Federal and West Virginia regulators rewriting environmental rules to pave the way for Mountain Valley Pipeline

Federal regulators and West Virginia agencies are once again rewriting environmental regulations to facilitate construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Ken Ward Jr. reports for ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight.

The proposed gas pipeline has been repeatedly delayed by court rulings that regulators improperly approved key permits. In November, "the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that environmental groups are likely to prevail in a case arguing federal and state regulators wrongly approved the Mountain Valley Pipeline through a streamlined review process for which the project isn’t eligible," Ward notes.

The same court blocked the same pipeline in 2018 for similar reasons. "But rather than pausing or rethinking the project at the time, the state Department of Environmental Protection rewrote its construction standards so that the pipeline would qualify," Ward reports. "After their most recent court loss, West Virginia officials are once again rewriting their restrictions to help pave the way for the pipeline to qualify for that streamlined permitting process."