WASHINGTON (WV News) — Federal regulators have given the Mountain Valley Pipeline the green light to restart construction.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order Wednesday allowing developers to “proceed with all construction activities.”
Work on the project is expected to resume “shortly,” said Natalie Cox, director of communications and corporate affairs for project developers Equitrans Midstream Corp., in an email to WV News.
“We expect the first of several forward-construction crews to begin work on the right of way shortly, and Mountain Valley continues to target project completion by year-end 2023,” she said.
US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., celebrated the news on Twitter.
“I just received confirmation that the Mountain Valley Pipeline has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to resume all construction activities,” she said in a tweet posted Wednesday afternoon. “This was the final step needed for the MVP to be completed. Great news for WV and American energy!”
On Friday, Capito announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had issued the final federal permit needed to restart construction.
“The Mountain Valley Pipeline is set to receive its final Sec. 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers!” she said in a tweet. “This critical step forward is because of a provision I helped include in the Fiscal Responsibility Act that will expedite the MVP’s completion.”
On June 16, Gov. Jim Justice said the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection had issued the MVP’s final state-level permit.
“To the best of my ability, I’m not aware of anything else that is another step that people are waiting on,” he said. “If there be another step, we’ll be on it. I believe that construction has the possibility of starting real, real, real soon.”
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, the package passed by Congress earlier this month following an impasse over raising the nation’s borrowing limit, mandated all federal permits required for the stalled pipeline to resume construction be issued by last Saturday.
The MVP project was initially started in 2014. Equitrans Midstream said at the time, the pipeline was expected to be completed by the end of 2018 at an overall cost of around $3.5 billion.
The company recently said the current estimated total cost is approximately $6.6 billion.
In West Virginia, the MVP’s route runs through Braxton, Doddridge, Fayette, Greenbrier, Harrison, Lewis, Monroe, Nicholas, Summers, Webster and Wetzel counties.