Democratic Leaders Take A Stand Against The Extension of The Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Governor Roy Cooper and dozens of Democratic North Carolina state legislators are taking an important stand against the extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) into North Carolina—the Southgate pipeline.

Existing permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for Southgate have expired, but the MVP company has applied to FERC for an extension of time to use the permits. Last week Governor Cooper submitted a letter of opposition to that extension to FERC.

Cooper’s letter points out that the pipeline would be made obsolete almost before it was finished, due to North Carolina law requiring utilities to become carbon-neutral by 2050. “Any newly constructed natural gas fueled electricity generation units will be forced to retire before the end of their useful lives, leading to sunk costs that will be charged to North Carolina’s ratepayers,” Cooper said.

Cooper is joined in his opposition to the Southgate extension by more than 50 Democrats in the NC House and Senate. “Over the last five years since the proposed MVP Southgate was announced, we have increasingly heard from neighbors, residents and constituents about the real and significant concerns the (pipeline) poses to our communities,” the legislators tell FERC in their letter. Those opponents include many who represent areas which would be impacted by the pipeline.

The mainline of the MVP is subject to a separate but relevant dispute over whether Congressional action seeking to take jurisdiction over the pipeline permits away from federal courts already considering the case is unconstitutional. However, it is to be hoped that FERC will recognize the Southgate pipeline as legally a separate dispute—and one in which North Carolina citizens have an important stake in stopping its wasteful and destructive construction.

The importance of that distinction was reinforced last week when U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order lifting the stays on MVP mainline construction even while a hearing on the case was underway in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. While Roberts’ order did not direct that Court’s panel to dismiss the underlying case, it allows construction of the MVP to restart now. In arguments during that hearing, even an attorney for MVP, Donald B. Verrilli Jr., acknowledged that the Congressional action would not apply to a “spur” of the original pipeline, or to claims not related to that permitting process.

Attorneys and other representatives of the groups challenging the permits for the original MVP route expressed their vow to continue their fight. “We are very disappointed by this latest development, but will continue this important fight,” said Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) Executive Director DJ Gerken. “We stand by our argument that the MVP rider — Congress’s reckless attempt to bless a single gas pipeline — violates the separation of powers and is unconstitutional.”

“Allowing construction of this destructive and unnecessary fracked gas pipeline to proceed puts the profits of a few corporations ahead of the health and safety of Appalachian communities,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society. “The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a threat to our water, our air, and our climate. We will continue to argue that Congress’ greenlight of this dangerous pipeline was unconstitutional, and will exhaust every effort to stop it.”

There is certainly no expectation that those fighting the Southgate extension of the MVP will lessen their efforts to block that “spur” of the original pipeline.