Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP), a project that has faced implacable opposition in the courts, secured a legal victory Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the natural gas conduit’s revamped Endangered Species Act approvals.

The Fourth Circuit, a venue that has not shown much sympathy toward MVP in recent years, denied a motion to stay the biological opinion (BiOp) and incidental take statement issued to the pipeline by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

The USFWS completed the updated review documents, required under the Endangered Species Act, in September. That was the culmination of a reinitiated consultation process that resulted from legal scrutiny of the original approvals issued during the pipeline’s FERC certification...