Despite opposition from climate and Indigenous groups, U.S. regulators on Wednesday gave the Mountain Valley Pipeline developer a green light to move forward with construction of the partially completed fracked gas project spanning over 300 miles across Virginia and West Virginia.
The developer "has all necessary authorizations" for the project—also known as MVP—and "is therefore authorized to proceed with all remaining construction," says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
order. "Specifically, Mountain Valley is authorized to proceed with construction in the Jefferson National Forest, and with all remaining waterbody crossings, including waterbody crossings previously approved through the commission staff variance process."
While U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—a longtime
proponent of the pipeline and major recipient of fossil fuel campaign cash—celebrated FERC's move, it outraged local campaigners who have spent years fighting against the project.
"President Biden cannot claim to be a climate leader while giving free passes to deadly gas projects."
Russell Chisholm, an impacted community member and managing director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition, called out President Joe Biden, who campaigned on bold climate pledges and is seeking reelection.
"The Biden administration just greenlit a reckless, unnecessary fossil fuel project during a deadly
heatwave caused by climate change," said Chisholm. "The destruction wrought by this pipeline on our planet and communities is President Biden's climate legacy."
"The gas from the pipeline is unnecessary, the permanent local jobs provided are minimal, the endangerment to precious species is irreversible, water sources will be polluted, and earthquake- and landslide-prone areas stand in its wake," he added. "We are devastated but we will never give up on protecting our home."
Allie Rosenbluth, United States program co-manager at Oil Change International, also took aim at the president.
"Biden and his administration allowed MVP to skip important permitting processes meant to protect people and the environment, betraying communities and his voters," she said. "While his administration wrongly touted this project's impact on U.S. energy security, true energy security lies in transitioning swiftly off fossil fuels."
"MVP would be a climate and environmental justice disaster, with emissions equivalent to building 26 new coal plants or adding 19 million passenger vehicles to the road," Rosenbluth noted. "This pipeline also risks public health and safety, drinking water, and the environment all to benefit the short-term profits of a fossil fuel corporation."
"Science and justice unequivocally demand a swift transition to renewable energy," she stressed. "President Biden cannot claim to be a climate leader while giving free passes to deadly gas projects. We must end the era of fossil fuels. The Mountain Valley Pipeline will not be built."
Basav Sen, the climate justice policy director at the Institute for Policy Studies,
tweeted that "the U.S. government is truly out of touch with reality. As Texas and Mexico reel from a heatwave and wildfire smoke descends on parts of the U.S. again, a federal agency approves construction of an unnecessary, dangerous gas pipeline."
"As Texas and Mexico reel from a heatwave and wildfire smoke descends on parts of the U.S. again, a federal agency approves construction of an unnecessary, dangerous gas pipeline."
FERC's move came after the president earlier this month signed debt ceiling legislation he negotiated with congressional Republicans, which
included language to fast-track completion of the pipeline.
MVP opponents
argue that provision of the debt limit deal is unconstitutional. The Southern Environmental Law Center on Monday filed a brief on behalf of the Wilderness Society declaring that "Congress cannot pick winners and losers in pending litigation by compelling findings or results without supplying new substantive law for the courts to apply."
Pointing to the ongoing legal challenges Wednesday, Appalachian Voices Virginia policy director Peter Anderson charged that "it is foolhardy of FERC to take this step while serious questions about the legality of some of Mountain Valley's permits are still unresolved."
"We know that the MVP cannot be built in compliance with our nation's bedrock environmental laws—which is why the company and its supporters went to the extraordinary length of having Congress attempt to sidestep them," Anderson continued, pledging to hold the developer "accountable using any and all available means."
Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous similarly said that "through their own failures alone, the Mountain Valley Pipeline should never be completed. 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."
"For the sake of our communities, the climate, and imperiled species, we urge the Biden administration and federal agencies to uphold basic environmental safeguards for any construction undertaken by this company that has already violated environmental protections hundreds of times," Jealous added.
Climate campaigners, experts, manufacturers, and safety advocates have also recently
raised concerns about the products that the developer plans to use to finish the project, given that segments of pipe have been sitting out in the sun and rain for years.
While a developer spokesperson toldE&E News on Monday that "the pipes will continue to be checked to identify any issues," Roberta Bondurant of Bent Mountain, Virginia—a vocal MVP opponent—called the current situation "a promise of random explosion... somewhere along the 300 miles of this ticking pipe bomb."
