Community members have fought this pipeline for 10 years — pointing out its many flaws and dangers and winning court battles by proving developers and regulators were ignoring laws meant to protect communities and the environment. Now, those regulators allow the pipeline to go into service.
Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has allowed the Mountain Valley Pipeline to go in-service. This announcement arrives after a decade of community-led resistance to the pipeline project. MVP has doubled in cost and delayed completion for six years due to failures to comply with environmental protections and resulting legal challenges.
When Congress placed a thumb on the scale to mandate approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s permits in June 2023, construction resumed and communities along the route expressed deep concerns about the use of degraded materials and rushed construction practices.
On April 3, 2024, the Government Accountability Office released a report to congressional committees on gas pipeline safety, which included multiple concerns with current data collection and reporting from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, citizen monitors have watched a frenzy of workers hurriedly lower sun-bleached and degraded pipe into trenches, burying as much material as possible. Although safety concerns led the agency tasked with pipe safety, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, to issue a consent agreement, the agreement has not brought peace of mind.
On October 3, 2023, the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Materials Administration reached a consent agreement with the developers of the long-beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Now as MVP construction is resuming, communities along the pipeline’s route are alarmed at the danger of using the deteriorated components, fearing that the risk for cracks, weld failures, leaks and explosions has increased.
Federal regulators announced new pipeline safety rules in September, but pipeline opponents argue the updated rules are not strong enough.
