WASHINGTON (WV News) — The nation’s highest court is likely to allow construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Thursday.
Capito, who along with the other members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation has signed an amicus brief in support of the project, said she is confident the pipeline’s developers will ultimately be given the green light to get back to work.
“I think in the end, with our constitutional lawyers here in the Congress and in the executive branch overseeing this, I think in the end the Supreme Court will side with Congress’ ability to plainly state where, how and when something of this nature can go forward,” she said.
After the Fourth Circuit of Appeals issued two stays halting work on the project last week, the pipeline’s developers filed an emergency application to Chief Justice John Roberts, asking to have the lower court’s rulings lifted.
In their application, the developers asked for a decision by July 26.
“It is critical that the stay orders be vacated, and the underlying petitions for review be dismissed, as soon as possible, and in any event no later than July 26, 2023,” they wrote. “MVP has only approximately three months to complete the Pipeline before winter weather sets in and precludes significant construction tasks until the spring of 2024.”
The application was directed to Roberts not because he is the chief justice, but because he is the justice who oversees the Fourth Circuit, Capito explained.
“He can make a singular decision, or he can go to the full court,” she said. “A lot of times in these emergencies, they make a singular decision. So I would look for that to be the case, because MVP is going up against a deadline.”
While she is “confidently hopeful” Roberts will rule in the project’s favor, it might not happen until after the developers’ deadline, Capito said.
“The Department of Justice has been given until the middle or end of next week to weigh in on this, so we won’t be hearing anything until the week after that, I would say, at the soonest,” she said.
Capito, who has repeatedly advocated for reforms to the process of issuing permits for federal energy projects, said the situation with the Mountain Valley Pipeline underscores the need to tighten the time frame in which legal challenges against such projects can be brought.
“This is highlighting a serious problem,” she said. “And that is the window of judicial appeals and people having issues and being able to apply to apply for relief. Keep that always available, but have it within a constrained period of time. This can go on six, seven and eight years. Let’s do 90 days, let’s do 120 days — something in that range — where you know that after that point you’re in the clear.”
The MVP’s route includes Braxton, Doddridge, Fayette, Greenbrier, Harrison, Lewis, Monroe, Nicholas, Summers, Webster and Wetzel counties.
The project has faced repeated delays, setbacks and halts due to regulatory challenges brought by environmental activists and other stakeholders opposed to the pipeline.
When the project was initially announced in 2014, developers said it was expected to cost around $3.5 billion and would be completed by the end of 2018.
The cost of the project, which is around 94% complete, is now expected to be in excess of $6.5 billion, according to its developers.