With just days left in the 117th Congress, exiting U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced a measure that would ease the permitting process for pipelines.
The Pipeline Permitting for Energy Security Act is described as creating regulatory certainty for natural gas pipeline construction across the United States. Specifically, it would approve the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, spanning 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.
Completing this pipeline could create more access to natural gas from Pennsylvania.
“It is long past time to stop the exploitation of outdated laws to prevent the construction of pipelines, which are the safest and most efficient way to transport natural gas, by activists and the politicians who cater to them,” Toomey said in a statement. “The obstruction of commonsense, essential energy infrastructure projects has resulted in higher energy costs, increased global reliance on energy produced by tyrants like Vladimir Putin, and ironically prevented increased distribution of the energy source most responsible for the declines in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”…