Federal Agency Abandons Virginians, Yet Again

Washington, D.C. — Impacted community members along the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline submitted a letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration two days after the federal regulators again canceled a visit to construction sites in Virginia. 

For the past six months, impacted community members along the Virginia portion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline route have experienced dire neglect by the state and federal government and have asked for PHMSA officials to visit. After Congress greenlit the beleaguered pipeline in June 2023, their colleagues in federal regulatory agencies have ignored people’s reports of serious pipe safety concerns. Impacted community members in Virginia have tried multiple times to get the regulators to visit the pipeline route to see the violations themselves, with multiple visits promised and abruptly canceled.

Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition (POWHR) responded:

“To everyone watching this nightmare from far away, take note that the federal government will fast track a deadly project in your community and when the company violates environmental laws and makes deadly mistakes, they’ll look the other way. The inaction of federal regulators – whose chief purpose is to protect constituents – is an utter disgrace to our democracy and leaves us vulnerable to catastrophe caused by the grave safety hazards wrought by this cursed project.

“Regulators should get up from their cushy desks in Washington and visit impacted community members on the MVP route, where the burden of protecting ourselves from looming disaster falls once again to those of us directly in harm’s way.”

Third Act Virginia has collected nearly 1,000 signatures in two days demanding the Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares enforce the State’s consent decree with the MVP, which the company has repeatedly violated.

“Given the dire situation on the ground and state regulator’s inaction, we are increasing our goal from 1,000 to 5,000 signatures. We will deliver the thousands-strong signatures to Attorney General Miyares and demand he take action on behalf of Virginians, and the mountains and water we rely on,” said Deborah Kushner, long term Virginian and climate activist with Third Act Virginia.

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