Today, Wild Virginia and other groups brought suit in the Federal Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit to challenge the reckless actions of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in regard to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) approval.

FERC has repeatedly ignored common sense and legal requirements in allowing MVP to rush forward with its destructive project, even though numerous challenges could still prevent the project from ever being completed. 

The Commission continues to peddle the ludicrous assertion that continuing to dig and blast up and down steep mountain slopes and through precious waterbodies is the best way to protect our resources. MVP’s record of environmental damages and violations disproves FERC’s contention but the Commission seems unwilling to acknowledge those problems or do what’s necessary to prevent more of the same.

And, while the Commission’s own rule says construction cannot start unless the Mountain Valley Pipeline approval is completed by the relevant agencies, FERC is willing to allow work to continue after several of those approvals have been lost – a position that even one of the Commissioners has termed “nonsensical” and which “waters down an important environmental and landowner protection measure.” Thus, Wild Virginia is challenging this pipeline approval.

Unfortunately, FERC has shown that the interests of besieged landowners and protection of our natural treasures are not among its top priorities. Rather, helping corporations make money at the public’s expense and continue disastrous fossil fuel development for the next generation is clearly at the top of its list of goals.

Plaintiffs in the suit, along with Wild Virginia, are Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Indian Creek Watershed Association, Preserve Craig, Sierra Club, and West Virginia Rivers Coalition. The groups are represented by attorneys from Appalachian Mountain Advocates, Sierra Club, and Water and Power Law Group PC.

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