The Roanoke region in Virginia’s Blue Ridge is thriving, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline is playing a significant role in our success.
Since entering service two years ago, the pipeline system has done precisely what it was designed to do: safely and efficiently provide necessary supplies of affordable, reliable, lower-carbon natural gas to meet public demand and support the region’s economic security and growth.
Now, with the need for natural gas continuing to grow, Mountain Valley has proposed a plan to help meet this increasing demand. The MVP Boost project would maximize the existing MVP system by adding additional compression to deliver more natural gas for use in Virginia, North Carolina and the entire Mid-Atlantic region.
As the leaders of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, and on behalf of the 1,000-plus businesses and organizations that we represent across this great region, we think it’s important to review the facts underlying our support of the existing MVP and for the proposed MVP Boost.
Affordability
Natural gas is an energy source preferred by large industrial users, including our region’s largest employers, and for generating electricity. For good reasons: It is cheap, reliable and domestically sourced, and it is cleaner than alternatives like coal, fuel oil or diesel.
The U.S. Department of Energy has long recognized natural gas as the most affordable residential energy source. Second place isn’t even close.
Opportunity
Since MVP brought a new supply to the Roanoke Valley, we’ve witnessed new economic opportunities that carry benefits across the region. Roanoke Gas Co. has used two taps on MVP to continue adding customers, adding more than 1,200 new customers since the MVP was placed in service.
Roanoke Gas Co. also is now providing service to Franklin County’s Summit View Business Park and is exploring expansion of service to Rocky Mount.
Reliability
A joint report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation credited MVP’s operation for strengthening the winter resilience of U.S. energy systems. Many of our region’s largest employers, including manufacturers, municipal governments, healthcare systems and universities, need natural gas, and the MVP strengthens Roanoke Gas Co.’s ability to meet this demand.
Pipeline infrastructure is critical for residential and business energy needs and for electricity generation, yet many people don’t even realize it exists in their community. Natural gas pipelines run safely under local highways and the Spring Hollow Reservoir, and through neighborhoods, shopping centers and recreational spaces such as the Christiansburg Huckleberry Trail. They’re widely recognized as the safest and most efficient way to transport the energy we need to sustain a high quality of life. It’s easy to take these systems for granted; we go past them every day, often without even noticing.
Responsibility
A comprehensive, seven-year study of data collected by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Geological Survey concluded MVP’s construction and now operation have had no long-term impacts on Virginia waterbodies.
This truth proves that Mountain Valley builds critical energy infrastructure in an environmentally responsible manner.
The proposed MVP Boost is further evidence of this point. The project includes building a new compressor station along the existing MVP in eastern Montgomery County. This above-ground station will be built on a small portion of rural acreage that Mountain Valley owns.
The compressor station will need a Minor New Source Review air permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to operate. This permit is the most commonly issued air permit in Virginia. That’s because it is for facilities that meet clear environmental impact standards and have a relatively minor amount of emissions. Virginia has issued hundreds of such permits over the past five years. Typically, these draw little attention — again, because the facilities are minor sources of emissions and operate within parameters designed to protect public health. Mountain Valley has voluntarily agreed to adopt additional measures to reduce emissions even further below the thresholds required by regulators.
Mountain Valley continues to be a good community partner in our area. For more than a decade, the company has been a reliable supporter of local charitable groups and business, education, public safety and conservation causes. Its energy infrastructure, including MVP Boost, will sustain local benefits here in Virginia’s Blue Ridge and broader region for decades to come.
Eric Sichau is president and CEO of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. Amanda Livingston is president of the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce.
