On June 14, 2024, a 303-mile pipeline beginning in West Virginia’s Northern panhandle and ending in Southern Virginia began service.[1] The pipeline takes natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale deposit to other locations in the US, at about 2 million dekatherms per day. [2] One therm is about 100 feet of natural gas.[3] Because it is a pipeline spanning multiple states, it is regulated by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). Several companies contributed to the pipeline’s creation and $7.85 billion funding, including EQT and Consolidated Edison.[4]
Although the pipeline is up and running now, the project was met with serious backlash from environmental groups and caused the construction to be pushed back several years, from its original projected start in 2018[5], its first application to FERC in 2015, and its initial proposal in 2014.[6] To be allowed to construct, Mountain Valley needed permits and authorization from FERC, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.[7] Specifically, the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia caused a hold up because the proposed pipeline was to cut across the forest and onto the Appalachian trail. Water quality certification was another hurdle, and is required under the Clean Water Act, ensures construction of an interstate natural gas pipeline will not violate water quality standards.[8]
The pipeline was given the greenlight in 2023, when the Biden Administration ratified the Fiscal Responsibility Act, giving the Mountain Valley Pipeline the permits and authorizations necessary for construction.[9] Senator Joe Manchin was in the news for including the approval in the debt ceiling, and the caveat that legal challenges to the pipeline would be under the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.[10] Then, in July 2023, the Supreme Court allowed an emergency application from the pipeline’s developer to construct after the Fourth Circuit granted a motion to stop the construction.[11]
The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s economic impact on West Virginia and Virginia is immense. The Mountain Valley Pipeline contributed about $82 million West Virginia’s economy, and $49 million to Virginia’s. To own the land rights for the pipeline’s installation, Mountain Valley paid over $80 million to West Virginia landowners to acquire their rights. Over 5,000 jobs between Virginia and West Virginia were created in constructing the pipeline. Finally, perhaps to assuage concerned environmentalists, Mountain Valley contributed to conservation efforts: $15 million to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation; $19.5 million to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy; and $3.85 million to the Virginia Association of Soil and Water.[12]
Mountain Valley Pipeline is not finished. In 2020, the Southgate Project was proposed, which would build the pipeline about 74 more miles into North Carolina. FERC is still reviewing this expansion, which is a slow process, and would include permits such as a water quality certification.[13] The Department of Wetlands in North Carolina will be holding a hearing as to the implications the pipeline will have on local water sources where comments from the public will be taken.[14]
Mountain Valley’s website assures, “the proposed route [to the Southgate expansion] has been designed to avoid sensitive or protected areas where feasible.”[15] The last successful proposal and construction to the pipeline took over ten years in total. Whether the Southgate expansion will follow that pattern or be ushered into reality faster remains to be seen.
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[1] Mountain Valley Pipeline, MountainValleyPipeline, https://mountainvalleypipeline.info/, (Last visited Sept. 24, 20205).
[2] Reuters, US natural gas pipeline Mountain Valley prepares for start-up, Reuters, (June 12, 2024), https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/mountain-valley-gets-regulators-approval-us-natural-gas-pipeline-2024-06-12/#:~:text=June%2012%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20U.S.,from%20a%20U.S.%20energy%20regulator.
[3] Colby Ezell, What is a Dekatherm? Natural Gas Units Explained, P3 Cost Analysts, (June 30, 2021), https://www.costanalysts.com/dekatherm-dth/.
[4] Id. at 2.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Mountain Valley Pipeline: Past the Finish Line, Congress.gov, https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12032, (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).
[8] What is CWA Section 401? EPA, https://www.epa.gov/cwa-401/overview-cwa-section-401-certification, (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).
[9] Id. at 7.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] Economic Benefits, Mountain Valley Pipeline, https://www.mountainvalleypipeline.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MVP-Economic-Environmental-Beneifts-March-2021-FINAL2.pdf (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).
[13] Mountain Valley Pipeline, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, https://www.deq.nc.gov/news/key-issues/natural-gas-pipeline-projects/mountain-valley-pipeline, (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).
[14] Water Resources, North Carolina Environmental Quality, https://edocs.deq.nc.gov/WaterResources/DocView.aspx?id=3862957&dbid=0&repo=WaterResources&cr=1, (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).
[15] Overview, MVP Southgate, https://www.mvpsouthgate.com/overview/#:~:text=The%20proposed%20route%20also%20has,minimize%20the%20overall%20environmental%20footprint, (Last visited Sept. 24, 2025).