Three environmental groups have filed a brief to support the decision by a North Carolina agency to reject plans to extend the 303-mile Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline, Kallanish Energy reports.
The brief was submitted to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
It was filed by the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC had filed a petition with the federal appeals court to overturn the state decision.
Last August, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water rejected a water permit that would allow for extending the pipeline by 75 miles into North Carolina.
State regulators said several permits for the MVP Mainline that is under construction have been suspended or are in litigation and that created uncertainty.
The proposed extension had earlier been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The $468 million Southgate extension would run from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to Rockingham and Alamance counties, North Carolina.
It would move about 375 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The company has said that the construction on the MVP Mainline should be completed in early 2021.
Two permits have been re-issued in recent weeks by federal agencies and a final federal permit is expected before the end of 2020.
The FERC has also approved a two-year extension to complete the $5.7 billion pipeline to 2022.
The pipeline that will move Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas to markets in Virginia and the Carolinas is 92% complete, according to the company.
Mountain Valley construction had been halted since last fall over federal permits and legal challenges, but FERC on Oct. 9 gave the company permission to resume building most of the pipeline.
This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.
