FERC has granted the heavily scrutinized Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) another four years to finish construction and enter service, a move that could augur well for the embattled natural gas project’s political and regulatory future.

MVP PNG file

In an order filed Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave MVP until Oct. 13, 2026, to complete what has proven to be a drawn-out construction process for the 300-mile, 2 million Dth/d Appalachia-to-Southeast natural gas conduit. After an earlier two-year extension issued in 2020, MVP had previously had until October to place the pipeline into service.

The commissioners, led by Democratic Chairman Richard Glick, ultimately rejected assertions from project opponents that the agency should revisit its environmental review of the...