Update on the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate Extension

A week after bad news on the proposed Southgate Pipeline for fracked gas, there’s good news: the pipeline’s proposed length is shrinking.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) company reduced the length of its Southgate extension from 75 to 31 miles. The reduction would result in the pipeline ending in Rockingham County, rather than extending through much of Alamance County as well. Here is what we know about why the company reduced the length.

Environmental Justice and Environmental Permits

In 2021 the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board denied the permit application due to an additional compressor station. The air pollution board based its denial on finding pollution from the compressor station would disproportionately impact Black and low-income people in the area surrounding the station. Last week, an updated filing on the project stated, “in contrast to the original, lengthier project route and design, which required an additional compressor station, the revised project would include substantially fewer water crossings and would not require a new compressor station.”

“[MVP] and its Southgate extension have been poorly conceived from the beginning, but today some of the communities in harm’s way can breathe easier,” said Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices. “We know these changes resulted from sustained opposition to this unnecessary methane gas pipeline and its Southgate extension, and our opposition continues.” 

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) extended the deadline to build the Southgate Pipeline. Despite strong opposition from the Cooper Administration and Democratic state legislators, local leaders, and Congressional Democrats, FERC gave MVP until June 2026 to complete.

Appalachian Voices North Carolina Program Manager Ridge Graham urged FERC to cancel its approval of MVP Southgate. “The recent decision by FERC to extend Southgate’s federal certificate was dependent on the pipeline having a contract with another entity to buy the gas,” Graham said. “With a wholly new project that requires an ‘open season’ to find customers, FERC should cancel the original Southgate Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and send the developers back to the drawing board.”

Now, environmental advocates shift attention back to the environmental permits still needed from state and federal agencies for the MVP Southgate Pipeline extension.