By Charles Boothe, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — With the cancellation of the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) because of ongoing court battles, opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that impacts local counties are “cautiously optimistic” that project may be stopped as well.
On Sunday, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy announced the 600-mile natural gas ACP will not happen, canceling the project that would have transported natural gas from the Marcellus Shale natural gas field in north-central West Virginia to Lumberton, N.C. …
Reasons cited for ending the project, on which an estimated $4 billion has already been spent, centered on “legal uncertainty.”
The MVP is a 42-inch-diameter pipeline that is slated to carry natural gas from the same north-central West Virginia operations to Chatham, Va., running through Summers and Monroe counties in West Virginia and Giles County in Virginia.
Both pipelines have been met with protests and lawsuits, citing regulatory and permitting failures, environmental impact issues, questions about the appropriateness of using eminent domain, as well as the danger of explosions.
For Monroe County landowner Maury Johnson, it’s a matter of fighting for the environment and individual rights.
Johnson has fought the MVP since it first surfaced in 2014 and is an executive committee member of the POWHR ( Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights) coalition.
“Today is a great day for those people who have devoted their lives to educating the public and fighting for their water, air, and property, and to lead the way to a cleaner energy future,” Johnson said Monday. “But the job is only half finished. Today we enjoy this victory, but tomorrow we must double down our efforts, pull together and send MVP and the MVP Southgate to the scrap heap of bad ideas with the ACP.” …