Appeals court blocks new construction on controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline

The Fourth District Court of Appeals has ordered a temporary halt to new construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline pending a review of a request by environmental groups to challenge the Biden administration’s approval of the pipeline.

This move, in a ruling handed down on Monday, comes as the pipeline had seemed to get a firm go-ahead with the last-minute language that was inserted into the debt-ceiling deal to appease West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

The debt-ceiling deal passed last month included a provision that would approve the required permitting needed for the 303-mile pipeline that is to stretch from West Virginia through Virginia into North Carolina and would ostensibly help developers avoid lawsuits challenging the project.

The Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center and the Washington, D.C.,-based Wilderness Society filed a suit challenging the provision and alleging violations of multiple environmental laws in connection with defective approvals by the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management allowing the MVP to cross the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia and West Virginia.

The Fourth Circuit, on Monday, granted a stay of construction on the pipeline crossing a three-mile stretch of the pipeline crossing the Jefferson National Forest. The appeals court also issued a stay of the biological opinion and incidental take statement under the Endangered Species Act for MVP.

MVP says it will continue to complete certain steam crossings and pipe installations as they evaluate their legal options, including filing emergency appeals to the Supreme Court.

“We are pleased to see the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals uphold the important role that our judicial system plays in the United States,” says Spencer Gall, a staff attorney in SELC’s Virginia office. “These rulings simply ensure that our public lands and resources won’t be irreparably damaged while ongoing legal challenges to the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline are heard by an independent court system.”

“Time and time again, Mountain Valley has tried to force its dangerous pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest, devastating communities in its wake and racking up violations,” said Ben Tettlebaum, senior staff attorney at the Wilderness Society. “We’re grateful that the Court has given those communities a measure of reprieve by hitting the brakes on construction across our public lands, sparing them from further irreversible damage while this important case proceeds.”