Dealing a blow to Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s (MVP) expectations for a timely conclusion to the drawn-out regulatory saga, a federal court has once again struck down crucial permitting for the natural gas conduit’s crossing of the Jefferson National Forest.

MVP

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last Tuesday (Jan. 25) vacated and remanded key authorizations issued to MVP by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The approvals would enable the 303-mile, 2 million Dth/d pipeline to cross a 3.5-mile stretch of national forest land along the Virginia and West Virginia border.

Partly siding with a coalition of environmental groups challenging the project, the Fourth Circuit found that the federal agencies erred by failing to account for data...