Land values, natural benefits, and economic development could lead to losses of nearly $9 billion in just half of the counties that will be impacted if pipeline is approved
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A new study by Charlottesville-based Key-Log Economics asserts that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) would cost impacted communities billions of dollars. The study, “Economic Costs of the Mountain Valley Pipeline: Effects on Property Value, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Development in Virginia and West Virginia” – estimates that the total cost of the MVP to an eight-county region in southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia could range between $8 and $8.9 billion.
If approved, the MVP would go through 11 counties in West Virginia and five counties in Virginia. It would originate in Wetzel County, W.Va. and terminate in Pittsylvania County, Va. some 300 miles later.
FERC’s procedures and its track record show a blatant disregard for established economic principles as well as clear evidence that pipelines reduce property values, discourage business development, and diminish the capacity of the natural environment to provide clean water, beautiful scenery, and other valuable services to people.” – Dr. Spencer Phillips.
According to the Key Log report, the projected losses include between $65.1 and $135.5 million in the short term as construction strips forest and other productive land bear, and as private property values take a hit due to the dangers and inconvenience of living near the MVP route. It also includes $119.1 to $130.8 million each and every year after construction due to permanent changes in land cover, lost property tax revenues, and dampened economic growth in key sectors.
A coalition of community groups and organizations from the eight counties (Greenbrier, Monroe and Summers in West Virginia, and Giles, Craig, Montgomery, Roanoke and Franklin in Virginia) commissioned the independent research to ensure that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would have more comprehensive and robust estimates of economic effects that are typically discounted or ignored in the pipeline approval processes. The coalition had previously debunked exaggerated claims that the MVP would provide benefits in the form of jobs and income in the region, and its new report provides at least a piece of the essential cost side of the benefit-cost evaluation.
“FERC’s procedures and its track record show a blatant disregard for established economic principles as well as clear evidence that pipelines reduce property values, discourage business development, and diminish the capacity of the natural environment to provide clean water, beautiful scenery, and other valuable services to people,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Spencer Phillips.
Central findings of the Key-Log Economics report are that:
- One-time costs (lost property value and lost ecosystem service value during construction) would total in the range of $65.1 to $135.5 million.
- Annual costs (costs that recur year after year) would range from $119.1 to $130.8 million.
- Present discounted value of all future annual costs (discounted at 1.5%): $7.9 to $8.7 billion.
- One-time costs plus the discounted value of all future annual costs: $8.0 to $8.9 billion.
- Purported financial benefits to local governments are based on exaggerated MVP economic benefits claims.
- The need for the Mountain Valley Pipeline is not supported by economic benefits for impacted communities.
“Only if we count all of these costs (plus others our study did not get to, like the cost of damage to roads during construction or of heightened emergency response capacity after), weigh the full cost against reasonable estimates of societal benefits, and then ensure that the pipeline’s owners pay the full of the pipeline, could we possibly say that the MVP is a good idea, economically,” said Phillips.
Kirk Bowers of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club added that “Based on a comparison of even the exaggerated benefit estimates put out by the MVP’s backers with these very conservative cost estimates, it is hard to see this pipeline being worth it for the region.”
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The Appalachian Chronicle 
I’m thrilled to see such a good/detailed rebuttal to the preposterous idea by MVP that the destruction of our rivers, mountains, farms, roads is such a splendid idea. Thank you again Michael and Dr. Spencer Phillips for the monetary assessment of the damage that oil/gas companies always try to portray as being good for us.
After sending this out, the project took on a mind of its own, and in 12 days our community hosted the Prayers Not Pipeline event. It was a fantastic event that was covered by four news stations, three newspapers and several websites. But mostly it did exactly what we intended it to do and it continues to reverberate those feelings every day. You can t drive past the wall of flags without feeling that this energy is real and that the pipeline is not coming through this area.
[…] nearby waterways. For instance, in Appalachia right now there is an ongoing fight over the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The project has already harmed the environment and clean water. Both West Virginia and Virginia […]
[…] nearby waterways. For instance, in Appalachia right now there is an ongoing fight over the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The project has already harmed the environment and clean water. Both West Virginia and Virginia […]
[…] MVP Would Cost Impacted Communities Billions of Dollars Asserts Study […]