FERC Lifts Stop Work Order on Virginia Gas Pipeline
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) on August 29 lifted a 'stop work' order on most of a 363-km (226-mile) segment of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia.
But the pipeline is still prevented from resuming work within the Jefferson National Forest after a panel of appeals court judges in July vacated permits that had been issued by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Work will not be allowed to resume on those portions until new permits are obtained from the US government, Ferc said.
Most of the right-of-way that was subject to the stop work order had already been cleared and graded, and Ferc determined that “protection of the environment along the project’s right-of-way across non-federal land is best served by completing construction and restoration activities as quickly as possible.”
Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 782-km natural gas pipeline designed to carry some 2bn ft3/day of Appalachian gas to interstate gas transmission system connections in southern Virginia. The $3.5bn project is a joint venture of EQT Midstream Partners, NextEra US Gas Assets, ConEdison Transmission, WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream.