to cross the remaining streams and wetlands in its path from northern West Virginia, through the New River and Roanoke valleys, to connect with an existing pipeline near the North Carolina line.”Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has emerged as the face of support for MVP, though he is not alone.
“Manchin’s decision to drop the language now leaves in limbo Equitrans Midstream Corp.’s stalled $6.6 billion Mountain Valley pipeline in his home state,” Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, adding that “The decision spells the end for now for an effort by Manchin to convince his colleagues to support compromise energy permit changes that he argued were key to US energy independence and transition to renewable sources.
Manchin’s stubborn insistence on supporting MVP has remained a mystery to some, considering that the Senator’s family wealth derives from coal, not gas. However, the West Virginia electorate has been moving rightward, and answering to that electorate is a matter of political survival. The publicationculled some insights to that effect in a recent interview with longtime West Virginia reporter Hoppy Kercheval, who has spoken with Manchin frequently over his 40-year career.
Regardless of Manchin’s affection for the natural gas industry or the rightward drift of voters in his home state, the Mountain Valley Pipeline faces an uncertain future. So does natural gas, for that matter. Although the industry seems firmly entrenched at present, stakeholders should take a lesson from the experience of the coal industry. Coal was king in West Virginia for generations, until natural gas knocked it off the top of the energy pile.