A federal review of the under-construction Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and its impacts on endangered or threatened wildlife has been delayed again, Kallanish Energy reports.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Mountain Valley Pipeline last week agreed to take another 32 days to April 27 to complete the biological review.
It was the third delay in getting that review completed.
The biological permits are among three suspended permits that the company must be granted again by federal agencies before the pipeline can be completed.
Mountain Valley Pipeline said in a federal filing that it plans to get all the needed permits to complete the $5.5 billion natural gas pipeline by end of 2020, the Roanoke Times newspaper reported.
Last year, FERC had asked the Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS) to start over on the biological permits for the 303-mile pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia.
A federal appeals court had ordered stays on two federal wildlife permits needed for the pipeline.
That has stopped work on the pipeline to move Appalachian Basin natural gas to markets.
The pipeline needs a valid biological opinion and an incidental take statement from F&WS before it can proceed.
The federal agency initially submitted its biological opinion for the project to FERC on Nov. 21, 2017.
A new biological review is needed because of new information since that time, FERC said. A legal challenge was also filed against the biological opinion and incidental take decision. That case is pending.
The pipeline is about 90% complete. Construction has been halted at times by the FERC, the federal appeals court, state agencies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The pipeline is owned by joint-venture partners EQM Midstream Partners, NextEra US Gas Assets, Con Edison Transmission, WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream.
It is 42-inch natural gas pipeline system that will run from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, flowing 2 billion cubic feet per day from the Marcellus and Utica shales.
There are plans to extend the pipeline south from Virginia into North Carolina.
