Mountain Valley Pipeline petitions court to reconsider decisions

Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC has filed petitions with the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit asking the full court to reconsider decisions issued earlier in 2022 by a panel of the court vacating Mountain Valley’s biological opinion and authorization to cross the Jefferson National Forest (OGJ Online, Jan. 26, 2022).

In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Mountain Valley accused the Fourth Circuit’s panel of “selectively disregarding long-settled rules governing the review of agency actions under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The pipeline company said it would continue to work with all the agencies necessary to complete construction of the 303-mile, 2-bcfd natural gas project.

In response, the Sierra Club submitted almost 1,500 petitions “to remind the Commission that it may not grant Mountain Valley’s certificate amendment application in the absence of a valid biological opinion after consultation under the Endangered Species Act.” The club cited more than 100 variance requests filed by the pipeline’s developers which have “move[d] the project far from what FERC originally reviewed and approved…in 2017.”

Equitrans Midstream Corp. is Mountain Valley’s lead developer. The pipeline is more than 90% complete and Equitrans had hoped to put it in service during 2022, already 4 years later than originally planned. One of its partners in the project, NextEra Energy in February 2022 wrote of its entire $770-million investment in the pipeline.