Lawmakers pleased with debt limit bill's MVP inclusion

After several attempts at expediting the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), state congressional leaders say they are satisfied with provisions in the new debt limit deal reached last weekend by Pres. Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that will get the project on a fast track.

“After working with Speaker McCarthy and reiterating what completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline would mean for American jobs and domestic energy production, I am thrilled it is included in the debt ceiling package that avoids default,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said. “Despite delay after delay, we continued to fight to get this critical natural gas pipeline up and running, and its inclusion in this deal is a significant victory for the future of West Virginia.”

“Last summer, I introduced legislation to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said. “I am pleased Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team see the tremendous value in completing the MVP to increase domestic energy production and drive down costs across America and especially in West Virginia. I am proud to have fought for this critical project and to have secured the bipartisan support necessary to get it across the finish line.”

Rep. Carol Miller, R-1st District, said she will be be supporting the debt limit deal.

“Speaker McCarthy … and the whole negotiating team delivered a win for the American people,” she said. “We’re cutting spending, reducing regulations, and not raising taxes while ensuring we prevent default.”

Miller said that since coming to Congress she has “worked tirelessly alongside my West Virginia colleagues to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”

The 303-mile, 42-inch diameter 42-inch pipeline that will carry natural gas from north central West Virginia to Chatham, Va. and beyond, is more than 90 percent complete and is also being backed by the Biden administration.

“Finally, Republicans and Democrats are coming together to finish the Mountain Valley Pipeline which will create more jobs, lower energy costs, and protect our environment,” she said. “This bill is a bipartisan win for every American. I’ll be voting yes and encourage all of my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to join me.”

All three legislators have previously introduced legislation to change federal permitting reform to speed up the process for infrastructure projects in general and for the MVP in particular.

Capito said recently three of these bills were being worked through committees to reach a consensus, but she was hopeful the debt limit deal would keep the permitting reform that the House included.

“We are going to try to work this through committee,” she said. “But we all know the House passed a bill that had permitting reform in it and we are taking some of those elements. If this becomes the bargaining point we can get there a lot quicker with permitting. But we want to keep working it through our committees as they are deciding how to get to a debt ceiling deal.”

Capito said it could possibly remain as part of the debt limit deal, “but we are kind of going on a two-track system here.”

Now, the process of bringing the MVP online within months may be a realistic possibility, if the debt limit deal passes both the House and Senate.

The debt limit agreement related to the MVP states that Congress “hereby finds and declares that the timely completion of construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is required in the national interest. The Mountain Valley Pipeline will serve demonstrated natural gas demand in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast regions, will increase the reliability of natural gas supplies and the availability of natural gas at reasonable prices, will allow natural gas producers to access additional markets for their product, and will reduce carbon emissions and facilitate the energy transition.”

As part of this process, Congress “hereby ratifies and approves all authorizations, permits, verifications, extensions, biological opinions, incidental take statements, and any other approvals or orders issued pursuant to Federal law necessary for the construction and initial operation at full capacity of the Mountain Valley Pipeline; and …Notwithstanding any other provision of law, not later than 21 days after the date of enactment of this Act and for the purpose of facilitating the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline,”

The provision related to the MVP also addresses the court system, with jurisdiction in lawsuits pertaining to the pipeline turned over to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, rather than the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, which has repeatedly invalidated federal permits after lawsuits were filed forcing delays in work on the MVP, which was initially slated to be finished by late 2018.

The projected cost has risen from about $3.2 billion to more than $6.5 billion.

Streamlining the permitting process itself for major energy projects is also included with the goal of completing the process in two years, rather than the five to 10 years it takes now.

But the deal is being sharply criticized by MVP opponents.

Maury Johnson, a landowner in Monroe County through which the pipeline passes, released a statement and called it a “dirty deal.”

Johnson has been against the pipeline from the beginning, citing the environmental impact, topography that does not lend itself to a natural gas pipeline, impact on water and dangers of explosions.

Calling Biden “weak, spineless and untruthful to his campaign,” Johnson said the President allowed “Manchin’s ‘Dirty Deal’ to be included in this proposed bill.”

“Neither President Biden or Senator Manchin should be supported for re-election since they have thrown the American people, especially the youth under the bus —or maybe I should say under the pipeline laying tractors, LNG (liquid natural gas) facilities, oil and gas drilling rigs, as well as other climate changing projects,” Johnson said.