Yesterday, June 11, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave the go-ahead for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to begin transporting gas. This action threatens people and the environment along the entire pipeline path. Many questions remain unanswered about the safety of this dangerous project, as there has been a failure by responsible agencies to disclose specific information about pipe conditions, inspection findings, and other questions. 

Wild Virginia expresses its thanks and respect to all those with whom we have waged this battle against the injustice of MVP. We are holding landowners and others near the project in our thoughts, as we have throughout the long journey since this destructive scheme was disclosed in 2014. If not for the dirty political deal that bypassed our most valued environmental protections, this day would not have come.

Wild Virginia will continue to work with the volunteers and people along the path to help document what will surely be continued damage to streams and property, because even the insufficient attempts to “restore” many areas has not been completed. Further, we will continue to insist, from this day forward, that government officials, particularly the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the State Water Control Board, act like the public servants they are supposed to be.

David Sligh, Wild Virginia’s Conservation Director stated: 

“This is yet another in a long and continuous line of irresponsible decisions by a federal agency that is supposed to protect and promote the public good, not favor corporations running over the rights and interests of communities for profit. FERC acted just one day after MVP filed its latest request for approval, just as the company expected.

“Regardless of agency assurances, this project cannot be considered safe today. As just one example, some of the most precarious and risky slopes remain in a disturbed state. We have viewed citizen photographs of the slope of Poor Mountain from just yesterday showing the  extremely steep mountainside where a gash of bare, un-stabilized soil remains. This is exactly the kind of environment where the removal of mature forests heightens the risk of landslides and slips. For FERC not even to require the most basic efforts at stabilization before issuing this permission is deplorable.”