The Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, rejected the latest attempt to thwart development on the next section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).

The court denied an environmental group’s petition to review the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) latest decision on the permit for the Southgate Extension Project.

The 31-mile extension on the southern terminus of the MVP in Virginia will deliver gas to connections in North Carolina. MVP, a joint venture (JV) between EQT, NextEra Energy, Consolidated Edison, AltaGas and RGC Resources, asked to extend the building start date on the project’s original FERC permit.

MVP missed the original build start date of June 18, 2023, after delays caused by the multi-year legal battle to build the first phase of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The JV asked the FERC for a three-year extension three days before the deadline in 2023, which the commission granted.

By the end of the year, MVP had also decided to shorten the original parameters of the project from 75 miles to 31 miles in order to minimize the project’s footprint and potentially decrease the chances of further legal delays.

“We hold that the commission reasonably found that MVP had satisfied the good cause standard in seeking an extension,” the court said in its ruling. Nothing substantial had changed since the permit had been granted to cause another delay, the court wrote.

Eight environmental groups, led by Appalachian Voices, filed the petition.

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