Mountain Valley Pipeline
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is an under-construction natural gas pipeline in the United States from southern Virginia to northwestern West Virginia. The project will consist of of pipelines with an additional as part of the Equitrans Expansion Project, which will help to connect new and existing pipelines throughout the region. The completed pipeline would have the ability to ship 2 million dekatherms (Dts) of natural gas per day for distribution, with a large quantity of that gas being produced from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. Some of the issues raised by citizen groups include the  right of eminent domain and the potential for negative impacts to the forests, waterways, and protected wildlife during construction. The MVP project has the potential to bring in state and local tax revenue along with jobs and economic growth to Virginia and West Virginia, a region that has been impacted by the decline of coal. Project description. The MVP project is a natural gas pipeline from southern Virginia to northwestern West Virginia retrieving its supply from the Marcellus and Utica shale sites. It is expected to provide two billion cubic feet of firm capacity per day that can be used  in commercial buildings in the Mid to the South Atlantic areas of the United States. The pipeline is projected to span approximately , and will cut across the Appalachian Trail near Peters Mountain Wilderness in Virginia. The MVP is owned by Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC (MVPLLC), which is a joint venture between the energy provider Consolidated Edison and various midstream partners, with EQT Midstream holding the most substantial stake. It is a joint venture project of Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC partners and Equitrans LP, which merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Equitrans to form Equitrans Midstream Corporation in June 2020 . The MVP is operated by EQT Corporation, a utility company and drilling firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. EQT transports petroleum and natural gas and is one of the largest producers in the Appalachian Basin. The MVP is an interstate pipeline so it is federally regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under United States Natural Gas Act. Federal and state level ordinances will regulate the construction and operation of the pipeline. In October 2015, MVPLLC applied for permits for the pipeline from FERC, and the regulatory commission issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement in June 2017. After the pipeline is  built, the pipeline is regulated by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), where records of incidences are kept. The evidence of a market demand and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Certificate policy requires at least 25 percent of the Mountain Valley Pipeline's capacity to deliver natural gas be met by service contract agreements in order to justify the need for the project. MVPLLC was able to secure these service contracts allowing them to proceed with the proposed project. The completed pipeline would have the ability to ship 2 million dekatherms (Dts) of natural gas per day for  distribution, with a large quantity of that gas being produced from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. Opposition to the project. Opposition was met during the initial request to obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity from the FERC. Some of the issues raised by citizen groups include the right of eminent domain and the potential for negative impacts to the forests, waterways, and protected wildlife during construction. Concerns were raised because the route cuts across the Appalachian Trail. Activists have set up numerous blockades to prevent construction along the pipeline path including a month-long tree-sit near Peters  Mountain, an aerial blockade in which a woman occupied a platform atop a pole for 57 days, other aerial blockades, and the 932 day yellow finch tree-sit from September 2018 to March 2021. Protestors have also blocked construction by parking junk cars on the pipeline route or locking themselves to machinery; in one case, a professor chained herself to construction equipment. Obstruction of pipeline construction has been ongoing in spite of significant criminal and civil penalties being levied against protestors. The head of the Jefferson National Forest was reassigned, allegedly due to heavy handed tactics involving the protest, which  included running ATVs on a section of the Appalachian Trail, and, according to Outside Magazine, blocking food and water supplies to protesters. In Virginia, bumper stickers are appearing on cars that read "No Pipeline". Many articles against the pipeline have been published in The Roanoke Times, and many protests have been organized. The MVP has been cited by government agencies for violations of Virginia's Stormwater Management Act because of problems with runoff from land clearing while installing the pipeline. The pipeline was challenged in court, including lawsuits during 2018 in which cultural preservation officers from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe  and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe sued FERC for failing to satisfy the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act after they found evidence of burial mounds along the path of the pipeline. These lawsuits were thrown out by federal courts in February 2019. Many landowners complain that they are kept up at night by construction, mainly because most of the land used to build the pipeline was taken from private landowners by eminent domain. A ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Dillon on January 31, 2018 granted the right of eminent domain to MVPLLC in a disputed area  but required current appraisals and bonds be set forth to compensate for any losses incurred by the land owners. Landowners located along the pipeline project see the privately owned pipeline as a ‘government sanctioned land grab’ impacting not only the environment, but also the local economies of surrounding towns. In June, 2018, a federal court put a hold on a required permit for construction of the pipeline in Monroe County, West Virginia. Impacts. Local summaries from the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project website suggest it has the potential to bring in state and local tax revenue along with jobs and economic  growth to Virginia and West Virginia, a region where the impacts from a decline in the coal industry has caused a ripple effect that spans across the entire coal industry ecosystem. The American Petroleum Institute claims that benefits from the pipeline could increased natural gas availability while providing a cleaner and cheaper alternative fuel source for American consumers. There are concerns however from communities that will be impacted by the pipeline's construction and interest groups who want to preserve historical landmarks, forests, wildlife, waterways, and parks. Questions were raised regarding the need for the project and its purpose. Additional  inquiries called in to question whether there were alternatives to avoid impacts to the forest among other things which were detailed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, along with recommendations by the FERC to minimize the impacts on the environment. The environmental concerns of the pipeline include threats to the streams, rivers, and drinking water along the route. This can include the forests, endangered species, fish nurseries, and the public lands that surround the pipeline. Water contamination has been one of the biggest concerns with the growth of this project, and there are concerns by some about the path of  the pipeline, which cuts across sections of national forests including the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia and West Virginia along with the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has opposed the pipeline, with the following concerns: The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, says: Economic gains by the Mountain Valley Pipeline project include: Timeline. October 2014 October 23, 2015 October 13, 2017 December 2017 December 20, 2017 December 22, 2017 January 31, 2018 2018 (first quarter) July 3, 2018 July 27, 2018 October 2, 2018 November 27, 2018 December, 2018 March 1, 2019 October 11, 2019 October 15 , 2019 June 2020 July 31, 2020 August 11, 2020 August 25, 2020 September 4, 2020 September 11, 2020 September 22, 2020 October 9, 2020