Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) LLC has received US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permission to resume construction in a limited area. The 303-mile, 2-bcfd natural gas pipeline project’s owners had requested FERC reduce a 25-mile zone around the Jefferson National Forest in which construction had been barred to two smaller section totaling 7 miles.
Commissioner Richard Glick dissented, noting that the project still lacked both US Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) water-crossing permits and permission to cross the forest itself and therefore couldn’t be completed anyway. MVP had argued that completing work in areas in which it was already underway would accelerate their permanent restoration, a view already accepted by FERC.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups on Dec. 18, 2020, requested a stay and rehearing of the FERC order granting permission for work to restart, stating that allowing construction to resume while MVP was missing required authorizations from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, and while the permit from ACE had been stayed (OGJ Online, Nov. 12, 2020), violated Environmental Condition 9 of the certificate order approving the project. Condition 9, according to the requested stay, requires all federal authorizations to be in place for construction to proceed.
EQM Midstream owns a 45.5% operating interest in MVP LLC, with affiliates of NextEra Energy Inc., Consolidated Edison Inc., AltaGas Ltd., and RGC Resources Inc. owning the balance.