Current Status
On June 3, 2023, Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA), which directed federal agencies to approve the remaining federal permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and prohibited courts from reviewing these agency approvals. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order on June 28, 2023 authorizing all remaining MVP construction activities pursuant to the FRA’s congressional mandate and an order on June 11, 2024 authorizing MVP to be placed into service.
Why It Matters
The MVP is a 305-mile natural gas pipeline being constructed in West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, with its Greene Interconnect Project already built in West Virginia and the Southgate Expansion Project proposed to be built in North Carolina. Mountain Valley, LLC (Mountain Valley) proposed the MVP in 2016, as a joint venture between Equitrans Midstream, NextEra Energy, ConEdison Gas Midstream, WGL Midstream, and RGC Midstream. Mountain Valley must obtain and maintain approvals and permits from numerous agencies before constructing the project.
Environmental organizations and community advocates have challenged the adequacy of permits and decision-making by various federal and state agencies throughout MVP’s project development due to MVP’s potential impacts on environmental justice communities, federal and state waterways, forests and natural resources, and endangered species and their habitats. This tracker follows MVP’s federal environmental permitting and litigation, not the project’s state condemnation or eminent domain proceedings in detail.
