Mountain Valley Pipeline Attempts to Greenwash Polluting Fracked Gas Pipeline

Backers of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline announced a new scheme today to purchase carbon offsets to make up for the operational emissions of its first 10 years in service. These offsets would do nothing to address the climate impact of extracting or burning the fracked gas that MVP would transport. If built, the pipeline would lead to annual emissions of over 89 million metric tons of climate pollution, equivalent to adding 26 coal plants or 19 million passenger vehicles. 

MVP claims that they’ll offset the operational emissions of their new fossil fuel project by buying into the cleanup of old fossil fuel projects that are now leaking methane. In their announcement, MVP cites the UN Global Methane Assessment, though they leave out the section of the assessment that says that expansion of fracked gas infrastructure is “incompatible with keeping warming to 1.5° C."

MVP hit yet another setback last week, when the US Environmental Protection Agency recommended against approval of a key water-crossing permit for the project. 

In response, Patrick Grenter, Associate Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, released the following statement:

“Decision makers and the public should not be fooled: this offset scheme does nothing to change the fact that MVP is a dirty fossil fuel project that would pollute our communities and exacerbate the climate crisis. This pipeline will cause more gas to be transported, and burned. It bears responsibility for far more than its operational emissions. Not only would this plan do nothing to mitigate the pollution and public health effects of frontline communities due to fracking, it also wouldn’t address the massive climate impact of actually burning the fracked gas this pipeline would transport. This is nothing more than a shameless ploy to greenwash this disastrous pipeline project.”