Community, Environmental Groups Bring Legal Action Against the MVP Southgate Pipeline

Gas pipeline and power companies have been celebrating federal approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate extension in North Carolina. Citizen groups representing environmental protection, consumer protection, climate action, and impacted communities say: Not so fast.

“This project is redundant, dangerous, and a clear transfer of ratepayers’ hard-earned dollars straight up to Mountain Valley Pipeline’s shareholders,” said Shelley Robbins, Senior Decarbonization Manager at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE). “FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] should have taken a harder look at the risk this project creates by snaking high-pressure gas under and around two other pipelines, Transco’s Southeast Supply Enhancement Project and the PSNC/Enbridge T15 – all under construction at the same time and in the same confined spaces.” 

SACE is one of seven conservation and community groups which filed a challenge in federal Appeals Court in Washington DC last week to FERC’s decision. The other groups are 7 Directions of Service, Appalachian Voices, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, and Wild Virginia.

Pipeline Construction Stops

The project is also facing court challenges to the water permits issued to MVP by Virginia and North Carolina, said the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which is representing the challenging organizations. A different Appeals Court Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, has issued temporary administrative stays of those permits and scheduled an April 28 hearing on motions for further stays. The orders issued yesterday should stop construction along the length of the pipeline route pending further action by the Fourth Circuit. 

“FERC had its opportunity to give this project a hard look and find that the South does not need another redundant gas pipeline. The environmental and community consequences of building an unnecessary pipeline are too dire,” said SELC senior attorney Mark Sabath. “The people of Virginia and North Carolina should not have to pay the price for this unnecessary project.”  

“At a time when households across the nation are struggling to pay rising energy bills, we should be investing in clean, affordable energy – not dangerous, expensive pipeline projects like MVP Southgate,” said Caroline Hansley, Organizing Strategist for the Sierra Club. “When FERC approved the proposed Southgate extension, it turned a blind eye to evidence showing this pipeline is unneeded and would do significant damage to our environment and climate. The people who would benefit from the pipeline are gas company executives, lining their pockets with more corporate profits at our expense. We will continue to fight this expensive, dirty project.”