New Legal Hurdles Cast Doubt on Mountain Valley Pipeline Completion Date

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--New court rulings could jeopardize plans to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) this summer. Stretching 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, the MVP project is 94% complete and is expected to provide up to 2 million dekatherms per day of natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations to markets in the Mid- and South-Atlantic regions.

Since its inception, the project has seen a barrage of litigation. By one count, since 2017, the project has garnered at least 56 civil court actions by land owners and environmental groups in Virginia alone. That's roughly one lawsuit per five miles of pipeline. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Pipelines Project Database can click here for detailed active reports.

Click on the image at right for a map of the MVP.

A federal appeals court recently rejected two government permits that are crucial to complete the project.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's assessment of the MVP's impact on two endangered fish, the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter. As a result, the agency will have to revise its evaluation.

In the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, Judge James Wynn wrote, "We recognize that this decision will further delay the completion of an already mostly finished pipeline, but the Endangered Species Act's directive to federal agencies could not be clearer: 'halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost.'"

In a February 2 press release, pipeline stakeholder Equitrans Midstream (NYSE: ETRN) (Canonsburg, Pennsylvania) said: "The MVP project team is taking time to thoroughly review the information outlined in the decision and is evaluating the project's next steps regarding the Biological Opinion. We remain committed to completing the MVP project and believe the concerns associated with MVP's Biological Opinion can be addressed by the agency."

In another recent ruling, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a government permit allowing the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest on the Virginia-West Virginia border.

Despite the raft of permitting headaches, the MVP project had appeared to be slowly inching its way toward the finish line. But even if the pipeline eventually triumphs over its trials and travails, its adversaries, a coalition of environmental groups, have advanced a death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy, maintaining the costs of the battle will cause any other pipeline developers to think more than twice about constructing new projects in the region.

Originally planned to be completed in 2018 at a cost of $3.5 billion, the estimated price tag of the MVP now is $6.2 billion, due in large part to halts and other issues caused by litigation.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club have challenged the MVP. According to the Sierra Club, the pipeline would be the single largest source of greenhouse gases in Virginia, producing annual emissions of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The crossing of the pipeline beneath and across numerous streams, and its potential impact on water quality and local wildlife, also has been a big source of contention.

In turn, the project owners have maintained they have bent over backwards to comply with federal and state environmental standards.

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