Biden, Manchin, GOP Back Gas Pipeline Amid Environmental Group Opposition.
A Legal Battle Over a New Natural Gas Pipeline in West Virginia Unites Biden Administration, Senator Manchin, and Republican Lawmakers
A legal battle over the construction of a new natural gas pipeline in West Virginia has raised common ground between President Joe Biden’s administration, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and a group of Republican lawmakers.
The deal to increase the U.S. debt limit last month included a provision to approve the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas project set to run between Virginia and West Virginia. An environmental group known as the Wilderness Society has challenged the pipeline’s construction, winning a July 11 order from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that halts the pipeline’s construction for now.
The developers behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline project have since asked (pdf) the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Fourth Circuit Court’s decision and allow the pipeline to go forward.
On Tuesday, Senator Manchin filed a “friend of the court” amicus curiae brief (pdf) backing the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request.
Senator Manchin’s amicus brief was followed the next day by an amicus brief (pdf) brought by nine Republican lawmakers. In their brief, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), John Joyce (R-Pa.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) and Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) all expressed their support for overturning the appeals court order and letting the pipeline project proceed.
On Friday, the Biden administration also weighed in, lending its support for the pipeline project. Writing on the administration’s behalf, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued (pdf) that the deal cut during the passage of the debt limit bill, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, had taken the power to stop the pipeline’s construction out of the jurisdiction of the lower courts.
The relevant section of the debt limit bill states, “No court”—up to and including the Fourth Circuit—”shall have jurisdiction to review any action taken by [the relevant agencies] that grants … any … approval necessary for the construction and initial operation at full capacity of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”
Ms. Prelogar added that the Wilderness Society’s legal challenges “cannot succeed because Congress ratified the agency actions that they challenge and superseded any provision of law inconsistent with the issuance of those approvals.”
NTD News reached out to the Wilderness Society for comment but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.
Fossil Fuel Projects Divide Democrats
While Senator Manchin and the Biden administration find themselves aligned with Republican lawmakers supporting the Mountain Valley Pipeline, several Democratic lawmakers have backed the Wilderness Society’s opposition to the pipeline project.
On July 5, Democratic Virginia Reps. Jennifer McClellan, Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, and Jennifer Wexton submitted an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit Court, siding with the Wilderness Project in opposition to the pipeline.
In their brief (pdf), the five Democratic lawmakers argued that the pipeline risks damaging streams and wetlands and would “require a taking of private property from many Virginia f
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