Environmental advocates challenge FERC on MVP Southgate gas pipeline project

Yahoo

20-02-2025

Workers began laying portions of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Roanoke County, Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway. (Photo: Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)
The long-simmering controversy surrounding the MVP Southgate natural gas pipeline project has surfaced again. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in a challenge brought by environmental advocates to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) decision to extend the project's construction deadline.
As a result of the extension order, MVP retains the authority to take property through eminent domain with the Southgate methane gas pipeline addition that's proposed to run from southern Virginia into north central North Carolina.
Lawyers from Appalachian Mountain Advocates argued the case on behalf of the environmental petitioners Appalachian Voices, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Haw River Assembly, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Wild Virginia.
'The damage to our waters and our communities caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline are an ugly predictor of the destruction the Southgate project will cause,' Wild Virginia conservation director David Sligh said in a statement. 'It is inexcusable for FERC to ignore that evidence and allow the same kind of costs and pain to be imposed on the people and environments along Southgate's proposed path.'
The MVP Southgate project has faced substantial opposition since its initial proposal in 2018. Though originally slated to run through both Rockingham and Alamance Counties, the current plan only includes Rockingham.
Earlier this month, project developers submitted an amendment to FERC for the Southgate section. The updated proposal changes the project to shorten the pipeline's length while increasing its diameter and adding Duke Energy as a customer.
The developer, MVP Joint Venture, made an amendment request in lieu of submitting a new application. It says the new proposal will 'bring a much-needed new supply of reliable, affordable, domestically produced natural gas to North Carolina.'
Environmental petitioners on Thursday argued that FERC's decision disregarded MVP's admission that it intends to construct a significantly different 'redesigned' project in lieu of the FERC-approved project, and that the agency did not uphold its legal obligation to conduct a thorough environmental and public interest review.
Opponents to the project said there should be a new application since the new proposal's route and impact vary from FERC's original Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, issued in 2020.
'It has a different purpose. It's much shorter, but it's moving more gas,' Greg Buppert, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, told NC Newsline. 'This is a long-term investment in greenhouse gas emissions, and an investment that can't be easily undone.'
Buppert said these decisions are made based on available data that could change rapidly, meaning the facts present in the future could vary drastically from today.
The original MVP Southgate proposal in 2018 sparked controversy and faced hurdles. The project did not move forward.
The updated plans for Southgate would change the route, length, and pipe diameter to include 31 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline in North Carolina and Virginia, increasing methane and greenhouse gas emissions in the southern portion of the country.
'There is no sensible scenario where all this gas including MVP Southgate, is truly needed by Southern communities,' Megan Gibson, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. 'This ultimately will hurt consumers and businesses within our region.'
Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator at Appalachian Voices, described the Southgate project as 'unnecessary' and 'dangerous' to the communities and environment in its proposed path.
'We've seen the abject misery that Southgate's developers inflicted with their Mountain Valley Pipeline, and that history should not be repeated — FERC should deny this amendment,' Sims said in a statement.
MVP Southgate is one of three large natural gas pipeline projects proposed for North Carolina in recent years. The others are T15 Reliability Project and Southeast Supply Enhancement.