Progressives have filed lawsuit after lawsuit to block the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Now they’re irate that they may lose their long fight because the debt-ceiling deal between President Joe Biden and House Republicans essentially guarantees the pipeline’s completion. Political turnabout is fair play.
The 304-mile pipeline that aims to deliver natural gas from Appalachia to the Southeast was first proposed in 2014 and has since been stuck in legal and regulatory limbo. While it is 94% complete, greens keep challenging its permits — and the same Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals panel keeps blocking them on dubious legal grounds and sending environmental reviews back to regulators to be redone.
The debt deal is sweet revenge for West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who said he voted for last year’s Inflation Reduction Act in return for a promise by Biden and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass permitting reform that would include expedited approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
He got nothing from his fellow Democrats. But now Republicans have come to his rescue by liberating the pipeline from green purgatory. You’re welcome, Senator.
The debt-ceiling legislation requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue all necessary permits within 21 days and would exempt government approvals from judicial review. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals would have exclusive jurisdiction to hear legal challenges to this section of the bill. This is as close to a rubber stamp from Congress as it gets.
It’s especially nice to hear the administration contradict alarmist claims and concede that the pipeline won’t harm the environment. “This provision doesn’t have much of an effect,” White House ultra-green adviser John Podesta said. Gas delivered by the pipeline would replace coal and free up gas supply in the South to be sent overseas.
That isn’t stopping Democrats from making one last attempt to kill the pipeline in the Senate. Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine says he plans to file an amendment to the debt bill stripping the pipeline provision, even though his state would benefit from its completion. Such is the fanaticism of the green left.
Environmentalists are also howling that the legislation may set a precedent for other pipeline approvals. We sure hope so.
The Wall Street Journal
