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MVP is the real “MVP”
June 21st, 2024
- Stay up to date on all things energy by visiting the TEA Newsroom.
- America needs an Energy Security ARC: Affordable, Reliable, Clean.
- Looming California budget cuts prompt push for climate ballot measure.
- Conservative groups cleared to continue legal fight to protect whales from offshore wind farms.
- Deal to limit oil and gas funding abroad hinges on the U.S.
- Green cars, environmental justice goals collide in EPA toxics rule.
- EPA union endorses Biden for president.
- There’s a huge pay raise on the way for clean energy workers.
The issue: The Mountain Valley Pipeline begins operation days after federal approval.
Why it matters: This critical pipeline is online and will bring up to two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from West Virginia into southwest Virginia and ultimately to customers across the East Coast. This was an historic day for the future of the Mountain State’s economy and American energy independence.
But it also shined the spotlight on the dire need for permitting reform, whether we are in the midst of an energy transition or not.
This was pointed out last year by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who has repeatedly advocated for reforms to the process of issuing permits for federal energy projects. She said the situation with the MVP underscores the need to tighten the time frame in which legal challenges against such projects can be brought:
“This is highlighting a serious problem. And that is the window of judicial appeals … Keep that always available, but have it within a constrained period of time. This can go on (for) six, seven, eight years. Let’s do 90 days, let’s do 120 days — something in that range — where you know that after that point you’re in the clear.”
The pipeline’s developer called the day an “important and long-awaited one,” for the country that will allow “greater access to an abundant supply of domestic natural gas for use as an affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy resource.”
But it wasn’t easy. In fact, it was nearly a decade in the making.
Consider:
- The project was first announced in 2014 and planned to deliver natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions, with a targeted completion date in 2018.
- But numerous legal challenges led the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn state permits, finding some agencies failed to adequately ensure protections against sediment erosion and harm to endangered fish species.
- In May 2023, however, then-Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin included a measure in a federal stop-gap spending plan, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, that required all state and federal agencies to approve permits necessary for the project to be completed. The measure prevented legal challenges until it was completed.
Bottom line: The MVP is good for grid reliability, it’s good for energy affordability and it’s good for regional jobs and the economy. It’s also the safest way to transport natural gas. A win all-around!
The issue: Russia has overtaken the U.S. as the top supplier of natural gas to the European Union. This certainly won’t last, experts predict. U.S. LNG production will continue growing and eventually recapture the top spot.
But this news, combined with the fact that the energy supply in the Biden era amounts to 2.4 billion barrels of oil untapped, clearly details the failure of this administration regarding domestic energy production and distribution.
Why it matters: If it wasn’t for the actions that President Biden took early in his presidency, there would’ve been more oil and gas on the market and sanctions on Russia would have been more effective. As it stands now, Russia is still supplying most of the EU’s gas — and foreign regimes like Iran and Venezuela (previously given a six-month holiday from oil sanctions) are flush with cash to fund wars against America’s allies.
The administration allowed Iran to sell its oil to China, while his green-at-any-cost agenda here was undermining energy prices. Iran went from broke to wealthy and, as a result, funded Yemen and Hezbollah, which aided Hamas in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The LNG pause not only harms American workers, it lines Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pockets. This is also a loss for the environment, since American LNG is about 41% cleaner than Russian LNG exports.
Consider:
- Estimates show that 2.4 billion barrels of oil, and a commensurate amount of natural gas, went untapped over the first 1,000 days of Biden’s presidency.
- In each of the first three years of the Trump administration, domestic oil and gas production set records. In 2019, oil production was 39 percent above where it was in 2016. Gas production had increased 28 percent.
- A new report from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows how these gains were largely due to productivity growth driven by high rates of investment and innovation by extraction companies.
Comically, Biden is trying to reduce prices at the gas pump by releasing one million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve. That’s less than 40 minutes of worldwide gasoline production, and it will have a minuscule effect on the average price of gasoline.
Bottom line: Europe wouldn’t be paying Russia for gas if it weren’t for President Biden’s war on domestic natural gas and oil producers and — as a result — an assault on American families and businesses.
Gas prices are stuck in neutral, with the national average of $3.45 remaining unchanged from the past week. As you can see from the chart below, the price trajectory so far for 2024 has been very similar to 2023.
North American Electric Reliability Corporation Meetings: On Tuesday, June 25the North American Electric Reliability Corporation will hold a meeting.
Hearing On DOE Budget: On Wednesday, June 26, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will have a hearing to examine an overview of the budget proposal for the Department of Energy for Fiscal Year 2025.
Hearing On Critical Infrastructure: On Thursday, June 27, the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection will have a hearing called “Sector Down: Ensuring Critical Infrastructure Resilience.”
FERC Open Meeting: On Thursday, June 27, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an Open Meeting of the Commission.
“This entire process took a lot of perseverance. I’m glad we fought every step of the way to help the Mountain Valley Pipeline come to fruition, which will benefit workers and consumers for years to come.”
— Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
