Description: Challenge to FERC order approving Mountain Valley Pipeline extending from West Virginia to Virginia.
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Appalachian Voices v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 02/19/2019 Judgment Download Petitions for review denied. D.C. Circuit Upheld FERC Approval for Mountain Valley Pipeline, Rejected Claims Regarding Review of Downstream Emissions. In an unpublished judgment, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied petitions for review of FERC’s approval of the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline, which would extend 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia. The court found that FERC’s conclusion that there was a market need for the project was reasonable and supported by substantial evidence. The court rejected the contention that the climate change impacts of downstream combustion were not adequately considered. The court found it unnecessary to consider the petitioners’ argument that FERC had improperly concluded that the downstream emissions were not reasonably foreseeable impacts of the project because FERC had “provided an estimate of the upper bound of emissions resulting from end-use combustion” and given “several reasons why it believed petitioners’ preferred metric, the Social Cost of Carbon tool, is not an appropriate measure of project-level climate change impacts and their significance under [the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)] or the Natural Gas Act.” The D.C. Circuit noted that the petitioners neither proffered an alternative tool for assessing incremental climate impacts of downstream emissions nor countered all of FERC’s reasons for not using the Social Cost of Carbon tool. The court also rejected the petitioners’ other NEPA and Natural Gas Act arguments as well as Takings Clause, due process, and National Historic Preservation Act challenges. 11/27/2018 Amicus Brief Download Amicus brief filed by American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers in support of FERC and denial of petition for review. Four trade groups filed an amicus brief that defended FERC’s determinations regarding the scope of the review of greenhouse gas emissions. 11/27/2018 Amicus Brief Download Amicus brief filed by Interstate Natural Gas Association of America in support of FERC and affirmance. Interstate Natural Gas Association of America filed its own amicus brief that also defended the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. 11/20/2018 Brief Download Brie filed by FERC. FERC Defended Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis for Mountain Valley Pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filed a brief in the D.C. Circuit defending its review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline extending from West Virginia to Virginia. FERC argued that its consideration of downstream greenhouse gas emissions was reasonable. In particular, FERC contended that end-use greenhouse gas impacts were not an indirect impact of the project; that it was reasonable to determine that FERC could not assess the significance of downstream emissions; that it was reasonable to decline to use the social cost of carbon tool; that FERC reasonably declined not to consider downstream emissions in its public interest analysis under the Natural Gas Act; and that FERC relied on record evidence to support its determination that a no-action alternative would not decrease natural gas consumption or greenhouse gas emissions. FERC also defended other aspects of its decision-making from claims under the National Historic Preservation Act, the Natural Gas Act, Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, and the takings and due process clauses of the Constitution. 09/04/2018 Brief Download Joint opening brief filed by petitioners. Challengers of Mountain Valley Pipeline Filed Opening Brief. On September 4, the petitioners filed a joint opening brief. Their arguments include that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) failed to adequately analyze downstream greenhouse gas effects in its review of the project pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and that FERC’s refusal to weigh such impacts in its public interest determination violated the Natural Gas Act. The brief said FERC had estimated the downstream greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning 2.0 billion cubic feet of gas per day but had incorrectly concluded that downstream effects were outside the scope of its NEPA analysis and had refused to use the social cost of carbon to evaluate the downstream impacts. 08/30/2018 Order Download Stay denied. D.C. Circuit Denied Stay of Mountain Valley Pipeline. On August 30, 2018, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied motions to stay work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a gas pipeline extending 303.5 miles from West Virginia to Virginia. The D.C. Circuit said the petitioners had not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review. 07/27/2018 Opposition Download Opposition to motion for stay filed by FERC. 07/20/2018 Motion Download Motion for stay filed by petitioners. 05/16/2018 Order Download Motion to hold cases in abeyance or to defer filing of certified index to the record denied. 02/20/2018 Motion Download Motion filed by FERC to holding proceeding in abeyance or, in the alternative, to defer filing of the certified index to the record. 01/26/2018 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss filed. On January 26, 2018, FERC filed a motion to dismiss the petitions for lack of jurisdiction. FERC argued that the challenged order was not final and that the petitions were "incurably premature" because requests for rehearing, including requests filed by the petitioners, remained pending. 01/26/2018 Reply Download Reply filed by Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League to oppositions to motion for stay and All Writs Act petition. 01/26/2018 Reply Download Reply filed by Appalachian Voices et al. in support in motion for stay and All Writs Act petition. 01/22/2018 Opposition Download Opposition filed by FERC to motions for stay and to petition under All Writs Act. 01/08/2018 Motion Download Motion for stay filed by Appalachian Voices et al. Alleging Lack of Market Demand and Failure to Consider Climate Impacts, Environmental Groups Sought to Stay Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline. Environmental groups filed lawsuits in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) order authorizing the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303.5-mile gas pipeline extending from West Virginia to Virginia. On January 8, 2018, the environmental groups filed a separate proceeding pursuant to the All Writs Act seeking a writ staying FERC’s order until FERC ruled on the merits of a pending request for rehearing. The groups said FERC had developed “a troubling pattern of preventing parties … from appealing FERC’s orders until much (if not all) of a pipeline is complete, thereby depriving petitioners of effective means of protecting their property and environmental interests and effectively depriving courts of their jurisdiction to review FERC orders.” The groups also filed motions for stays pending the D.C. Circuit’s review of FERC’s actions. The groups contended that they had demonstrated a high likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that FERC did not have sufficient evidence of market demand to support a finding of public convenience and necessity pursuant to the Natural Gas Act and had violated NEPA by, among other things, failing to adequately consider the pipeline’s climate impacts. 12/22/2017 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. -
In re Appalachian Voices
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/08/2018 Petition Download Petition for writ staying the FERC order filed by Appalachian Voices et al. -
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
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In re Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 06/15/2018 Order Download Rehearing denied. FERC Denied Rehearing of Natural Gas Pipeline Approval and Reasserted Limits on Consideration of Climate Impacts. A divided Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied rehearing of its order authorizing construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project in West Virginia and Virginia and a related project that would connect to Pennsylvania. Among the arguments rejected by the majority of FERC commissioners were that FERC should have evaluated whether energy demands could be met with “non-transportation alternatives” such as energy conservation or renewable energy resources, that FERC failed to adequately analyze the climate change impacts of the end use of natural gas transported by the project, and that FERC’s consideration of climate change in the context of evaluating the public interest under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) was inadequate. The FERC majority said greenhouse gas emissions from the downstream use of natural gas did not fall within the definition of indirect impacts or cumulative impacts, and also concluded that the Social Cost of Carbon tool could not meaningfully inform decisions on natural gas transportation infrastructure projects under the NGA. FERC said it continued to believe the Social Cost of Carbon tool was “more appropriately used by regulators whose responsibilities are tied more directly to fossil fuel production or consumption.” Two commissioners wrote dissents, both of which were critical of FERC’s decisions to restrict its consideration of projects’ impacts on climate change. 11/13/2017 Request for Rehearing Download Request for rehearing filed.