Celebrating Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Launch, But More Infrastructure is Needed

Mark Green
Posted June 26, 2024

Great energy news: The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has started service, delivering up to 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from West Virginia to south-central Virginia, where it connects with Transcontinental Gas Pipeline’s compressor station.

Diana Charletta, president and CEO of Equitrans Midstream, part of MVP’s joint ownership group:

“This is an important and long-awaited day for our nation and the millions of Americans who now have greater access to an abundant supply of domestic natural gas for use as an affordable, reliable and cleaner energy resource.”

You can underscore “long-awaited” in Charletta’s comment.

MVP went into service nearly a decade after its owner started the byzantine Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) application process. The project weathered a blizzard of legal challenges, regulatory scrutiny and other obstacles. To come online, two of our country’s three governing branches – Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court – had to get involved.

Think of it this way: By comparison, it only took eight years for America to land men on the moon, after President Kennedy announced it as a national goal in 1961.

Beyond MVP: While we celebrate MVP’s launch, the project is a sober reminder that in America it should not take so long to get major infrastructure reviewed, permitted and built. The process – which MVP opponents capitalized on to delay this needed project – is, as President Biden said a year and a half ago, holding back progress in America.

The federal system for reviewing and permitting infrastructure needs modernization. You can get a college degree in less time than it takes for the average project to be reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act (four and a half years).

Speaking of FERC: Congratulations to newly confirmed commissioners David Rosner, Lindsay See and Judy Chang. Once all are officially sworn in, they will be able help the commission redouble efforts to get needed projects off the drawing board, through review in a timely manner, and into service.

FERC can get a start this week by approving natural gas infrastructure projects, including a facility in Louisiana that can help bolster America’s ability to supply allies abroad and four other natural gas projects in the southeastern U.S. to help meet growing energy demand.

Bottom line: America needs more energy and more energy sources, not less. Though some try to ignore the facts, using misguided policy and overly burdensome regulation to restrict or eliminate energy sources, we should be adding sources to meet ever-growing demand.

For now, we cheer that Mountain Valley Pipeline is delivering natural gas to families and businesses. Equitrans Midstream’s Charletta:

“Natural gas is an essential fuel for modern life, and as a critical infrastructure project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline will play an integral role in achieving a lower-carbon future while helping to ensure America’s energy and economic security for decades to come.”

Still, more infrastructure must be built to bring energy from where it is produced to where it is used. A full-strength FERC can help on infrastructure while also addressing the challenge of rapidly growing demand for electricity.