Fourth Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday vacated the water crossing permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, another major setback for a project plagued by regulatory uncertainty in recent months.

Work on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) has again been delayed after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday stayed federal authorizations that could continue to slow a project that would move 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas from Appalachian shale fields.

In yet another setback for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has rescinded permission for all construction activities in the Jefferson National Forest (JNF) in West Virginia and Virginia.

Pursuing the same strategy they used to persuade a court to stop water crossing construction activities for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) until a broader legal challenge is resolved, a coalition of environmental groups wants to do the same to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project.

West Virginia has officially thrown out Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) and will start over with a review of the project’s application after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the agency’s motion to invalidate the certificate.