Opponents of the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline have submitted 43,000 signatures urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not to grant more time to complete the $5.7 billion pipeline, Kallanish Energy reports.
The petitions were submitted to the federal agency on Monday.
The signatures and comments were collected by the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth Action, Beyond Extreme Energy, 198 Methods and the North Carolina Alliance to Protect Our People and the Places We Live.
The signatures were all from residents of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
On Aug. 25, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC has asked FERC for an additional two years to complete the natural gas pipeline.
It wants to extend the deadline from Oct. 13, 2020, to Oct. 13, 2022.
The company has publicly said it expects to complete the pipeline in 2021.
The Sierra Club and several allies also moved to intervene in the FERC consideration of that extension request.
Virginia’s U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner also asked FERC to extend the public comment period to 30 days, calling the 15 days inadequate.
The pipeline company has said the 303-mile pipeline is 92% completed.
It must still resolve permit issues on stream crossings with the U.S. Corps of Engineers and a small crossing of the Jefferson National Forest in western Virginia with the U.S. Forest Service.
The pipeline is designed to move Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas to markets in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Mountain Valley construction has been halted since last fall over federal permits and legal challenges.
Construction has been halted at times by the FERC, a federal appeals court, state agencies, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The pipeline company has said it hopes to have all the needed permits in place for the pipeline by the end of 2020.
The pipeline is owned by joint-venture partners EQM Midstream Partners, NextEra US Gas Assets, Con Edison Transmission, WGL Midstream, and RGC Midstream.
The company has proposed a pipeline extension into North Carolina but state regulators have rejected that plan.
