Dubbed the nation’s “Most Valuable Pipeline”, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) officially entering into service represents a significant milestone for natural gas developers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as for consumers and our national security through enhanced access to the affordable, abundant and domestic energy resources. However, marred by a lengthy 10+-year permitting process and legal hurdles that significantly delayed construction timelines and ballooned costs, MVP’s road to completion was no easy feat.

Despite clear demand for the energy MVP moves, it took a Supreme Court approval and an act of Congress to ultimately get gas flowing to consumers. As the demand for American  energy grows, we need urgent, decisive action – not endless legal challenges and unnecessary delays.

While supply is plentiful in Appalachia, there are limited means of getting energy to those that desperately need it. Ultimately, delays harm economic progress and consumers and undermine American energy security.

Because of historic infrastructure constraints in the region, Appalachian natural gas producers are forced to sell at steep discount of NYMEX prices. Depressed in-basin pricing dulls our competitive edge and a supply glut holds back production, further limiting access to this critically needed fuel.

Our inability to move product is startling when one considers the Commonwealth alone accounts for nearly 20% of total U.S. natural gas production, and together with Ohio and West Virginia, we’re the third largest natural gas producing region in the world.

Yet six of the last seven planned interstate pipeline projects – to move Appalachia natural gas out of the basin to New England, New Jersey and the Southeast U.S. – have been cancelled or put on indefinite hold due to regulatory red tape  and endless delays spurred by litigation funded by deep-pocketed anti-fossil fuel organizations, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association.

These self-inflicted energy woes are having a direct impact on residents in both cost and reliability. At the end of last year, New Englanders paid 31% more for natural gas compared to U.S. averages.

“Natural gas and electricity price spikes in New England in the winter are common because pipeline constraints often limit deliveries of natural gas into the region and to power plants,” U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts said this week.

Their analysis comes as Bostonians inked long-term supply contracts to continue importing LNG  from places like Trinidad & Tobago. Meanwhile, the Mystic Generating Station – which has been reliably powering the greater Boston area with natural gas-fired electricity since the 1940s – went into retirement in early June, raising questions about how New England will meet its electricity needs during the next heat wave or cold spell.

By turning away from clean energy resources right here in our backyard, opponents are increasing our dependence on foreign energy imports, exporting American dollars overseas, and undermining our nation’s energy and national security.

The reality is, expanding natural gas infrastructure supports energy and climate goals, as well as national security by reducing dependence on foreign fuels and strengthening diplomatic ties.

Simply put, “natural gas is the key solution to addressing climate change,” said MSC’s Dave Callahan in a recent interview with WV Metro News.

The U.S., and more specifically Appalachia, produces natural gas cleaner than anywhere in the world. By displacing the transportation of more carbon-intensive energy sources, pipelines help advance our shared emission reduction goals while ensuring that our homes, schools, businesses and other critical facilities have the energy resources they need.

“[Appalachia] is the biggest basin in the nation and we just need the means to get that product to where it’s needed,” Callahan said. “When [customers] get that natural gas or a power plant gets that natural gas or a homeowner receives that natural gas, they’re getting the cleanest natural gas in the country if not the world.”

Pennsylvania consumers – and those beyond our borders – deserve the ability to access this clean, reliable and abundant energy resource. To do this, we must have predictable and reasonable permitting times, the ability to construct infrastructure and put it into service in a timeframe that makes economic sense, and policy leaders willing to hail the significant advantages and benefits of domestic natural gas development – not apologize for it.

It’s well past time we get out of our own way.