FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2025
CONTACT
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (276) 289-1018, dan@appvoices.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released an Environmental Assessment for the methane gas pipeline Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, proposed for Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. The project is meant to move over 1.5 million dekatherms per day of gas and is the largest expansion of gas infrastructure currently proposed in the Southeast. The assessment claims to analyze the environmental impacts of the SSEP’s multiple sections of pipeline, massive gas compressor station expansions and additional infrastructure modifications.
With the release of the assessment, FERC has announced a 30-day comment period, closing on Dec. 1. There have been no FERC public hearings for residents along the route thus far (only scoping meetings where people were required to give comments in private rooms), and the agency is not planning any during this comment period. This project impacts five states, and such a massive project warrants meaningful public participation from those along the impacted route.
FERC’s assessment arrives near the end of a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality public comment period for the SSEP, as a Virginia Water Protection Permit and Upland Certification are being considered through Nov. 10 as part of a Clean Water Act 401 permit review.
Adding to the significant concern about the SSEP’s impacts, Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC plans to build an extension of its pipeline, called “Southgate.” The SSEP and Southgate share similar routes through Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and Rockingham County, North Carolina, causing deep concern for local residents. The co-location of two high-pressure, large-diameter pipelines that cross the same waterways could mean cumulative, devastating impacts for local communities, species and water resources.
Southgate is currently undergoing a simultaneous permitting process, with FERC reviewing an amendment request to change the route, diameter and capacity through Nov. 3, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality undergoing a Clean Water Act 401 permit review through Dec. 5. The pipeline companies have bickered publicly about their access to the area and the need for both pipelines. The Environmental Assessment for Southgate concluded that SSEP could eliminate any need for Southgate.
“More than 90% of the gas from SSEP would go to utility companies across the Southeast for proposed gas plants that carry a lot of uncertainty,” said Juhi Modi, North Carolina Field Coordinator at Appalachian Voices. “Forecasts of energy demand in the Southeast are likely overestimates driven by data centers and other large-load customers that may never materialize. But residential ratepayers would end up on the hook paying for this massive expansion of pipelines and gas plants, no matter what.”
“SSEP would go through communities in North Carolina that already suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the state — communities that have already voiced strong and unified opposition to this project,” said Caroline Hansley, Campaign Organizing Strategist at Sierra Club. “As FERC continues to ignore the impacts on those communities, it’s now more important than ever that local entities and elected officials stand up for their neighbors and oppose SSEP. We are committed to fighting SSEP alongside the impacted communities for as long as it takes.”
“It is absurd for the FERC staff to assert that this huge, destructive project would have ‘no significant impact’ on the precious environments and the people whose lives would be profoundly harmed,” said David Sligh, Wild Virginia’s Water Quality Programs Director. “FERC must complete a full Environmental Impact Statement, disclose the true impacts, and reject this proposal. That’s the only way the commission can meet its duty to protect the public interest.”
“We’re a month into the federal government shutdown, but business as usual continues for the fossil fuel polluters,” said Russell Chisholm, Managing Director of the POWHR Coalition. “Home energy costs keep going up with no relief in sight for communities just trying to survive, never mind keeping up with multiple permits for pipelines on top of pipelines.”
“FERC seems to be operating in a world where every project application exists in a vacuum separate from each other, and in a vacuum separate from air quality, water quality and communities along these pipelines’ paths,” said Joshua Vana, Director of ARTivism Virginia. “To say the proposed SSEP won’t present a significant impact on the environment indicates a denial of reality and a commitment to a polluter’s unregulated, profit-rich fantasy.”
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