Mountain View Pipeline is finally set to start funneling natural gas into Virginia after years of delay. This will boost energy security and stabilize costs for mid-Atlantic utilities.
The 303-mile, $7.85 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline has received final federal approval to begin piping 2 billion cubic feet of fracked shale natural gas a day from West Virginia into Virginia this summer.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionâs (FERC) Energy Projects Director Terry Turpin officially ended a decade of regulatory and legal contention over the project in a June 11 letter informing Equitrans Midstream Corp. it could turn on the pipelineâs spigots.
The company âhas adequately stabilized the areas disturbed by construction and that restoration and stabilization of the construction work area is proceeding satisfactorily,â Mr. Turpin said in the letter. âI approve Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLCâs requestâ to start operations.
Equitrans Midstream Corp. proposed construction of the Mountain View Pipeline (MVP) in 2015. FERC, a federal agency that regulates interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oilâincluding the electric grid and pipelines of all typesâapproved MVP in 2017. It broke ground in 2018.
The proposed pipeline drew sustained protests by environmental groupsâone climate activist spent 932 days straight in a treeâand a gamut of lawsuits challenging it across an array of regulatory and statutory issues, including the use of eminent domain, impacts to forests, waterways, and wildlife, and Virginia environmental justice laws.
Proponents argue the capacity of MVPâs 42-inch diameter pipeline to deliver 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, about a third of West Virginiaâs marketable production, can help ensure energy stability and lower electricity costs in mid-Atlantic states.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals twice issued rulings halting construction. As a result, the pipeline is more than six years behind the original schedule and at least $500 million over budget.
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.), the retiring Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair who recently left the Democrat party and declared himself an independent, seemingly assured the project would be completed when he agreed in 2022 to support President Joe Bidenâs green energy initiatives in exchange for approving the pipeline.
In April 2023âwith 283 pipeline miles completedâthe 4th circuit delayed the project a second time when it questioned if FERC had adequately assessed âunexpectedly severe erosion and sedimentation along the pipelineâs right-of-way.â
The halt drew a furious response from Mr. Manchin, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), U.S. Reps. Carol Miller (R-W.V.) and Alex Mooney (R-W.V.), and Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is the favorite to succeed Mr. Machin in the Senate in Novemberâs election.
As part of June 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) negotiations, Mr. Machin secured the administrationâs agreement to not oppose the project.
Manchin, Morrisey Make Their Case
Shortly after, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, heavily favored to succeed Mr. Justice as the stateâs governor this fall, submitted a 31-page brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing Congress had already authorized the pipelineâs permit in the FRA.
Although the Biden administration no longer opposed the pipeline permit after the adoption of the FRA, Mr. Morrisey told The Epoch Times in November that the costly, time-consuming delays in the project are typical of a regulatory and legal environment stifling energy innovation and driving fuel costs up.
In March 2024, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Mr. Manchinâs nomination of West Virginia Solicitor General Lindsay See, who had defended the stateâs Department of Environmental Protectionâs water permit for the pipeline before the 4th Circuit in 2023, to be a FERC commissioner.
Mr. Turpin, in his June 11 letter to Equitransâ Deputy General Counsel Matthew Eggerding, said after a mid-May staff inspection, the project was in compliance with FERC environmental conditions and âproceeding satisfactorily.â
That inspection was prompted by a May 1 rupture at Bent Mountain in Roanoke County, Virginia, during hydrostatic testing that delayed construction of the final leg of the pipeline over numerous water crossings and rugged mountains in West Virginia and Virginia.
Equitrans said in January the pipeline was 94 percent finished. In May, the company announced the project was âmechanically completeâ and scheduled to start operations. That plan was delayed by the rupture. FERCâs June 11 determination said inspections confirmed it can begin operating.
The pipeline will move methane gas from the Marcellus and Utica shalefields in Wetzel County, West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County, Virginia. It is a joint venture between Equitrans, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, and AltaGas. RGC Resources built the pipeline.
The next phase is an extension into North Carolina, although those plans are in flux following postponements and revisions that have shortened and rerouted its originally planned 75-mile track.
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