Mountain Valley Pipeline pulls eminent domain requests for NC extension
The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Southgate Extension, a key source for future natural gas supplies in Duke Energy Corp.’s carbon reduction proposals, has withdrawn all of its pending court cases seeking eminent domain to build the project into North Carolina.
Environmental groups long opposed to the extension and the main pipeline itself have hailed this as a victory. But a court filing says the pipeline company “has not abandoned this project, which will help North Carolina achieve its lower-carbon energy goals while also helping to meet current and future residential and commercial demand for natural gas in the region.”
And it makes the point that the cases are withdrawn “without prejudice.” That means the pipeline can refile the action at a later time, if needed.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a $6.6 billion joint venture headed by Equitrans Midstream Co. planned to carry natural gas 440 miles from shale fields adjacent to West Virginia to southern Virginia. The Southgate project is a 75-mile extension, expected to cost about $500 million, that would carry gas from Chatham, Virginia, into North Carolina’s Piedmont region.
The extension has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But its permit is dependent on construction of the main pipeline, which has been subjected to a series of court and regulatory delays.
Read the full story here.
(WATCH BELOW: DEQ: Colonial Pipeline leaked 2M gallons in Huntersville; largest onshore fuel spill in US)
