Doug Jackson, 202.495.3045 or doug.jackson@sierraclub.org
CANONSBURG, Pa. -- Today, Equitrans Midstream Corporation announced that they were delaying the in-service date and raising the total cost of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) yet again. The project is now at least 3.5 years behind schedule and $3 billion over budget, doubling the original estimated cost of $3-3.5 billion.
The MVP has already racked up more than $2 million in fines in Virginia alone due to hundreds of violations of commonsense environmental protections, and there are questions about whether the project is accurately reporting how much of the project has been completed. The project’s financial woes have led investors to call on big banks to stop funding it, and climate advocates to begin a divestment campaign against it. The pipeline’s proposed extension, dubbed “Southgate,” has been controversial since it was announced and there was never any evidence it was necessary. Just last week, North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality rejected required permits for the extension for a second time.
In response, Kelly Sheehan Martin, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, released the following statement:
"The investors behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline might as well be throwing their money into a 300-mile-long money pit. From the day this pipeline was first announced, we said it never should have been proposed, much less built. Now, years later, the project is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule while its fate is more uncertain than ever. It’s long past time that the polluting corporations building this dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary project saw the writing on the wall and cancelled it once and for all.”
Russell Chisolm, with Protect Our Water Heritage Rights (POWHR), said:
“This unnecessary pipeline threatens the health of our water, people, climate, and communities. Since clean, renewable energy sources are already affordable and abundant, it makes no sense to lock ourselves into decades of dependence on dirty fracked gas. While this dangerous pipeline never should have been proposed in the first place, it’s not too late for MVP to wise up, cut their losses, and fold this losing hand.”
###
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.