Work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) may resume by July 1.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said during a virtual press briefing Thursday she thinks the compromise deal between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that passed the House will also pass the Senate, and it includes provisions to speed up MVP construction.
Not only will the compromise prevent a default, she said it will curtail spending “for the first time in many years,” “claw back” billions of dollars from the IRS to “put a dent” in the 87,000 more employees that were to be hired, claw back billions in COVID dollars still “sitting on the sideline” and will bring permitting reform generally and speed up the completion of the MVP in particular.
The MVP, which is 95 percent complete, has almost all of the “regulatory nods it needs” and can be fully permitted and move forward, she said.
One of the provisions in the bill is that after the legislation is signed by the president, permits through the Corps of Engineers must be approved within 21 days so the project can move on.
“With the 21-day Corps of Engineers requirement I think you will see people work on this (the MVP) by the first of July,” she said. “You will see the dirt flying, you will see thousands of people hired to do that work…”
Capito said the MVP pipes sometimes seen along the highways that have been waiting there to be deployed will start being moved to work sites.
“That’s very good news,” she said of the MVP and all millions of dollars in tax benefits for counties as well as the thousands of people put to work to finish the project.
“It is a big victory for our state,” she said.
The 303-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline that will carry natural gas from north central West Virginia to Chatham, Va. and beyond, was slated to be finished by late 2018 at a cost of about $3.2 billion. But protests and federal permitting court cases have delayed the project and shot up the cost to about $6.5 billion.
One unfinished section is a 3.5 mile stretch through the Jefferson National Forest across Peters Mountain in Monroe County into Giles County, Va.
Equipment and pipes for the MVP have been setting dormant in an area beside Rt. 219 north of Peterstown, but that may soon change as work starts.
Capito said no one ever gets everything they want in a negotiated compromise and she has some reservations about defense spending provisions that may not keep up with inflation and demands.
She also wants more detailed and effective federal permitting reform than the bill includes.
“What is in this permitting bill is not as broad and big as in my bill,” she said of her RESTART legislation, but portions of it were picked up as well as portions from Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill regarding the MVP.
However, no transmission provisions are in there, which the “renewable folks and want and need,” she said, and there is no judicial review changes included that proponents of reform want to be streamlined.
A provision is included, though, that says if any legal questions arise as to what is in the bill related to permitting, it goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in D.C., not the Fourth Circuit in Richmond.
Capito said the Fourth Circuit has rejected permits nine times and is “politically biased against this (MVP) project.”
“But it is a great first step,” she said of the permitting reform included the debt limit bill.
Capito said some amendments to the bill may come up, including one proposed by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., to delete the federal permit part of the compromise bill.
But that amendment won’t get anywhere, she said, and the overall bill is something that was needed.
“This is a win,” he said. “I am going to take the win and vote for this bill.”