Report of Theodore D Fuller under PF15-3. Is the MVP pipeline really needed? There are over 2 million miles of interstate natural gas pipelines in the United States already.

It is not at all clear that additional natural gas pipelines are needed. There are over two million miles of interstate natural gas pipelines in the United States. There is an abundance of natural gas pipelines in West Virginia, where the natural gas to be transported by the Mountain Valley Pipeline originates. The Mountain Valley Pipeline corporation wants to build a pipeline through Virginia to connect to a pipeline in Pittsylvania County, and then ship the natural gas to points elsewhere. Is this pipeline needed? Can the remaining natural gas in the Marcellus field in West Virginia be transported to markets through existing pipelines? If that can be done, that is much preferred. If the primary reason NOT to use existing pipeline is that the Mountain Valley Pipeline corporation does not own those existing pipelines and therefore could not make money, that is not a sufficient argument to authorize the construction of a new pipeline through Virginia, where the people of Virginia would pay the environmental, health, and economic costs while the benefits go primarily to other states where the natural gas would be used.