But first, let’s dive into 4 key reasons why the Mountain Valley Pipeline would be a climate and environmental justice disaster: 

1. Environmental injustice

Completing the MVP would continue an unacceptable legacy of treating Appalachia as a sacrifice zone, a practice our country cannot keep repeating. 

For example, after a valiant organizing fight by community members, Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board rejected an air pollution permit for the Lambert Compressor Station in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, which was designed to support the Southgate extension of the MVP. The proposed compressor station was slated to spew fine particulate matter into the air and pose health risks to local community members, including a significant number of Black residents. This community is already breathing the pollution from two existing gas-fired compressor stations, and defeating the air permit for this compressor station for the Southgate extension of the MVP was a major victory in environmental justice. 

Meanwhile, the proposed route of the MVP and its Southgate extension would encroach on multiple sacred Indigenous sites. The pipeline build-out has also already harmed the land and clean water of many low-income, rural, and majority-elder communities. 

2. Fueling climate disaster

The Mountain Valley Pipeline would annually emit over 89 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution, according to a 2017 analysis by Oil Change International. That’s roughly equivalent to the yearly greenhouse gas pollution from 24 average U.S. coal plants or 19 million passenger cars. On top of that, this infrastructure would last for decades—when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is already crystal clear that we must be drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions to stand a chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

In the last decade, the U.S. has become the largest oil and gas producer in the world, as well as the planet’s second-largest natural gas exporter and sixth-largest oil exporter. America’s explosion of fossil fuel development, production, and infrastructure build-out are fundamentally at odds with climate science. The UN Production Gap Report finds that global fossil fuel production must start “declining immediately and steeply to be consistent with limiting long-term warming” to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the University of Manchester’s Tyndall Center Production Phaseout Report finds if we want to stand a chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world’s wealthiest ‘producer nations’—including the US—must cut their output of oil and gas by 74 percent by 2030 and achieve complete phase-out by 2034. 

As the climate crisis sweeps across the world, the U.S. government must not approve the MVP or prioritize fossil fuel build-out over communities and climate.

3. Ecosystem risks

Numerous studies have found that the MVP would pose serious risks to endangered species and surrounding ecosystems. The 303-mile long pipeline and accompanying Southgate extension would cut across almost 1,146 streams, creeks, rivers, and wetlands. The MVP would transport over 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas each day, crossing over steep mountain slopes that are susceptible to landslides and an increased risk of pipeline explosions. 

4. Changing legal terrain

A version of the leaked proposed provision would deprive the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals of future legal jurisdiction. This is a notable requirement because the 4th Circuit has repeatedly sided with conservation groups and vacated approval of portions of the MVP due to environmental impact and endangered species concerns. With these changes, any further litigation would be handed over to D.C. Circuit jurisdiction, in a move of striking Congressional meddling into our justice system.

The MVP would be a disaster for communities, climate, and wildlife. It’s time to tell Democrats in Congress to stop this “side deal” in its tracks.