MVP pipeline foes say Congress can't 'mandate victory' for the project

RGC Resources

27/06/2023 20:47

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      Groups say debt ceiling bill can't force judicial outcomes
    

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      The 303-mile pipeline has been dogged by lawsuits for
years
    

  
    By Clark Mindock
       June 27 (Reuters) - A provision of the U.S. debt ceiling
bill that streamlined the federal approval process for the $6.6
billion Mountain Valley Pipeline and limited court reviews of
challenges to the project violates the U.S. Constitution’s
separation of powers doctrine, opponents of the pipeline have
claimed.
    The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and other
conservation groups fighting the 303-mile pipeline urged the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, in two separate cases,
to declare the mandate unconstitutional and keep their
challenges alive.
    The environmental groups' lawsuits are seeking to invalidate
key federal permits that are needed to finish construction of
the pipeline, including on a stretch of land running through a
federal forest in Virginia.
    They said the separation of powers doctrine allows Congress
to write the law, but not to directly determine the outcome of
court cases.
    “Congress cannot pick winners and losers in pending
litigation by compelling findings or results,” the Wilderness
Society wrote in its filing.
    Pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream Corp. said Tuesday it
doesn’t comment on pending litigation. 
    The U.S. Forest Service declined to comment Tuesday and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t respond to a request for
comment. Those agencies issued the challenged federal approvals
for the project.
    The U.S. government had asked the court to dismiss the cases
on June 14 arguing that the bill stripped the court of
jurisdiction to hear the lawsuits.
    The developers on Monday announced the project has received
all necessary federal permits, and asked the U.S. Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission for final approval to restart
construction.
    If completed, the pipeline would transport natural gas
across West Virginia and Virginia. Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC
- a joint project between Equitrans, NextEra Energy Inc.,
Consolidated Edison Inc., AltaGas Ltd and RGC Resources Inc. -
has said the pipeline is over 94% complete.
    The 4th Circuit, where most of the litigation challenging
the project has occurred, has previously vacated several of the
project's federal and state permits – some more than once - over
concerns about the pipeline's environmental impacts.
    The current lawsuits target the Forest Service’s approval of
a right-of-way that would allow the pipeline to pass through the
Jefferson National Forest, and a Fish and Wildlife Service
approval that determined the construction wouldn’t likely
jeopardize endangered animals.
    The challengers have claimed the approvals inadequately
considered the environmental impacts of the pipeline to wildlife
and the lands it would cross.
    Congress included a rider in this month’s debt ceiling bill
mandating that federal agencies issue approvals for the
pipeline, and restricting judicial review of would-be and
existing challenges.
    The cases are Appalachian Voices et al. v. United States
Department of the Interior and the Wilderness Society v. U.S.
Forest Service, in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, case
Nos. 23-1384 and 23-1592.
    For the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices group: Elizabeth
Benson of the Sierra Club and Derek Teaney of the Appalachian
Mountain Advocates.
    For the Wilderness Society: Gregory Buppert and Spencer Gall
of the Southern Environmental Law Center.
    For the U.S. government: Allen Brabender and Kevin McArdle
of the U.S. Department of Justice.
    For the developer: Jeffrey Lamberson and George Sibley of
Hunton Andrews Kurth.
    
    Read more:
    *         Mountain Valley Pipeline's West Virginia water
permit
tossed by court
      
    *         Biden signs debt limit bill, avoiding U.S. default
      


 (Reporting by Clark Mindock)