Environmental Groups Seek Stop Work Order on Mountain Valley Gas Pipeline Following Court Rulings

A coalition of environmental groups on Feb. 7 asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a stop-work order halting all construction activity on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 304-mile proposed natural gas pipeline stretching from West Virginia to Virginia. The move follows two recent decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacating critical authorizations for the project. The project is designed to deliver up to two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to markets in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

The groups stated construction activity on the project must halt except for stabilization and restoration work necessary to protect the environment, noting that such orders have been issued before when earlier versions of these authorizations were vacated or stayed by court rulings.

In a recent ruling issued on Feb. 3, the court vacated the Fish & Wildlife Service’s authorization issued under the Endangered Species Act, finding that the agency failed to adequately evaluate environmental issues while analyzing impacts on two endangered species of fish and also neglected to fully consider the impacts of climate change. The court went on to state the pipeline project would be inconsistent with 11 standards from five categories including utility corridors, soil and riparian resources, old-growth management areas, Appalachian National Scenic Trail areas, and scenery integrity objectives in the Jefferson Forest Plan.

In a Jan. 25 ruling, the court vacated permits issued by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management for the project to cross the Jefferson National Forest, finding that it violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act. The court found that the authorization did not properly account for the project’s erosion and sedimentation impacts, failed to adequately analyze impacts from boring under streams in the National Forest, and failed to demonstrate that the amendments to the forest plan necessary to accommodate the project complied with the requirements of the Forest Service’s Planning Rule.

The cost of the project is now about $6.2 billion, up from the original proposed cost of about $3.5 billion due to delays, according to comments filed with the commission. The project is a joint venture of EQT Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Capital Holdings Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream, and RGC Midstream LLC.

The environmental groups include Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Preserve Bent Mountain, Preserve Craig, Preserve Giles County, Save Monroe, Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Wild Virginia.