“ The Staggering Cost to WV of NOT Completing Mountain Valley Pipe
Just because one is activist doesn’t mean they know about that which they speak.
The Staggering Cost to WV of NOT Completing Mountain Valley Pipe
December 23, 2022 Economic Impact, Energy Services, Equitrans/EQT Midstream, Industrywide Issues, Jobs, Pipelines, Regulation, Statewide WV, West Virginia
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
WV U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, the third most unpopular Senator in the U.S. right now (pretty much hated by everyone in West Virginia because of his sellout on the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act), is still fussing and fuming that he got political payback for his betrayal in voting for the IRA. Republicans refused to vote in favor of Manchin’s “Save Mountain Valley Pipeline” permitting reform bill. Frankly, it’s Manchin’s own fault, nobody else. The unpopular Senator was popping off to the media earlier this week and mentioned some truly astonishing numbers–severe economic impacts on the state if the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline does not finish and come online.
While Manchin is on our permanent poopy list (in case you couldn’t tell), he does sincerely want to see MVP finished, to his credit. The project has been delayed for years by radicalized leftists who hate fossil energy (even though they use fossil energy every day of their miserable existence).
Manchin said to WOWK-TV that if MVP does not finish:
2,500 jobs will be lost;
WV will lose out on $40 million a year in severance tax revenue;
landowners will lose out on $300 million in royalties.
A controversial natural gas pipeline in West Virginia appears dead for now after it failed to make next year’s spending bill from Congress. There certainly could be renewed efforts with a new Congress coming next year, but the Mountain Valley Pipeline has hit a dead end for now.
According to US Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), this could cost West Virginia hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline was designed to take natural gas from northern West Virginia to all the way southeast of Roanoke, Virginia, and then eventually into North Carolina. Supporters say it would have given the United States a huge power source and energy independence, and other natural gas could be sold to our European allies. But the U.S. Senate has been unable to shorten the permitting process.
“It’s a ten-year commitment to support fossil industry, cleaner in the United States. But a ten year path for fossil in the United States so that we would be energy independent and have the horsepower it takes to run our country,” said Manchin.
Senator Manchin says 2,500 jobs will be lost, and that West Virginia will lose out on $40 million a year in severance tax revenue. He says landowners will lose out on $300 million in royalties from the sale of natural gas from their properties.
Manchin also said the decision to strip out the permitting item from the budget bill was purely political, because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans did not want to give Democrat Manchin a big victory.*
Big Green zealots have somehow coopted three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The three-judge panel has ruled against MVP in 12 of 14 cases, repeatedly overturning permits issued by the federal government to complete the pipeline that is (YES) 94% done and in the ground. Equitrans, the builder, has spent BILLIONS of dollars on this project. Yet MVP continues to be delayed. The situation is a crime and frustrating beyond belief. The zealots believe they can defeat it (they can’t, it WILL get done). Every month that goes by without work on this project, it costs money, jobs, lost revenue, etc.
So yes, we feel Joe Manchin. We sympathize and relate. But he screwed himself when he betrayed the country with his IRA vote, and now HIS actions are causing the state and landowners to lose out. No wonder he’s so unpopular in his own state!
Joe Manchin needs to let someone else push the Save MVP permitting reform bill so that it will pass. We doubt he will step back–he’s too much of a D.C. swamp-dwelling narcissist. He wants the credit for passing a bill that helps MVP get completed so he can run for reelection in 2024, pointing to his MVP success. If Manchin truly cared about MVP, he wouldn’t be worried about getting the credit for a bill that helps it get done.
*Sunbury (PA) WKOK-TV (Dec 21, 2022) – Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia hits another roadblock