Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023
It literally took an Act of Congress, but the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline will be, according to the builder and main owner, Equitrans, completed and online by the end of 2023. Victory!!! Finally, the good guys win one. The bulk of the credit for this significant victory goes to…House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who listened to the Republicans of West Virginia and stuck his own neck out to ensure this pipeline project gets completed by including it in the debt ceiling bill. Yes, liberal Democrat Joe Manchin gets credit for calling attention to the plight of MVP, but make no mistake–Manchin could not seal the deal. He fumbled the ball and could not get it across the finish line for a touchdown. It was McCarthy who picked up the ball and ran with it. It was Congresswoman Carol Miller (from West Virginia) and Senator Shelley Moore Capito (also from WV) who fought and lobbied (behind the scenes). Their work aided McCarthy in securing a place for MVP in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Hats off to the Republican delegation from WV for their success.
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Big news over the weekend. President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to a compromise deal to raise the debt ceiling–into the stratosphere. Part of the deal is a provision in the 99-page “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” called Section 324, which expedites the completion of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP will flow 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus/Utica gas from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel nutters began howling at the moon and clawing at their faces upon hearing the MVP news.
Today’s lead story shares the good news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is finally getting a literal “act of Congress” to force its completion (see Biden-McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal Includes Finishing MVP PDQ). One of the provisions in the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” (debt ceiling bill) removes jurisdiction to hear court cases brought against MVP away from the corrupt U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and gives it to the D.C. Circuit instead. Which may not be the panacea we were hoping for. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit ruled in a case concerning MVP that has the potential to delay the project further. So much for the D.C. Circuit being MVP’s savior…
Last Thursday, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, John Joyce (a physician from Altoona, PA), introduced House of Representatives Bill (HR) 3500, called the “Mountain Valley Pipeline Completion Act” (copy below). Which we find interesting because Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) does not touch PA, although a PA company, Equitrans, is building it. The 303-mile MVP pipeline starts in Wetzel County, WV, and runs through WV into Virginia, ending in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project has been stalled for years due to repeated lawsuits from foreign-funded Big Green groups. HR 3500, aimed at finishing MVP, was co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Carol Miller (R-WV), Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Dan Meuser (R-PA), and Alex Mooney (R-WV). Here’s what the bill would do…
Last week MDN told you the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) had given final approval to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to install pipe through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia for the THIRD time (see 
Even though Dominion Energy sold its interstate pipeline network in 2020 (see 
Disappointing news has been a constant this week–and it’s only Tuesday! Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court proved that sometimes it’s not so supreme. The high court breathed new life into a long-running lawsuit funded by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners who are arguing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had no right to delegate authority to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use eminent domain to cross land, including the land owned by the small group of uppity landowners in Virginia.
Last August, Columbia Gas Transmission (a subsidiary of TC Energy) filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Virginia Reliability Project (VRP), which includes two new compressor units and the replacement of 49 miles of existing pipeline (see 
Yesterday the 303-mile, 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline project received a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement from the U.S. Forest Service, clearing the way for the pipeline to get built through a piddly 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest. Ring the bells! Dance for joy! Blow the party noisemakers, right? Wrong. This is the third time this same permit has been issued. Nobody was impressed. We only found a single news story about it. The stock of Equitrans, the builder, moved up one penny on the news. Why the muted response? Because everyone has seen this movie before.
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) continues to ramp up the amount of “responsible” gas it purchases to resell to its customers. VNG provides clean, safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas service to more than 300,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeast Virginia. In October 2019, MDN told you that VNG cut a deal with Southwestern Energy to purchase enough supply of responsible gas for 20% of VNG’s customers (see 
It’s a miracle, A true blue spectacle, A miracle come true… (Lyrics from Barry Manilow’s tune, It’s a Miracle) In a 3-2 vote taken in December 2021, the Virginia State Water Control Board granted a permit (under the Clean Water Act) for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to cross about 150 streams and wetlands in Southwest Virginia (see 
The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that runs from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA is 94% complete (has been for two years) but sits idle, waiting for the other 6% to be completed so it can start up and begin to flow Marcellus/Utica molecules to the southeastern U.S. Lawsuits funded by Big Green groups (with foreign connections) have blocked the completion of the project…for YEARS. It would be fair to say the project is currently in a stalemate with Big Green radicals, who somehow have coopted the help of three Democrat judges who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Stalemates don’t go on forever. One way or the other, this situation will get resolved–likely this year. There are four potential outcomes for the stalled MVP project, a project critical to the future of the Marcellus/Utica.
We have an update to a project we first told you about in June of last year called the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project (see 
On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia (see 
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject a water permit granted by the Virginia State Water Control Board to help finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals by Big Green groups against the project. All three judges are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. Yesterday, the three clowns heard oral arguments from the foreign-backed Sierra Club (and its cronies) arguing the Control Board’s approval of a permit to cross streams and wetlands violates the federal Clean Water Act.