FERC on Wednesday approved Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to move forward with all remaining construction activities, just two days after the pipeline made the request (CP21-57).
The commission first approved the Equitrans Midstream project, which runs around 300 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia, in 2017. But the project was delayed by years of court challenges until Congress passed a provision in the recent debt deal requiring final approvals for the project. President Biden signed the legislation on June 3. (See Lawmakers, White House Promise More Work on Permitting After Debt Deal.)
Despite the legal issues, Equitrans says the pipeline, planned to bring shale natural gas to customers in the Southeast, is already 94% complete. A spokesperson said the first of several “forward construction” crews should start work on the right-of-way shortly, with completion expected by the end of the year.
“Mountain Valley looks forward to flowing domestic natural gas this winter,” the company said.
FERC said that the new law means that all federal authorizations have been ratified by Congress, which includes issues before it on remand from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a decision that came down a week before Biden signed the law. (See DC Circuit Partly Vacates FERC Gasline Approval.)
The commission specifically authorized the firm to resume construction in the Jefferson National Forest, and across all remaining waterbody crossings.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has long championed the project and welcomed FERC’s approval in a tweet, saying that “MVP is vital to America’s energy and national security and will benefit not only West Virginia, but the entire nation.”
The Sierra Club, which has long opposed the pipeline, released a statement urging regulators to uphold basic environmental safeguards when construction continues.
“Through their own failures alone, the Mountain Valley Pipeline should never be completed,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement. “The unnecessary project has repeatedly been unable to comply with bedrock environmental laws and should never have been used as a tool in must-pass legislation to hold our country hostage or capitulate to special interests willing to destroy the planet for their own profits.”
Equitrans stock, which had been trading below $6/share before the debt deal, closed Thursday at $9.55, up 1.8% on the day.
