Remember the Mountain Valley Pipeline? The 303-mile project — which would transport natural gas from northern West Virginia to the Virginia Piedmont — was initially proposed nearly 10 years ago. Last summer, it made headlines, when Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he’d support President Joe Biden’s landmark $369 billion climate law in exchange for the project’s advancement. The side deal also included a larger package to overhaul energy project permitting. But it failed to materialize, thanks to opposition from both progressive Democrats and Republicans. So what’s next for the embattled natural gas project? POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Mike Soraghan paid a visit to the pipeline to find out. The MVP of pipelines: The pipeline is a joint venture among several energy companies, including NextEra Energy and Consolidated Edison. Equitrans Midstream is the lead developer. Today, about 272 miles of the pipe has been buried. But work largely ground to a halt years ago amid legal challenges and regulatory delays, and pipes now sit aboveground, exposed to the elements as developers wait for the green light to restart construction. Projected costs have also nearly doubled, from $3.5 billion to $6.6 billion. If history is any guide, the pipeline’s developers have a few options, Mike writes. They could fold and walk away, a possibility they dismiss (though some investors seem to be writing off the project as a loss). They could finally persuade Congress to step in — a prospect that hit another roadblock this week when Biden said he would veto Republican’s recent proposal to expedite permitting. Or the stalemate could continue playing out in court. Christine Tezak, a managing director at energy analysis firm ClearView Energy Partners, told Mike that there’s one narrow path for the legal fight to end quickly. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has issued several rulings blocking the pipeline, is currently considering a challenge to the state water permit for the project. If the court rules soon and doesn’t cancel the permit, construction could resume and be finished by year’s end. A hill to die on: But the pipeline’s many opponents have vowed to fight tooth and nail for the project’s demise. And so far, they’ve been fairly successful in impeding progress. Environmental groups have successfully challenged many of the projects’ federal permits in court. Aside from natural gas emissions contributing to a warming planet, opponents say construction is disrupting wildlife habitat, and runoff from the construction site is turning clear-water creeks orange and brown. And as much as Manchin wants to see the pipeline completed, Virginia’s two Democratic senators oppose the idea. Crossing them could undermine the senators’ prerogatives in their own state — a political no-no.
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