Fight to Stop Fracked Gas Mountain Valley Pipeline Continues Despite FERC Approval

Washington, DC — Late last Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) request to bore under 183 streams and wetlands at 120 locations in Virginia and West Virginia. That approval is conditioned, however, on MVP getting back certain federal permits it has lost in recent months, as well as a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for other waterbody crossings. MVP cannot conduct the activities approved on Friday until it obtains those additional federal approvals.

FERC’s action comes while the agency is still considering whether to issue a stop-work order to the pipeline. The day before FERC’s latest action, FERC faced tough questions from the D.C. Circuit about why it had not yet issued a stop-work order to the company. The Mountain Valley Pipeline has already destroyed woodlands, seized private property, and violated commonsense water protections over 300 times in West Virginia and Virginia. If completed, MVP would also exacerbate the climate crisis by expanding the production and use of polluting fracked gas.

MVP still faces legal challenges to key Virginia and West Virginia water permits, and is still missing several federal permits including a valid Biological Opinion from the Fish and Wildlife Service, authorization from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to construct in the Jefferson National Forest, and a 404 permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Furthermore, this order highlights just how beleaguered this project is, by not allowing the construction activities that it authorized to proceed immediately. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has already denied a key water quality certification for the MVP Southgate extension project, twice, and the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board denied a necessary air permit for the proposed Lambert Compressor Station.

Friday’s FERC decision does not authorize MVP to do anything immediately. Rather, it expressly prohibits MVP from boring under the streams at issue until it obtains all required federal authorizations, including a Clean Water Act 404 permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, and a valid Biological Opinion from the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. 

The 120 underground crossings approved on Friday are among 429 incomplete waterbody crossings that interrupt the pipeline along its entire 304-mile route. Stated otherwise, on average there is a gap in the pipeline from an incomplete crossing every 0.7 miles.

If constructed and put into operation, the MVP would cause about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 26 US coal plants or 19 million passenger vehicles per year. FERC’s narrow assessments of this project’s contribution to climate change failed to adequately account for this massive climate impact.

In response, Roberta Bondurant, Co-Chair of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition, said: “FERC has put the cart before the horse here, giving Mountain Valley another authorization with so many permits still outstanding.  Going forward, we call on regulators to give greater scrutiny to this ill-advised project. We will not allow the noxious injustice that is the Mountain Valley Pipeline to continue to threaten our homes, waters and planet.”

“Federal regulators shouldn’t have authorized MVP to bore under our streams and wetlands, even conditionally, while it is still unclear whether the company will ever get the lawful permits necessary to ever finish the project. Moreover, FERC should have examined more closely the pipeline’s effects on our communities and our climate,” said Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative Caroline Hansley. “We are disappointed in Friday’s decision, but will continue our efforts to ensure that this dangerous and unnecessary project, which is years behind schedule and billions over budget, is never completed.”