Federal court blocks Manchin-backed pipeline in West Virginia

A Virginia court on Monday vacated permits for an interstate natural gas pipeline championed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond tossed the earlier approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection. In its ruling, the panel found fault with the department’s certification of the pipeline under the Clean Water Act.

Specifically, the court ruled that the department’s decision did not properly consider earlier violations of water quality standards by the pipeline. The panel also ruled that the department did not sufficiently justify a decision to waive review of the pipeline’s antidegradation precautions.

The court had approved the pipeline’s Virginia permits days earlier, but said that West Virginia’s reviews specifically had been insufficient.

MVP agreed in 2019 to pay a $2.15 million civil penalty over allegations of environmental violations in connection with the pipeline’s operations in southwestern Virginia.  

“Without substantive assurance that MVP will comply with those policies, the Department’s sanguine outlook is troubling—especially given MVP’s prior violations,” the panel wrote.

In a statement, Manchin called the decision “infuriating,” describing the pipeline as essential to American energy security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“This pipeline is more than 90% constructed with 283 miles already laid, and once through the red tape can bring an additional 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas onto the market within months,” the West Virginia Democrat wrote. “This project has been through three rounds of water quality permitting but activist groups continue to litigate the last 20 miles, standing in the way of restoring land to its natural beauty, getting more product to market to bolster our energy security and bring down prices, and allowing West Virginians to benefit from the natural resources they own.”

Manchin has long been an advocate for the pipeline and has repeatedly pointed to its repeated holdups as an example of the need for streamlining the energy permitting process.