SCOTUS vacated the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals stay orders against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) construction.
The order means the MVP construction can continue. It is a 300-mile-long pipeline that will carry “gas from West Virginia’s Marcellus and Utica shale areas to Virginia.”
The environmentalists flipped out because the pipeline would cross “waterways and federal national forest lands.”
The application to vacate stays presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The July 10, 2023 stay orders of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, case Nos. 23-1592 and 23-1594, and the July 11, 2023 stay order of the Fourth Circuit, case No. 23-1384, are hereby vacated. Although the Court does not reach applicant’s suggestion that it treat the application as a petition for a writ of mandamus at this time, that determination is without prejudice to further consideration in light of subsequent developments.
The decision is a huge blow to environmentalist groups. The 4th Circuit sided with the plaintiffs Wilderness Society and Appalachian Voices.
Surprisingly, the Biden administration opposed the 4th Circuit ruling:
“Whatever benefit respondents or the court of appeals might believe would be gained by having the agencies again reconsider the challenged actions, Congress has determined that further reconsideration is unwarranted and has prioritized MVP’s ‘timely’ completion over interests addressed by any other federal statutes,” the Department of Justice wrote in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court last week.”That judgment is for Congress alone,” the brief continued.
MVP could bring in “$40 million in new tax revenue for West Virginia, $10 million in new tax revenue for Virginia and up to $250 million in royalties for West Virginia landowners.”
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is happy: “The Supreme Court has spoken and this decision to let construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline move forward again is the correct one. I am relieved that the highest court in the land has upheld the law Congress passed and the President signed.”
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