Posted on 07/27/2018 6:53:37 PM PDT by buckalfa
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal appeals judges ruled two key federal approvals don’t provide adequate protection on the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s route through the Jefferson National Forest, which includes Monroe County.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups had challenged approvals by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management over a 3.6-mile segment of the pipeline’s route through the national forest.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline gained approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-October.
The $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline would extend 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline over 303 miles to transport West Virginia natural gas into southern Virginia.
The path takes the pipeline not only through the national forest but also under the Appalachian Trail at Peters Mountain.
The environmental groups questioned whether the plans for pipeline construction adequately control erosion and sediment.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the ruling would affect other aspects of the pipeline’s construction and timetable.
“I am very relieved that MVP cannot destroy the Appalachian Trail and our beloved Peters Mountain,” stated Maury Johnson, a Monroe County resident who is a part of Save Monroe, one of the parties to the federal lawsuit.
“I feel that when other cases are heard by the Courts we will win these as well and hopefully MVP will just be a bad nightmare.”
Jim Gore, another member of Save Monroe, stated, “The 4th Circuit has validated what we have been saying to the Forest Service for almost four years. We are already seeing ongoing degradation of water resources due to erosion and sedimentation caused by MVP construction on our steep slopes and ridges.”
Judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling Friday.
“MVP’s proposed project would be the largest pipeline of its kind to cross the Jefferson National Forest,” Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote in the opinion. Thacker was joined in the 44-page opinion by Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Judge William Traxler.
“American citizens understandably place their trust in the Forest Service to protect and preserve this country’s forests, and they deserve more than silent acquiescence to a pipeline company’s justification for upending large swaths of national forest lands.”
The court said it was sending two decisions back to the appropriate agencies for further review.
One was the Forest Service’s amendment of the Jefferson National Forest Land Resource Management Plan to accommodate the pipeline. The other was a right-of-way through the forest granted by the Bureau of Land Management.
Mountain Valley Pipeline spokeswoman Natalie Cox stated that many parts of the Sierra Club’s challenge were rejected by the court, which “largely upheld BLM’s and the Forest Service’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.”
She added, “MVP is working with the agencies to evaluate the effect of the order on construction activities in the National Forest, which amounts to about 1 percent of the overall project route.”
The Sierra Club celebrated the ruling, declaring that MVP should halt work immediately within the publicly-owned Jefferson National Forest.
The Sierra Club also contended the ruling could mean further trouble for MVP along its entire proposed route in Virginia.
Environmental groups have also filed a similar challenge about the separate but similar Atlantic Coast Pipeline. That case is scheduled for a hearing September 28
I am familiar with the location discussed in the article and it is indeed idyllic. Yet construction can be accomplished without harming the environment. If America is to prosper, natural gas is needed.
We NEED Kavanaugh confirmed now
Not the job of the U.S. Forest Service, they are under the Dept of Agriculture to administer lands for public use and consumption (timber harvesting, etc.). To protect and preserve is the job of the National Park Service under the Dept of the Interior in national parks and monuments, not U.S. Forests . The Sierra Clubs knows this, they are just playing on peoples ignorance.
I long for a day where we are no longer beholden to enviro-communist.
Why nothing productive got done during Obama’s terms in office.
What a crock of shit. Erosion and sediment control is a standard industry practice and is mandatory on or near critical habitat and waterways.
This “decision” was made by one Obama and two Clinton appointees.
Judgeships are important!
Something else needs to change, the law says in these cases the FEDS must pay the legal fees of the environmentalists, win or loose.
End that and it gets a lot more expensive to wage lawfare by the Left.
Ram the higher natural gas prices up the bazingas of the southern Virginia Lefties, and laugh about it.
I am pretty sure that it is Northern Virginia that is the home to the Leftist. Close to Mordor on the Potomac and all don’tcha know.
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