Segment of Manchin-backed pipeline blocked despite inclusion in debt limit bill

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., has ordered a halt to construction on a section of an interstate pipeline backed prominently by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and fast-tracked by Congress.

In a Monday ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit granted a stay sought by The Wilderness Society to halt construction on a segment of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which would carry natural gas through parts of West Virginia and Virginia.

The section includes 3 miles of the planned pipeline that would pass through the Jefferson National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains.

The law enacted last month to raise the federal debt limit included a provision paving the way for the project. It also removed the 4th Circuit’s jurisdiction, saying instead any cases over its constitutionality should be heard by an appeals court in Washington, D.C.

The filing by the environmental organization called that provision a violation of constitutional separation of powers. The one-page temporary stay will only apply pending a more substantive ruling on merit.

Manchin, who has long been one of the most vocal backers of the project in the Senate, tweeted that the court’s stay was “unlawful” and said “regardless of your position on MVP, it should alarm every American when a court ignores the law.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WVa.), another longtime backer of the project, said the bill’s language was “crystal clear” in a tweet Monday night.

“This latest effort by the activist Fourth Circuit Court flies in the face of the law that was passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed by President Biden,” she wrote.

The inclusion of the pipeline in the bill was controversial within the Senate, with opponents of the measure like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) arguing it was not within Congress’s purview to approve individual projects.

The 4th Circuit has repeatedly ordered halts or pauses to the pipeline, including unanimously vacating its permits in April.

“Time and time again, Mountain Valley has tried to force its dangerous pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest, devastating communities in its wake and racking up violations,” Ben Tettlebaum, director and senior staff attorney at The Wilderness Society, said in a statement to The Hill. “We’re grateful that the Court has given those communities a measure of reprieve by hitting the brakes on construction across our public lands, sparing them from further irreversible damage while this important case proceeds.”

— Updated at 12:53 p.m.