WASHINGTON (CN) — Backers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline asked the Supreme Court on Friday to intervene in a battle over the construction of the 303-mile natural gas pipeline.
“Congress could not have been clearer that the national interest requires that the Pipeline be completed ‘expediti[ously],’” wrote Donald B. Verrilli Jr., an attorney with Munger, Tolles & Olson, in the group’s application. “And the failure to complete the Pipeline this year will deprive its shippers — including natural gas and electric utilities, gas producers, and others — of critical additional gas transportation capacity for the upcoming winter peak demand season, contributing to natural gas shortages and price spikes, harming the general public and businesses alike.”
When completed, the Mountain Valley Pipeline would carry fracked gas from northwestern West Virginia through southern Virginia. Environmental groups, including The Wilderness Society and Appalachian Voices, have filed lawsuits to halt the pipeline’s construction, citing harm to drinking water, farmland and Indigenous sacred sites.
Litigation over the pipeline’s construction has been years in the works, but Congress threw a wrench in the battle during its effort to raise the country’s debt limit. A provision backed by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin — who has faced criticism over his ties to the fossil fuel industry — fast-tracked completion of the pipeline. Anticipating the current court battle, the amendment also removed the courts’ jurisdiction over the pipeline.
“Section 324 unambiguously removes jurisdiction from all courts, including the Fourth Circuit, to determine whether the Forest Service and BLM authorizations for work in the Jefferson National Forest, and the Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement of the Fish and Wildlife Service, are lawful,” Verrilli wrote. “Section 324 also amends and supersedes all other provisions of law that might have provided a basis for challenging the permits, and substantively ratifies and approves the underlying authorizations, thereby depriving the court of appeals of any ability to grant petitioners relief and rendering moot their petitions for review.”
According to the law, environmental groups would have to appeal to the D.C. Circuit on claims that the provision was unconstitutional. However, the current litigation battle over the pipeline stems from the Fourth Circuit.
Mountain Valley Pipeline has already completed construction on the majority of the pipeline, at dispute here is a little over three-acre section in the Jefferson National Forest. Although the pipeline says all major earth-disturbing activities — clearing, grading, and trenching — have mostly been completed, the environmental groups argued the most at-risk portions of the pipeline construction are yet to come.
According to Appalachian Voices, the work yet to be completed includes 429 water crossings, the most difficult parts of the pipeline to construct. The group also states that 75% of the project is routed through land at high risk for landslides, increasing the risk for people living nearby. Appalachian Voices also claims Mountain Valley Pipeline has already amassed over 500 violations of permit conduction and state environmental laws.
In 2021, the Fourth Circuit paused work on the pipeline, vacation actions from the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management authorizing pipeline construction in Jefferson National Forest.
Before President Joe Biden signed the debt limit bill, The Wilderness Society filed additional petitions before the appeals court. Mountain Valley Pipeline argued that the Fourth Circuit no longer had jurisdiction. On July 10, the Fourth Circuit stayed the pipeline’s construction.
"Mountain Valley is attempting yet another end run around justice,” said Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, in a statement after the pipeline filed its emergency application. “Construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest has been on hold for years — the Fourth Circuit has simply maintained the status quo while this ongoing, important legal challenge to the destructive pipeline is heard in court.”
Williams said the appeals court was simply playing its role in the democratic system of governance.
“The order halting construction is lawful, and it should alarm every American when Congress ignores the vital role of an independent court system in our constitutional structure,” Williams said.
Mountain Valley Pipeline is also fighting a Fourth Circuit order in a case brought by Appalachian Voices. The group is asking the justices to vacate both orders before the end of the month.
“It is critical that the stay orders be vacated, and the underlying petitions for review be dismissed, as soon as possible, and in any event no later than July 26, 2023,” Verrilli wrote. “MVP has only approximately three months to complete the Pipeline before winter weather sets in and precludes significant construction tasks until the spring of 2024.”
The court’s emergency docket, which reviews expedited matters, received the application. Emergency applications stemming from the Fourth Circuit go to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has yet to respond.
Follow @KelseyReichmann
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