Two of the biggest natural gas pipeline operators are squabbling over who will build the next big pipeline to increase Appalachia gas flows to southern Virginia and North Carolina.
Williams owns and operates the massive Transco interstate pipeline that runs from the Gulf Coast to New York cutting across the eastern seaboard. EQT is the parent company of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the fiercely contested Appalachia pipeline that entered service in 2024 after a decade of delays and legal battles. The federal agency that oversees gas pipelines is reviewing two new overlapping projects that would facilitate a major buildout in gas-fired power plants in the region.
Both companies cite a growing population and planned data centers as justification for expanding pipeline capacity in their respective applications for Certificate of Need under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions (FERC). FERC released an Environmental Assessment for the MVP Southgate project on October 3rd, and the agency is expected to release an Environmental Assessment of the Transco project early next month. If built, Appalachia gas producers are poised to have direct access to customers across the Atlantic seaboard, entrenching Appalachia gas production and delaying decarbonization efforts, as well as the economic, environmental, and climate risks associated with it.
The project proposals are nearly identical and probably redundant. Both companies are proposing to build about 30 miles of pipeline along the existing Transco pipeline, starting at the same point near Chatham, Virginia, heading south and ending near Eden, North Carolina. The proposed corridor is already congested; if both projects move forward, certain sections of the route would have up to six parallel high-pressure gas lines.
Two proposed pipelines, the MVP Southgate and the Eden Loop of the Transco Southeast Supply Enhancement Project, would follow the same route south from Chatham, VA to Eden, NC. The projects are part of an effort to build out more gas fired power generating capacity in North Carolina. Source: Appalachian Voices
The MVP Southgate project is an extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), widely considered by industry insiders as the “last major greenfield project for moving natural gas out of [Appalachia].” The nearly $10 billion MVP itself is soon to be expanded to increase gas flows from 2 to 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d).
The MVP Southgate extension will connect MVP to yet another new pipeline under construction and designed to transport MVP’s Appalachia gas to a new gas power plant under development by Duke Energy near Roxboro, North Carolina. That pipeline, dubbed T15, is being developed by Dominion Energy and Public Service Co. of North Carolina (PSNC) and will originate from an interconnect with the Transco pipeline near the Dan River in Rockingham County to the proposed Roxboro power plant. The T15 project is undergoing a separate regulatory process, with applications under review by FERC as well as the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
Are two pipelines necessary?
According to Williams, the pipeline projects are redundant. Williams informed federal regulators in a short filing submitted in July that the SSEP could accommodate MVP Southgate’s incremental volumes by expanding capacity of the Eden Loop and adding meter tubes and regulation at an existing station. Williams insisted the additional work could be completed within the project’s existing workspace with minimal disruption.
MVP responded the following week that the Southgate amendment would be necessary “to support increased competition,” since most of the North Carolina market is supplied by Transco.
FERC’s Environmental Analysis, released October 3rd, concluded that Transco’s SSEP could technically, practically, and economically eliminate the need for the proposed Southgate project. Despite this finding, the federal regulator determined that the amended Southgate project would not significantly impact the environment.
The companies are also at odds with positioning of the pipe, with Williams insisting MVP Southgate’s route be offset from either Transco’s nearest existing pipeline or the proposed Eden Loop.
The map below, pulled from Williams’s FERC application, illustrates how congested the Transco pipeline corridor is already; if FERC approves both projects, sections of the route would have 6 parallel high-pressure pipelines.
Above is an excerpt from Williams’ application to FERC, showing a proposed route for the Eden Loop. Much of the existing Transco route already has four parallel pipelines, or “loops.” If the Eden Loop and the MVP Southgate extension are built, there would be sections of the route with six parallel gas lines.
Notably, the entire length of the MVP Southgate extension runs parallel to Transco. Duke Energy and PSNC have signed contracts for Southgate’s full capacity.
Meanwhile, in October 2024 Williams asked federal regulators to approve its Southeast Supply Enhancement project (SSEP), which includes two major loop additions (parallel pipe to the existing mainline) to the massive Transco pipeline. The Eden Loop, which overlaps with the proposed route of the MVP Southgate extension, runs 26.8 miles south from the MVP/Transco interconnect in Pittsylvania County, Virginia to Rockingham County, North Carolina.
The SSEP project also includes a second pipeline addition called the Salem Loop, which adds 28.4 miles of pipeline looping in North Carolina, as well as additional modifications to compressor and meter stations in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
If built, both companies claim their respective pipelines would support growing dependence on gas-fired power in Virginia and North Carolina. Indeed, a sweeping buildout of gas infrastructure is underway in the southeastern US, thanks in part to MVP’s influx of Appalachia gas into the region.
Utilities in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina plan to build more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) of gas-fired power plants by 2040, according to research released in January by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
The independent energy think tank found that pipeline operators are currently proposing or constructing more than 3,300 million cubic feet (MMcf)/day of new pipeline capacity through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, including the proposed MVP Southgate and Transco SSEP. IEEFA concluded that over 75% of that capacity is destined for electric utilities.
Unneeded pipelines risk expensive infrastructure costs with ratepayers
The justification for the new pipeline projects–and the gas plants they’ll fuel–is shaky at best. Experts warn that there is a significant risk of Southeast utilities overbuilding power plants and pipelines in response to projected data center energy demand.
A July report released by London Economics International and Southern Environmental Law Center exposes the risks of upward bias in data center demand forecasting, including duplicate requests for service submitted by developers, utility bias in favor of over-forecasting, and a fundamental misalignment between rapid, speculative data center development timelines and slower, regulated energy infrastructure expansions. The report’s authors explain how such risks create a high likelihood of underutilized, costly gas infrastructure expansions–SSEP and MVP Southgate pipelines included— whose costs would be shouldered unfairly by ratepayers.
Shelley Hudson Robbins with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy agrees, and explains how new pipelines like the MVP Southgate extension are destined to increase customer electric bills for decades to come since the “firm transportation contracts” used to demonstrate need to regulators do not necessarily equate with how much those utilities will actually end up using. She concludes, “southeastern electric utilities are investing billions of dollars from future customer bills in gas plants and firm transportation contracts, and they are forcing ratepayers to buy increasingly expensive gas molecules to burn for decades to come.”
Duke’s new Roxboro gas plant, which would be fed by Appalachia gas, could cost at least $1.96 billion to construct. That cost—as well as costs for the proposed T15 pipeline—will be “assigned” to Duke’s ratepayers. The utility has already contracted for firm gas supply from both the proposed MVP Southgate project and the SSEP expansion.
Local opposition to the new pipelines is growing. Three municipalities along the SSEP route in North Carolina passed resolutions this summer raising concerns, or opposing the project. On August 28th, Forsyth County Commissioners passed a bipartisan resolution opposing the pipeline and asked the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to deny water and air permits.
There is widespread community distrust as the Mountain Valley Pipeline mainline has already been issued multiple state agency violations throughout its construction and since it began operations in 2024.
FERC is accepting public comments on the Southgate project’s environmental assessment through November 3rd. The agency is also planning to release a separate environmental assessment for SSEP in early November.