With new hope from Congress, gas pipeline project in NC may be revived. What we know.

The developers of the proposed MVP Southgate gas pipeline have asked federal regulators for more time to complete the project.

Thursday, a lawyer for the company that owns the Mountain Valley Pipeline project sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking it to extend the mandatory completion date of the project three years, to June 18, 2026.

The proposed MVP Pipeline’s main stem would carry fracked natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Virginia south to a compressor station in Chatham, Virginia. Despite years of challenges from climate change activists and environmental regulators, the project was revived in Congress’ debt ceiling negotiations in May, with the final package including approval of the pipeline.

That approval also appears to have revived the MVP Southgate project, a proposed 75-mile stretch of pipeline running southwest from Chatham before entering North Carolina just northeast of Eden. The path would soon turn southeast and pass by Reidsville and Graham before ending just south of I-40 in Alamance County.

“Mountain Valley is targeting to complete construction and commence service on the Mainline System by the end of 2023. After resolving Mainline System permitting, Mountain Valley can resume its permitting efforts for the Southgate Project,” Matthew Eggerding, a lawyer for Equitrans Midstream, wrote in the letter, which was first reported by NC Newsline.

Pipelines need environmental permits

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates interstate pipelines, but the projects also need environmental approvals from environmental regulators in each state they pass through.

MVP’s 303-mile main stem is about 94% complete, according to the project’s website. That includes the completion of three compressor stations and three interconnect facilities, as well about 280 miles of pipe. Some additional work is needed at an additional interconnect point.

DEQ denied a Water Quality Certification for the Southgate extension in August 2020, citing ongoing uncertainty about the MVP’s mainline. Without the main stem, DEQ said, it wasn’t worth harming North Carolina waters and riparian buffers, particularly considering that pipeline operators intended to push ahead with discussion even if the West Virginia to Virginia portion’s fate remained undecided.

”This problem is unique to the MVP Southgate project in that its sole utility and purpose is tied to and wholly relies on, the completion of the entire MVP Mainline project,” Bill Lane, DEQ’s general counsel, wrote in a denial letter.

Republican legislators in North Carolina have long supported the Southgate extension, which they say would provide a boon for the economy and much-needed access to natural gas. That discussion gained some momentum in early 2021, after the Colonial Pipeline hack left North Carolinians scrambling for gas for days.

At hearings about the hack, state legislators heard that there is only one pipeline supplying natural gas to North Carolina, something industry officials called “a vulnerability.”

North Carolina environmentalists have been wary in recent weeks that the project would re-emerge.

Bill would limit DEQ authority

They’ve pointed to a provision in House Bill 600, a regulatory reform bill making its way through the Senate, that would limit the time the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has to grant or deny the water quality certification. Under the proposed law, DEQ would have 30 days to deem an application complete and another 30 to approve or deny it.

In an email to members of the Senate Rules Committee, Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton said the proposed changes were intended to aid the pipeline and would sharply curtail the involvement of both local governments and the public.

“These permit processes are put in place to protect not only our environmental resources, but our communities who depend on them. This bill is meant to serve only the investors of the MVP Southgate project,” Sutton wrote.

Sen. Norm Sanderson, a Pamlico County Republican, acknowledged the water quality certificate was a key hold-up for the pipeline in North Carolina but said there haven’t been lengthy discussions about how the regulatory reform bill could help the project.

“Just a very brief discussion that the new rule or the legislation is going to probably put us in a better position to be able to help them,” Sanderson told The News & Observer. “But we haven’t had any in-depth discussions about that. In fact, I would love to be able to talk to members of their company before we move because we don’t want to do something that’s restrictive for them.”

This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.