Page 8 - NorthAmOil Week 14 2023
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The pipeline has been
94% completed.
US appeals court again blocks
Mountain Valley Pipeline
US NORTHEAST EQUITRANS Midstream’s Mountain Valley Equitrans, which is still aiming for completion
Pipeline (MVP) has again been blocked by a in late 2023.
court. The company is reviewing the court’s deci-
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has sion, said a spokesperson for Equitrans. The
vacated a water permit by the West Virginia project has undergone “unprecedented” envi-
Department of Environmental Protection’s ronmental reviews and is being constructed
(DEP). The federal judges sided with environ- to “higher environmental standards than any
mentalists that said the pipeline could cause ero- similar project” in West Virginia, added the
sion and sedimentation. spokesperson. The federal
The three-judge panel found deficiencies The MVP has become stuck in “regulatory
in the DEP’s review, citing 46 “narrative water and legal purgatory for several years”, said the judges sided with
quality standards violations”, and assessed civil Wall Street Journal in an editorial.
penalties of around $569,000. “[The DEP] is intended to give states input environmentalists
In late March, the same panel upheld neigh- into projects, though it has been abused by some
bouring Virginia’s environmental review of the such as New York to block gas pipelines. Here that said
42-inch (1,067-mm) pipeline. the Fourth Circuit panel is abusing its power to the pipeline
“In the face of such a history, it is arbitrary usurp state authority,” said the newspaper. “As is
and capricious for an agency to predict compli- its wont, the [court] panel nit-picked West Vir- could cause
ance without a rational explanation,” wrote Chief ginia’s environmental review.”
Judge Roger Gregory in the opinion. “[The DEP] Conservative-leaning Democratic Senator erosion and
failed to provide a reasoned explanation as to Joe Manchin of West Virginia also commented.
why it believes MVP’s past permit violations will Manchin is a backer of the project and has sedimentation.
not continue to occur going forward.” sought to include approval of the pipeline in a
The MVP would be 303 miles (487 km) broad federal energy permitting bill.
once completed and would transport natural “It is infuriating to see the same 4th Circuit
gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale forma- Court panel deal yet another setback for the
tions in Ohio and Pennsylvania to the Mid- and Mountain Valley Pipeline project and once
South-Atlantic regions. again side with activists who seem hell-bent
The pipeline is designed to transport 2bn on killing any fossil energy that will make our
cubic feet (56.6mn cubic metres) per day. country energy independent and secure,” Man-
The pipeline has been 94% completed, said chin said.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 14 06•April•2023
