The operator of an under-construction natural gas pipeline has submitted an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court’s stay on its construction.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run through parts of eastern West Virginia and southern Virginia, was a pet project of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and its approval was included as part of the congressional deal to lift the federal debt ceiling earlier this summer.
However, last week the federal Fourth Circuit appeals court in Richmond, Va., blocked construction of a segment of the project, granting a stay sought by the Wilderness Society.
The debt ceiling bill, in addition to approving the pipeline, specifically stripped jurisdiction over the project from the Fourth Circuit, transferring all future litigation to a Washington, D.C., appeals court.
In the request to Chief Justice John Roberts, the pipeline operator cites the debt ceiling deal, writing that it “unambiguously deprives the Fourth Circuit of jurisdiction over the petitions for review by withdrawing statutory jurisdiction to review challenges to the agency actions at issue in these cases.”
“Those provisions could not be more clear, and no party disputes that, if the statute is applied by its terms, these petitions for review must be dismissed,” the request added.
Roberts has specific jurisdiction in the case and has the option to either act on his own or refer it to the full court, as he has historically done.
In a statement to The Hill, the president of the Wilderness Society, which brought the lawsuit that resulted in the stay, called the request an attempt at “another end run around justice.”
“Construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest has been on hold for years – the Fourth Circuit has simply maintained the status quo while this ongoing, important legal challenge to the destructive pipeline is heard in court,” Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams said.
“The order halting construction is lawful, and it should alarm every American when Congress ignores the vital role of an independent court system in our constitutional structure.”