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.
From fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline to building a community garden, protecting people is at the heart of Crystal Mello’s work.
For those who have poured heart and soul into the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline for nearly a decade, June 1 was a horrible night.
Today, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Clean Water Act § 401 certification for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, finding that the agency’s justification behind its conclusion that the pipeline would not violate the state’s water quality standards was deficient.
The agency had previously granted an extension request in 2020, but the total length of the certificate, nine years, reflects the ongoing roadblocks and volatility of the project. In the motion, the FERC acknowledged “the validity of our conclusions and environmental conditions cannot be sustained indefinitely.” Yet, their decision to grant a seemingly open-ended certificate renewal contradicts this statement.
On Saturday, May 28, more than 65 community members, advocates and allies fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline celebrated the treasured Appalachian Trail — and the return of the annual “Hands Across the Appalachian Trail” event.
The fight against MVP continues with a coalition committed to ending this dangerous and unnecessary project.
A lot of irreparable harm can be inflicted during a fossil fuel pipeline fight. Just because a pipeline is eventually canceled, doesn’t stop it from bulldozing through precious land and water and exhausting community members to the bone as they fight for their lives.
