Federal Regulators Are Rewriting Environmental Rules So a Massive Pipeline Can Be Built
Last month, a federal appeals court blocked one of the key permits for construction of a massive natural gas pipeline that cuts through West Virginia and that industry officials and their political allies in the state are desperate to see completed.
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 isnt eligible.
If this sounds familiar, it is. A strikingly similar thing happened two years ago.
In October 2018, the same appeals court blocked the same $5.4 billion pipeline because the developers plan to temporarily dam four West Virginia rivers didnt meet special restrictions that state regulators had put on the streamlined approval process.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-regulators-are-rewriting-environmental-rules-so-a-massive-pipeline-can-be-built