The Supreme Court struck down a ruling that blocked the continued construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The 303-mile pipeline will run from the north of West Virginia to the south of Virginia and has been back and forth in the courts for several years.
In the latest legal battle, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted construction so the authorizations of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management could be reviewed. The Supreme Court threw this out and said there could be no more challenges to the pipeline’s construction because of an agreement reached during debt ceiling negotiations on Capitol Hill.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, passed in May, included a provision allowing for the completion of the project; the Supreme Court upheld this provision. At the time, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said, “I am pleased Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team sees the tremendous value in completing the MVP to increase domestic energy production and drive down costs across America, especially in West Virginia.”
The continuation of the MVP project is backed by the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the American Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Chamber of Commerce. The project will generate around 2,500 jobs across the two states and is predicted to raise $40 million in tax revenue in West Virginia, $10 million in Virginia, and $250 million in royalties for landowners.
The pipeline will carry 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas to consumers in the South Atlantic region every day, inevitably reducing energy production strain.
Leftists and environmental activists opposed the pipeline’s construction from the start. It was an issue that prompted many to criticize President Biden and question his commitment to the green energy cause. In June, groups of protestors descended on Washington, asking the President to “reclaim his climate legacy” by blocking the pipeline. The demonstrators blamed Biden for signing the debt relief deal, but the President said the pipeline would have gone ahead regardless.
