A federal appeals court vacated a key state water permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Monday, a decision expected to delay further completion of the natural gas pipeline, the construction of which some members of Congress have sought to approve unilaterally.
The 4th Circuit's decision is another setback for the project, which environmental and local interest groups have been challenging in court for nearly a decade on the grounds that it will degrade the environment and make climate change worse.A three-judge panel unanimously vacated and remanded its water quality certification to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
"Although the Department acknowledged MVP’s violation history, it failed to dispel the tension between MVP’s checkered past and its confidence in MVP’s future compliance," the court said. “West Virginia communities have endured Mountain Valley Pipeline’s damage to their water resources and environment for far too long,” Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, said in a statement. “The WVDEP’s insufficient safeguards have been exposed, and this ruinous project must be canceled.”
Challengers most recently lost a bid to have the Fourth Circuit toss a lower court decision that upheld Virginia's water quality certification for MVP.
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