzle: FERC is funded by the fees on the projects it permits. It can’t look too critically at these projects. It needs them to survive. Conflict of interest? We think so. So, how do these projects get funded? Banks, insurance companies, investors large and small put money into infrastructure projects like gas pipelines (and associated infrastructure – things like compressor stations, valve stations, feeder lines and storage fields). These investors need to see a return on their investment, so companies try hard to make the project look appealing, forecasting favorable returns in spite of downward market trends, even going as far as to tell local governments they will reap millions in tax revenues despite the fact that they have no hard data substantiating their claims.
Who is funding them? YOU are, because the debt incurred will essentially be financed by everyone on the grid. Allegheny Power and American Electric Power serve the state of West Virginia. They are part of the PJM Energy Grid System, so what they pay for, we pay for. And most of the power produced in WV is sold out of state already, anyway.
But there are more than two huge pipelines seeking approval through West Virginia. All told, there are six major (requiring federal/FERC approval) pipelines going through our state, and also a few (smaller but still large and dangerous) ones not regulated by FERC, such as Mountaineer Gas’s Eastern Panhandle Expansion Project, and the Mariner East 2, an NGL line (that’s Natural Gas Liquids) that passes through the northern panhandle and does not require FERC approval because NGL is exempt from both FERC and PHMSA regulations due to its being a liquids line. These are carrying ethanes, hexanes and butanes, very flammable and dangerous. An elementary school in Media, Pa. where the Mariner East 2 runs through has taken the hint, now offering emergency pipeline explosion drills.
Meanwhile, communities in West Virginia where they’ve laid the 36-inch Stonewall line still have no evacuation plan. The Stonewall pipeline has been sold twice since it was built, and is now owned by Detroit Edison. An inquiry to the Lewis County tax office could not produce any clear amount of severance taxes from this pipeline. Are these projects really doing our communities any good?
A report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) by West Virginia native Kathy Kunkel and Tom Sanzillo, entitled “Risks associated with natural gas expansion in Appalachia,” notes:
• “Pipelines out of the Marcellus and Utica region are being overbuilt. Overbuilding puts ratepayers at risk of paying for excess capacity, landowners at risk of sacrificing property to unnecessary projects, and investors at risk of loss if shipping contracts are not renewed and pipelines are underused.
The Record Delta – 07/07/2017
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