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protect our water heritage rights coalition
'Hard-Won Movement Victory': MVP Extension in NC Halved
"Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension have been poorly conceived from the beginning, but today some of the communities in harm's way can breathe easier," said one campaigner.
Dec 30, 2023
Frontline critics of the Mountain Valley Pipeline celebrated after Equitrans Midstream revealed Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the distance of the proposed Southgate extension project has been cut in half.
The partially completed MVP project—long delayed by legal battles until congressional Republicans and President Joe Biden included language to fast-track it in a debt limit deal earlier this year—is set to cross 303 miles of Virginia and West Virginia.
The MVP Southgate extension into North Carolina was supposed to be 75 miles, but the filing details plans for a redesigned 31-mile gas project that "would include substantially fewer water crossings and would not require a new compressor station."
Responding to the development Friday evening, Denali Nalamalapu, communications director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition, said that "despite receiving a free pass from the federal government, the MVP continues to crumble before our eyes. For nearly 10 years, communities along the route have declared this project impossible and deadly. Now, after meeting with its clients, we see further admission from MVP that they can't follow through with the foolhardy plan they set out with."
"This news is a win for the movement that will be celebrated by emboldened resistance in the new year."
"This news is a hard-won movement victory: Fewer people will be harmed now that the Southgate extension plan has been halved," she stressed. "The MVP has always known it poses a horrific danger to the communities along the route—but their bottom line takes priority."
"With this new plan, the company admits that fewer waterways will be harmed and a compressor station will be avoided, gesturing towards the devastating water pollution, air pollution, and health impacts it will and has caused," she added. "This news is a win for the movement that will be celebrated by emboldened resistance in the new year."
Appalachian Voices Virginia field coordinator Jessica Sims also welcomed the news as a win for communities on the frontlines of the climate-wrecking gas project.
"Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension have been poorly conceived from the beginning, but today some of the communities in harm's way can breathe easier," Sims said Saturday. "We know these changes resulted from sustained opposition to this unnecessary methane gas pipeline and its Southgate extension, and our opposition continues."
The new Equitrans Midstream filing follows a pair of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders last week, one that allows MVP to raise gas transportation rates and another that extends the timeline to build the extension.
"The recent decision by FERC to extend Southgate's federal certificate was dependent on the pipeline having a contract with another entity to buy the gas," Appalachian Voices North Carolina program manager Ridge Graham noted Saturday.
"With a wholly new project that requires an 'open season' to find customers," Graham argued, "FERC should cancel the original Southgate Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and send the developers back to the drawing board."
With MVP opponents "facing increased repression from the state and the companies behind the pipeline," another group that has spent years battling the project, Appalachians Against Pipelines, is calling for solidarity actions across the United States January 29-31 "to bring the fight to every company and bank involved."
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'Appalling': Mountain Valley Pipeline Gets Two More Federal Approvals
"We are extremely disappointed but never surprised by the results of a system created for profit," said one campaigner. "We will never give up on defending our lives, and the natural environment that makes life possible."
Dec 20, 2023
Frontline climate campaigners renewed pledges to continue fighting against the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Tuesday, when U.S. federal regulators decided that MVP could raise its gas transportation rates and have more time to build an extension.
"The federal government claims to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis while allowing the fossil fuel industry to further it,"
said Russell Chisholm, managing director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition, in response to the pair of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders.
"During the past decade of repeated delay, budget increase, and environmental violation, thousands have resisted the reckless Mountain Valley Pipeline and its Southgate extension, and we are never going away," he vowed. "Our resistance is the fossil fuel industry's greatest nightmare; we are only growing more powerful."
"FERC's decision to extend MVP Southgate's certificate of 'public need'... is a crime against us and future generations."
MVP is set to cross 303 miles of Virginia and West Virginia, plus the Southgate extension into North Carolina. Largely thanks to outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), language to expedite construction of the partially completed gas pipeline was included in the debt ceiling law that President Joe Biden negotiated with congressional Republicans this year.
The new FERC order allowing the rate hikes—which critics worry will be passed on to customers—notes that MVP now estimates construction will cost over $6.6 billion, rather than the earlier estimate of $3.7 billion. It also says that MVP, a
joint venture involving five energy companies, "asserts that the primary drivers of the increased costs were permitting delays caused by ongoing legal challenges to the project, which have persisted since construction began in early 2018."
Jessica Sims, Appalachian Voices ' Virginia field coordinator, responded that "the Mountain Valley Pipeline's delay and ballooned construction costs are owed to the company's insufficient planning and choice of route, deficient permit applications, and lax construction practices. The resulting violations, fines, permit vacations, and consent orders are of the company's own making and they should not have been granted permission to financially pass those mistakes on to consumers."
Along with the rate order, FERC Commissioners Mark Christie, Allison Clements, and Willie Phillips approved a three-year extension for MVP to complete the North Carolina project. Commissioner James Danly did not participate in the decisions and the commission's fifth seat is vacant.
Appalachian Voices North Carolina program manager Ridge Graham called the move "appalling" while Jason Crazy Bear Keck, co-founder of 7 Directions of Service, said that "we are extremely disappointed but never surprised by the results of a system created for profit."
"FERC's decision to extend MVP Southgate's certificate of 'public need,' which subjects our streams, rivers, and community members to seizing of land and irreversible pollution, against our will, with no proof of need, is a crime against us and future generations," Keck added. "We will never give up on defending our lives, and the natural environment that makes life possible."
MVP opponents highlighted that Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and other elected officials from the state have spoken out against the 75-mile extension, which was initially supposed to be completed this past June.
"This project is unnecessary for North Carolinians," said Emily Sutton of the Haw River Assembly, stressing the opposition from residents and officials including Cooper. "The health and safety of our communities and the Haw River watershed should not be jeopardized for the profits of fossil fuel interests. We will continue to fight to protect the people and places we love."
As FERC released its MVP orders on Tuesday, Appalachians Against Pipelines—which has been fighting the project for over five years—said that protesters are now "facing increased repression from the state and the companies behind the pipeline" and called for solidarity actions across the United States January 29-31 "to bring the fight to every company and bank involved."
"With every work stoppage, Mountain Valley Pipeline and their state collaborators have become more and more desperate to criminalize dissent," according to the group. "MVP is suing more than 40 activists across multiple jurisdictions in central Appalachia for millions of dollars. More than 20 pipeline fighters have been arrested on a variety of charges since this summer, including ludicrous abduction felonies."
Appalachians Against Pipelines declared that "we know why state and private forces are doing this—because they are terrified of the communities we have built, the fight we are waging, and because they know that we are unafraid and that we won't back down."
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It's Time to Cancel the Mountain Valley Pipeline—Just Ask the People of Maui
After Hawaii saw the worst disaster in its history and people perished in a massive climate change-driven wildfire, the 4th Circuit felt they had no other choice but to dismiss lawsuits designed to protect our environment.
Aug 12, 2023
In late 2014, hundreds of landowners were thrust into a nearly decadelong fight against a conglomerate of megacorporations who wanted to build two fracked gas pipelines from the fracking fields of northern West Virginia across Virginia and ultimately end in North Carolina. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) was being proposed by Dominion and Duke Energy, two of the nation’s largest fossil fuel energy companies. This unnecessary pipeline was proposed to cross central West Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It would then split in central Virginia, with one of its tentacles heading toward Norfolk, Virginia, and the other ending near Lumbee, North Carolina.
A second fracked gas pipeline called the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was proposed by EQT, Next Era Energy, and an assortment of lesser fossil fuel companies, and would cross some of the steepest and environmentally fragile areas in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia and southwest Virginia. In 2019, the builders of the MVP proposed the MVP Southgate project, an extension that would cross some of the most environmental injustice communities in Virginia and North Carolina.
Both of these projects were met with fierce opposition by those living along their nearly 1,000 miles of collective proposed pathways, as well as allies and organizations across the nation. The resistance from this coalition proved to be too much for the larger, 600+ mile ACP project and in July 2020 the developers canceled the project. Suddenly the fossil fuel companies realized that their power over the people was being threatened like never before. It was only about just a few months earlier that they had seen the cancellation of the Constitution Pipeline in New York and the Keystone XL pipeline across the central part of the U.S. In 2021 they also saw the cancellation of the Penn East pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as the Pacific Connector Pipeline and Jordan Cove LNG project in Oregon. They also witnessed mass resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. Panic must have set in for the corporations that make up the American Petroleum Institute.
The MVP is a climate time bomb. It is literally a public safety hazard and an enormously corrupt and democracy-ending project.
Imagine that. People, just regular people, were challenging the industry’s grip on the U.S. government—and winning. This was a direct assault to their year-in-and-year-out massive profits. The people were fighting for their property rights, for their water, for Indigenous rights, and for the environment. In West Virginia and Virginia, a rag-tag group of citizens formed the POWHR (Protect OUR Water Heritage & Rights) Coalition to fight the MVP. At first, that coalition was largely ignored by most everyone. But we just did not give up. Eventually, people across the nation started to listen and join with our coalition to fight the MVP. This growing coalition and its allies proved to be too powerful for the developers of the MVP, so they pulled out their pocketbooks and started donating massive amounts of money to some key U.S. senators, namely Democrats Chuck “NextEra” Schumer of New York and Joe “Dirty Deal” Manchin of West Virginia.
In late 2022, these two powerful senators reached a deal with President Joe Biden to include a legislative mandate to rescue the MVP as part of Manchin’s support of the not-such-a-great climate bill called the Inflation Reduction Act. The people said not so fast. We rallied against this so-called “Dirty Deal” and killed it multiple times in late 2022. Then came the debt ceiling crisis in early 2023. Manchin and fellow Republican senator from West Virginia, Shelly “For Sale” Moore Capito, convinced the debt ceiling negotiators to include Section 324 in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). Section 324 would strip citizens’ rights to object to permits and deem the pipeline to be “in the national interest.” It was opposed by many senators and House progressives but the corruption in government proved too much for them to overcome.
You might think that the people had lost. They had more to say. On June 8, under smoke-filled skies, dozens of MVP-affected citizens and their allies from across the nation rallied at the White House. Their message: We demand that the administration declare a climate emergency and cancel the MVP and other recently approved fossil fuel projects like the Willow project in Alaska and the expansions of LNG projects in Texas and Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. The opponents of the MVP also continued their challenges to the pipeline, which already has a track record of hundreds of violations. Our coalition also continued to challenge not only the constitutionality of Section 324 of the FRA, but also the eminent domain provisions of the Natural Gas Act.
Unfortunately on Friday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded they had only one recourse and dismissed the MVP opponents’ challenges to the already pending permit challenges. But they did not do it quietly. On Friday, I shared this press statement referencing Judge Roger L. Gregory’s concern about Section 324 of the FRA:
Today is a very sad day, the very day after Hawaii saw the worst disaster in its history, where dozens, if not hundreds of people perished in a massive climate change-driven wildfire, that the 4th Circuit Court felt they had no other choice but to dismiss lawsuits designed to protect our environment. Judge Gregory was correct when he stated,
…Section 324 is a blueprint for construction of a natural gas pipeline by legislative fiat. If that provision is likewise constitutionally sanctioned, the Congress will have found a way to adjudicate by legislating for particular cases and for particular litigants, no different than the governmental excesses our Framers sought to avoid. For that reason, I fear Congress has employed this Court’s constitutionally directed deference to legislative prerogatives to undermine the Constitution and in the process, it has made the Court an accessory to its deeds. If that is so, I wonder if Section 324 is a harbinger of erosion not just to the environment, but to our republic.
I share Judge Gregory’s real concern for our environment and our democracy.
Where does this leave us? The MVP is a climate time bomb. It is literally a public safety hazard and an enormously corrupt and democracy-ending project. If it is allowed to be built under these circumstances the entire nation will suffer from the precedent-setting way it was legislated to competition by “legislative fiat.” Exempting any single project of any kind from long-held environmental rules is a slippery slope down the road toward oligarchy. That is why partisan politics must be set aside and the courts and Congress must put a halt to such practices. They must act quickly because our survival depends upon it. Just ask the people on Maui.
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Groups 'Extremely Disappointed' by Ruling But Vow to Keep Fighting Mountain Valley Pipeline
"It is clear to us that the top levers of power in this country do not serve the good of the people of Appalachia, who they have continued to sacrifice for the whims of a corrupt, reckless fossil fuel corporation," said one activist.
Aug 11, 2023
Local and national climate campaigns on Friday expressed disappointment over an appellate court's dismissal of challenges to a partially built fracked gas pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia but pledged to continue their efforts to kill the project.
Citing a section of the debt ceiling law that President Joe Biden negotiated with congressional Republicans this spring, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit dismissed cases in which green groups challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Act approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) as well as the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management's authorizations for the Jefferson National Forest.
"It is clear to us that the top levers of power in this country do not serve the good of the people of Appalachia, who they have continued to sacrifice for the whims of a corrupt, reckless fossil fuel corporation," said Russell Chisholm, managing director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition. "As wildfires and heatwaves terrorize our global kin, as President Biden spreads misinformation about his climate commitments, we resolve to protect our communities because we can't count on so-called 'leaders' to do so."
Jason Crazy Bear Keck, co-founder of 7 Directions of Service, was similarly undeterred, saying that "we are extremely disappointed but never surprised by the system created for profit. Such tools of oppression operate exactly as they were intended to. This terrible news does not hinder or harm our conviction, rather it proves the necessity to keep on resisting."
"The temper tantrums from corporate agents and bought-off political implants only remind the people of how terribly off-track governance has become as it relates to the protection of society and its natural environment," the campaigner added. "We continue to condemn irresponsibility, condemn systematic oppression, and condemn an all-out federal attack on our futures. We stand on what's right, what's just, and what's sustainable for our generations not yet arrived."
"We will not stop exposing the dangers and damages from this project and insisting that it be canceled."
The pipeline developer and Biden administration sought to have the cases dismissed after passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). Section 324 of the June law fast-tracks MVP and states that only the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District has jurisdiction over "any claim alleging the invalidity of this section or that an action is beyond the scope of authority conferred by this section."
In an opinion authored by Judge James Andrew Wynn and joined by the other two panel members, the 4th Circuit—which previously paused MVP construction only to have the U.S. Supreme Court reverse those decisions—ruled Friday that green groups' "sole contention in response to the motions to dismiss was that Section 324 was unconstitutional, a claim that can only be heard by the D.C. Circuit. Therefore, the motions to dismiss must be granted for lack of jurisdiction."
Judge Stephanie D. Thacker wrote in a concurring opinion that "while I join the conclusion that Congress has acted within its legislative authority in enacting" the part of Section 324 that gives the D.C. Circuit jurisdiction, "I write separately because Congress' use of its authority in this manner threatens to disturb the balance of power between co-equal branches of government."
Judge Roger L. Gregory also raised separation of power concerns in a concurring opinion, writing that "Section 324 is a blueprint for the construction of a natural gas pipeline by legislative fiat. If that provision is likewise constitutionally sanctioned, then Congress will have found the way to adjudicate by legislating for particular cases and for particular litigants, no different than the governmental excesses our Framers sought to avoid."
"For that reason, I fear Congress has employed this court's constitutionally directed deference to legislative prerogatives to undermine the Constitution and, in the process, it has made the court an accessory to its deeds," he added. "If that is so, I wonder if Section 324 is a harbinger of erosion not just to the environment, but to our republic. That, only our Supreme Court can decide."
Maury Johnson—West Virginia co-chair of the POWHR Coalition, a Preserve Monroe board member, and a landowner affected by MVP—said Friday that "I share Judge Gregory's real concern for our environment and our democracy."
Other campaigners explicitly condemned Congress for giving the pipeline developer "a free pass to edge out vulnerable species and steamroll communities in its path," in the words of Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous.
Preserve Giles County coordinator Donna Pitt declared that "the ill-advised enactment of Section 324 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act lays bare the danger we are in if we continue to allow ourselves to be governed by the self-serving needs of fossil fuel corporations."
"The builders and political backers of the MVP could not get this destructive project across the finish line by following the rules that are supposed to apply to all projects," said Wild Virginia conservation director David Sligh. "The reason is simple. The pipeline cannot be built across these valuable and sensitive landscapes in a way that upholds our historic laws, including the Endangered Species Act."
"The Fish and Wildlife Service failed in its duties three times, so Congress and the president have attempted to give the MVP a get-out-of-jail-free card on its responsibility to protect our rare and precious species," Sligh added. "We will not stop exposing the dangers and damages from this project and insisting that it be canceled."
Earlier Friday, a pair of activists locked themselves to construction equipment at an MVP worksite on Poor Mountain in Roanoke County, Virginia—an action that was denounced by the pipeline developer and drew police to the scene.
According to Appalachians Against Pipelines, one supporter of the action said: "Any reputable scientist could tell you that this pipeline is inconsistent with a future where humans continue to live. It's that simple. The MVP is a doomsday device. It is only being built so the rich can get richer. Our 'leaders' have clearly taken a side, so it's up to us to stop this thing."
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FERC OKs Completion of 'Reckless' Mountain Valley Pipeline
"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," said one critic.
Jun 28, 2023
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 told E&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."
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151 Groups Blast Biden Admin for Backing 'Destructive' Mountain Valley Pipeline
"This project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."
May 04, 2023
A coalition of climate groups this week called out the Biden administration's support for the partially completed Mountain Valley Pipeline, highlighting how its ongoing construction and potential operation threaten "the well-being of people, endangered species, streams, rivers, farms, national forests, and the planet."
The letter, led by Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) and 7 Directions of Service and backed by 149 other organizations, is in response to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm writing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month to reiterate the administration's position on the contested 303-mile fracked gas pipeline across Virginia and West Virginia.
"We are incredibly disappointed with your recent actions to promote the destructive and unneeded Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)," the climate coalition wrote to Granholm, noting that her letter to FERC coincided with President Joe Biden signing an executive order to implement "environmental justice policy across the federal government."
"You should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy."
After condemning the administration's endorsement of the pipeline and recent approvals of the Willow oil and Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects as "hypocritical betrayals," given Biden's campaign trail pledges, the coalition laid out how the MVP impacts "livelihoods, drinking water sources, property values, and important cultural resources," pointing to Indigenous cultural sites as well as communities of "low-income, elderly, and medically underserved populations" dependent on private wells.
MVP construction has involved over 500 violations of permit conditions, laws, and regulations, the letter emphasizes, and almost 75% of the route "slices through 'moderate-high' or 'high' landslide risk terrain."
The pipeline developer's website states that "MVP's total project work is nearly 94% complete, which includes 55.8% of the right-of-way fully restored." While proponents of the project often cite the former figure, letter signatories are drawing attention to the latter—and that completion would require complex construction involving "incredibly complex and fragile" water crossings.
"The MVP, its greedy political backers, and some journalists continue to claim that the project is nearly complete despite the company's own repeated reports that it is just over half complete with some of the hardest construction yet to come, including hundreds of stream crossings," POWHR managing director Russell Chisholm told Common Dreams.
"This disinformation is not only an insult to frontline communities monitoring and enduring the unfinished pipeline's construction, but it furthers the risk of another planet-killing fossil fuel pipeline built during a climate crisis... on a planet that we all live on," Chisholm added. "Shame on all people in power who tout this falsehood."
Released as climate scientists continue to stress the need for a swift global transition to renewable energy, the letter argues that "this project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."
Taking aim at claims in the energy secretary's letter, the coalition wrote:
Asking the commission to proceed "expeditiously" with any further action on the project and misstating the project's relation to "national security" while providing no evidence undermines the administration's commitment to advancing environmental justice. An economy tied to fossil fuels during a climate crisis is unpredictable and makes us vulnerable to foreign governments and the greed of corporate CEOs. This country's energy independence can only come from a swift and just renewable energy transition. This will help protect us from foreign supply chain disruptions and conflicts, as well as deliver lower costs to consumers. The MVP will not assist our allies in Europe, and nor is it needed in the Southeast as you claim. No matter where MVP's gas is intended to be delivered, sacrificing communities to free up gas to export overseas for corporate profit is not "national security." Building this project prolongs fracked gas buildout, accelerates LNG infrastructure buildout and export, and sacrifices communities, all of which are counter to the just future we deserve.
Your letter contains open appeals for dangerous distractions that will prop up the fossil fuel industry for decades to come. The dangerous distractions of carbon capture and hydrogen propagate the untrue belief that we can continue wholesale destruction of the earth, continue creating sacrifice zones, release millions of tons of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel projects, and continue massive corporate capture of regulatory agencies while embarking on a just transition off of fossil fuels. Instead, you should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy.
"Your letter states that MVP is part of the clean energy transition. In reality, MVP would exacerbate the very climate crisis that is causing an increasing number of extreme weather events," the organizations continued, referencing expert estimates that its "lifecycle would be comparable to the operation of 26 to 37 new coal-fired power plants."
"We request that you immediately rescind your letter of support for the project," the coalition concluded, "and that you meet with directly impacted communities as soon as possible who live on the route of the project, so you can gain an increased understanding of the destruction and danger that you are promoting."
The groups' letter comes as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—whose personal fortune and political campaigns are tied to fossil fuels—renews his push for a "dirty deal" on energy permitting reforms, despite three defeats last year. On Tuesday he introduced the Building American Energy Security Act, which calls for the completion of the MVP.
In a backroom deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last summer, Manchin agreed to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Democrats—who then controlled both chambers of Congress—subquently pushed through his permitting measure. Progressive lawmakers and grassroots opposition have so far blocked such efforts, but the House is now narrowly held by Republicans willing to serve Big Oil, and Manchin expressed confidence this week that he can advance a bipartisan bill.
Despite Manchin's recent votes to gut some of Biden's climate and environmental policies, the White House is backing his bill. "We supported it last year, we'll support it this year," John Podesta, who directs IRA implementation for the president, told Reuters Tuesday. "It's a high priority for us to try to find a path forward on bipartisan, permanent reform."
Meanwhile, "dirty deal" critics remain committed to killing it. According to Chisholm, "Sen. Manchin is desperate to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline through federal shortcuts that circumvent normal regulatory and judicial processes because he knows our movement is growing stronger every day and we will stop the unnecessary, unwanted climate nightmare that is the MVP."
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'A Win for All Living Beings': Appeals Court Tosses Mountain Valley Pipeline Permit
The ruling, said one organizer, "uplifts the tireless efforts of every single coalition member and volunteer fighting to protect land, water, and people."
Apr 04, 2023
A U.S. appellate court panel on Monday unanimously struck down a key water permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a partially completed fracked gas project long opposed by people living along the over-300-mile route through Virginia and West Virginia.
Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated a Clean Water Act certification from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), without which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot allow ongoing MVP construction at stream and wetland crossings.
"The certification reflected the department's conclusion that MVP's activities during the pipeline's construction would not violate the state's water quality standards," the panel said. "Disagreeing with that determination, landowners and members of various environmental organizations in the state have petitioned for this court's review of the department's certification. We find the department's justifications for its conclusions deficient and vacate the certification."
"West Virginia communities have endured Mountain Valley Pipeline's damage to their water resources and environment for far too long."
The MVP gained national attention last year because of efforts by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to force the completion of the pipeline as part of his thrice-defeated "dirty deal" on permitting reforms. House Republicans, who recently passed their own fossil fuel-friendly energy package, are also now pushing for legislation to finish the project.
While Manchin said Monday that "it is infuriating to see the same 4th Circuit Court panel deal yet another setback for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project and once again side with activists who seem hell-bent on killing any fossil energy that will make our country energy independent and secure," MVP opponents praised the decision.
"Today's ruling uplifts the tireless efforts of every single coalition member and volunteer fighting to protect land, water, and people," said Russell Chisholm, managing director for the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition. "MVP should abandon their ill-fated project because we will defend every stream and river crossing that can still be saved from permanent harm."
Several campaigners stressed that damage has already been done during the construction of the incomplete pipeline.
"MVP has already gone too far in damaging West Virginia's water resources, particularly in some of our most valuable mountain headwater systems. WVDEP clearly cannot make a good conscience argument that MVP will not further violate water quality standards," said West Virginia Rivers Coalition executive director Angie Rosser.
Similarly charging that "West Virginia communities have endured Mountain Valley Pipeline's damage to their water resources and environment for far too long," Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, agreed that "this ruinous project must be canceled."
Along with violating water standards, this "disastrous" project "is already more than three years behind schedule, and billions over budget," noted Sierra Club's Patrick Grente. "With continuous legal setbacks, it has never been more clear that investors should stop throwing money at this doomed project and walk away."
Bloomberg reported that the ruling likely thwarts plans to put MVP into service in 2023 and delays the project by at least a year.
"People need investment in clean, fossil fuel-free, nonextractive energy—not the MVP—and developers should cancel the project," said Crystal Cavalier-Keck, co-founder of 7 Directions of Service, who was far from alone in pointing to the broader climate argument against continuing the pipeline, or any fossil fuel project, given scientists' warnings.
Chesapeake Climate Action Network general counsel Anne Havemann declared that "we're in a climate crisis and need to stop digging the hole deeper."
"It's time to move away from polluting fracked gas infrastructure projects such as MVP that harm our rivers and streams, rip through private property, and contribute to climate change," Havemann said, "and move towards clean, renewable energy."
The first paragraph of this post has been updated to reflect the degree to which the project is completed.
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Climate Advocates Call Out House GOP Push to Fast-Track Mountain Valley Pipeline
"Time and time again the people have risen up against the backroom deals and slimy maneuverings at the federal level to push MVP through, and we will keep standing up," vowed one organizer.
Mar 23, 2023
As congressional Democrats launch new clean energy and environmental justice efforts, House Republicans outraged climate campaigners and frontline communities on Thursday with a move to fast-track a long-delayed fracked gas pipeline.
Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-W.Va.), backed by 10 other Republicans, introduced an amendment to the GOP-led Lower Energy Costs Act (H.R. 1) to ensure that the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is "constructed expeditiously."
Russell Chisholm, managing director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition, highlighted that Miller's fresh push for the MVP came just a day after Democrats introduced the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act.
"As they watch the demise of the fossil fuel industry that lines their pockets, they are desperate to fast-track this unnecessary and disastrous pipeline."
"Hours after our environmental justice movement released a positive vision for a livable future, the Environmental Justice for All Act, these Republicans are throwing a tantrum," Chisholm said in a statement Thursday. "As they watch the demise of the fossil fuel industry that lines their pockets, they are desperate to fast-track this unnecessary and disastrous pipeline—to the point that they want to strip away judicial review and nullify bedrock environmental law."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released Monday "makes clear that we must stop all new fossil fuel expansion immediately," he continued. "We demand our representatives to silence this ridiculous whining while our regulatory agencies and courts assess the science and evidence that mandates the MVP be stopped."
Jason Crazy Bear Keck, co-founder of 7 Directions of Service, said, "The fact that some of our elected representatives have been bending over backwards to fast track the MVP, a poster child pipeline for corruption and environmental injustices, is appalling to us as impacted community members, water protectors, and land defenders."
"Only a short-sighted, greed-driven person who stands to profit would go to such great lengths to attempt to revive a failing zombie project like the MVP," he asserted. "Time and time again the people have risen up against the backroom deals and slimy maneuverings at the federal level to push MVP through, and we will keep standing up until our basic rights and protections, like those granted by the EJ for All Act, are secured and upheld."
While residents living along the over 300 miles of pipeline route through Virginia and West Virginia have long fought against MVP, the project got national attention last year as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
tried to force a "dirty deal" on permit reforms.
Though Manchin's proposals were thrice defeated, the right-wing Democrat and MVP supporter signaled in February that he would continue to work with the new House GOP majority to try to advance a fossil fuel-friendly measure.
E&E News reported Wednesday that "other politicians hailing from the mid-Atlantic are eager to see the pipeline operate. But Republicans have previously opposed the idea of singling out one project for special congressional treatment. And they might not want to hand Manchin a win at a time when the moderate Democrat mulls running for reelection."
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) last week introduced the Lower Energy Costs Act—which, while unlikely to make it through the divided Senate and reach President Joe Biden's desk, is intended to wipe out the administration's climate agenda.
As E&E detailed:
Republicans say the proposal, which will be debated and voted on next week, would allow the United States to produce more oil, gas, solar, and wind in a manner that is more environmentally sound than anywhere else on the planet.
The bill, the work of three committees, would require the federal government to hold quarterly oil lease sales in Western states. It would speed up environmental permitting that GOP lawmakers complain drags on years longer than it should. The package would also allow for more hardrock mining in mineral-rich states like Minnesota and Idaho.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday sent supporters of the GOP bill a clear message from the floor of the upper chamber: "You can do all the hoopla you want in the House, it ain't passing."
The IPCC this week put out "their most dire warnings to date: Unless the world swiftly transitions to clean energy and curbs emissions, our planet risks crossing a point of no return sometime in the next decade," Schumer said. "What awaits us on the other side could be severe and irreversible: droughts, storms, crop failures at a level we can scarcely imagine today."
"House Republicans seem to think the best solution for our energy needs is not to help America transition to clean energy... Unfortunately, they think doubling down on more giveaways to Big Oil is the way to go," he added. "Democrats want to see a bipartisan, commonsense energy proposal come together in Congress, but Republicans' H.R. 1 proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate."
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Over 650 Progressive Groups Vow to Fight 'Dirty' Manchin Deal 'With Everything We've Got'
Broad coalition calls on Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to "stand with the communities who continue to bear the brunt of harm from fossil fuels and act to prevent wholesale climate disaster."
Aug 24, 2022
A broad coalition of more than 650 climate and progressive advocacy groups Wednesday called on congressional Democratic leaders to reject Sen. Joe Manchin's "alarming" demands for U.S. fossil fuel projects contained in a "dirty" side deal that the West Virginia Democrat secretly negotiated to gain his support for his own party's historic but watered-down package on climate, taxes, and drug price reforms.
"After the IRA paved the way for another decade of fracking and pipelines, we have no choice but to fight this dirty deal with everything we've got."
"We are writing to express our strenuous opposition to any additional fossil fuel giveaways," states the coalition's letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), noting that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by President Joe Biden last week "already included large giveaways to polluters."
"We call on you to unequivocally reject any effort to promote fossil fuels, advance unproven technologies, and weaken our core environmental laws," the letter adds. "You must stand with the communities who continue to bear the brunt of harm from fossil fuels and act to prevent wholesale climate disaster."
According to a leaked one-page summary of what critics have called "the ultimate devil's bargain," the proposal would prioritize approval of projects with "strategic national importance," set time restrictions for reviewing permits, alter federal water rules, limit lawsuits, and increase federal authority for certain facilities. Manchin is also pushing for the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a fracked gas project that runs through his home state but is opposed by many of his constituents.
"This fossil fuel wish list is a cruel and direct attack on environmental justice communities and the climate," the new letter argues. "Prolonging the fossil fuel era perpetuates environmental racism, is wildly out of step with climate science, and hamstrings our nation's ability to avert a climate disaster. Supporting this legislation would represent a profound betrayal of frontline communities and constituents across the country who have called on you to prevent the multitude of harms of fossil fuels and advance a just, renewable energy future."
The groups--including the Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Justice Alliance, Green New Deal Network, Indivisible, Oil Change International, MoveOn, NAACP, Oxfam America, People's Action, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement--are demanding "bold congressional action to address the existential threat of climate chaos."
Such action "requires limiting the production of oil, gas, and coal, which are responsible for 85% of greenhouse emissions and are the root driver of the climate crisis," the letter states. "Relying only on large-scale investments in renewable energy and environmental justice alone will not stave off climate disaster if Congress simultaneously puts its legislative foot on the gas to expand fossil fuel production and false solutions like carbon capture, hydrogen, biomass, biofuels, factory farm gas, and nuclear power."
The letter acknowledges that Manchin wants to tie his dirty deal--which is already facing opposition from some progressives in the House--to legislation to fund the federal government after the end of next month. The right-wing Democrat has even threatened a government shutdown if members of both parties don't back his proposal.
The coalition's letter charges that "tethering this legislation to any must-pass legislation including a continuing resolution to fund the federal government is morally abhorrent. Holding the funding of the entire federal government hostage to satiate one senator with a heavy financial self-interest in fossil fuels is beyond irresponsible."
"Sacrificing the health and prosperity of communities in Appalachia, the Gulf Coast, Alaska, the Midwest, the Southwest, and other frontline communities around the country makes this side-deal profoundly disgraceful," the documents adds. "Our communities and our collective future require the political courage to stop the fossil fuel stranglehold once and for all."
Representatives of groups that signed the letter echoed its urgent tone.
"This dirty side deal is nothing short of a wholesale giveaway to the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of frontline communities, tribal nations, and Mother Earth," said Joye Braun, national pipelines organizer of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "The world is on fire and negotiating the amount of fuel for those flames is not acceptable. Congress needs to understand that there is no compromise when it comes to protecting the next seven generations of life and beyond."
According to Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, "it's atrocious that Congress is even considering dismantling bedrock environmental protections just to please one senator." He called the effort a "poisonous plan" that "must be stopped."
"The grassroots climate movement is fired up to stop this fossil fuel expansion deal, and the sit-ins at Sen. Schumer and Murray's offices last week are just the beginning."
The letter follows protests against the deal and resulting arrests last week at the offices of both Schumer and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the party's third-ranked member in the Senate.
Thomas Meyer, national organizing manager at Food & Water Watch, told Common Dreams that "Manchin and Schumer are in for a rude awakening if they thought they could slip this deal through without a fuss."
"The grassroots climate movement is fired up to stop this fossil fuel expansion deal, and the sit-ins at Sen. Schumer and Murray's offices last week are just the beginning," Meyer added. "After the IRA paved the way for another decade of fracking and pipelines, we have no choice but to fight this dirty deal with everything we've got."
The Stop MVP and People vs. Fossil Fuels coalitions are planning a public demonstration against Manchin's deal in the nation's capital next month. "No Sacrifice Zones: Appalachian Resistance Comes to D.C." is set to kick off at 5:00 pm local time on September 8 at the Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon.
"We are done being sacrifice zones, and we must stop this bill and MVP!" organizers said in a statement Tuesday. "We want to build community between intersectional Appalachian resistance organizations and have their voices heard! We must protect bedrock environmental laws and public input. We are in solidarity with all frontlines of the climate crisis."
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday granted MVP's request to extend its certificate of public convenience and necessity by four years--a move that Russell Chisholm of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition said "emphasizes the brutal length and uncertainty of the project."
"This project should never be built and this decision subjects our communities to prolonged harm," he added. "That's why tens of thousands of people submitted comments to stop FERC from granting this extension. Now we're taking our growing movement to D.C. to demand decision-makers stop MVP and all pro-fossil fuel legislation."
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Climate Coalition to Biden and Schumer: Reject 'Fossil Fuel Expansion' in Manchin Deal
"Permitting new fossil fuel projects will further entrench us in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come," more than 350 environmental and social justice groups wrote in a new letter.
Jul 29, 2022
A climate justice coalition sent a letter Friday imploring President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to reject any proposed fossil fuel expansion during negotiations over the latest iteration of the Democratic Party's reconciliation bill.
"The unnecessary fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline and further drilling in Alaska and the Gulf are not foregone conclusions."
"Permitting new fossil fuel projects will further entrench us in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come--and constitutes a violent betrayal of your pledge to combat environmental racism and destruction," more than 350 organizations representing millions of people wrote to Biden and Schumer, the powerful Democrat from New York.
Any new fossil fuel projects, the groups added, will "lock workers into a dying industry and delay the growth in sectors that will support jobs of the future."
The letter calling on Biden and Schumer to "hold the line against fossil fuel expansion" comes in the wake of this week's surprise announcement that conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W-Va.) has agreed to support a filibuster-proof economic and climate package known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
While the IRA would unleash $369 billion in climate-related public funding over the next decade in the form of subsidies for clean energy production and tax incentives for carbon capture and other contentious technologies--an unprecedented sum yet a miniscule fraction of the nation's annual military spending--it also includes significant giveaways to Manchin's allies and financial backers in the oil and gas industry.
Some progressive campaigners have cautiously welcomed news of the spending deal that Manchin and Schumer say would reduce peak U.S. carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 while others have been more critical and vowed to fight the bill's most harmful provisions.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Climate Justice Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Greenpeace USA, Indigenous Environmental Network, Our Revolution, the Sunrise Movement, and other groups behind Friday's letter to Biden and Schumer wrote that "any approval of new fossil fuel projects or fast-tracking of fossil fuel permitting is incompatible with climate leadership."
"Oil, gas, and coal production are the core drivers of the climate and extinction crises," states the letter. "There can be no new fossil fuel leases, exports, or infrastructure if we have any hope of preventing ever-worsening climate crises, catastrophic floods, deadly wildfires, and more--all of which are ripping across the country as we speak," the letter continues, echoing numerous expert warnings about the need to keep polluting fuels in the ground to have a chance of averting the planetary emergency's most dire impacts.
"We are out of time," the letter adds. "Therefore, we're calling on you to fulfill your promise to lead on climate, starting with denying approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, rejecting all new federal fossil fuel leases onshore, in the Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska, and everywhere else, and preventing any fast-tracked permits for fossil fuel projects."
"Lawmakers who support real climate solutions should reject this deal until the fossil fuel handouts are removed."
Some of the IRA's most egregious "poison pills" would mandate oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, reinstate the 2021 Gulf lease sale that was deemed illegal, and require that millions more acres of public lands be auctioned for drilling before any new solar or wind energy projects could be constructed on public lands or waters, the coalition explained in a statement.
"This compromise," said John Beard, founder and CEO of Port Arthur Community Action Network, "uses people as pawns in a high-stakes political gamble involving our lives, health, and the climate."
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, emphasized that "we can't let the renewable energy transition be held hostage by fossil fuel companies."
"The Manchin bill is a devil's bargain that ignores science and locks us into at least a decade of new oil and gas extraction," said Hartl. "There's a way forward that doesn't spew more greenhouse gas pollution into the air and harm frontline communities, and it means eliminating these giveaways to the fossil-fuel industry."
Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said that "locking in more drilling and fracking on public lands and waters, billions in subsidies for the myth of carbon capture, and fast-tracking permit approvals for gas pipelines and exports are exactly the policies fueling the climate crisis and harming public health with increasing pollution in our air and water."
"Lawmakers who support real climate solutions," he added, "should reject this deal until the fossil fuel handouts are removed."
The IRA is "a far cry from what's actually needed to address the climate crisis," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. "The investments in renewables, energy efficiency, and Superfund clean-ups will make a difference, but communities and the climate continue to be sacrificed to Sen. Manchin's fossil fuel demands."
The climate justice coalition told Biden and Schumer that "you cannot address the climate emergency by sacrificing communities."
"Here in Appalachia, we refuse to be sacrificed for political gain or used as concessions to the fossil fuel industry in this so-called deal," said Grace Tuttle of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition. "The unnecessary fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline and further drilling in Alaska and the Gulf are not foregone conclusions. There's no effective climate legislation that allows for new fossil fuel infrastructure, period."
The signatories to Friday's letter, like other advocates this week, also stressed that the deal struck with Manchin does not negate progressives' longstanding demand for Biden to use his existing executive authority to reject new fossil fuel projects and to declare a climate emergency, which proponents say would open up additional lifesaving powers.
"You cannot address the climate emergency by sacrificing communities."
"Declaring a climate emergency will unlock President Biden's full set of powers to not only release Defense funding to build renewable and just energy systems, but also confront fossil fuels head-on by stopping crude oil exports," the groups wrote.
"With non-emergency powers, President Biden can reject new oil and gas leases, and deny all fossil fuel infrastructure that harms countless communities across the country," the coalition continued. "Unleashing executive powers should be pursued in concert with--and not instead of--passing critical climate legislation, and vice versa."
The letter concludes with an urgent plea for Biden and Schumer "to hold the line against any new fossil fuel projects, reject handouts to oil and gas companies, and use every tool available to advance a truly just, renewable energy future that does not sacrifice our communities."
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