Case to Void Eminent Domain for MVP Tossed by D.C. Circuit
In 2019 a group of Virginia landowners filed a lawsuit against the Equitrans Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project because they didn’t like how the pipeline left a mark across their horse pastures. The landowners arrogantly argued Congress improperly delegated its legislative powers to FERC and that ALL pipeline approvals made by FERC that have led to properties being “taken” against a landowner’s wishes, including MVP, should be invalidated. In May 2020 a federal court dismissed the case (see Lawsuit Seeking to Gut FERC Eminent Domain for MVP has Failed). Using money from Big Green groups (funded in part by foreign countries like Russia), the uppity landowners appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit (see Radicals Using MVP Case to Void Eminent Domain for All Pipelines). The D.C. Circuit dismissed the case yesterday.
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It’s time to remove three radicalized Democrat judges who have consistently (12 of 14 times) voted against Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in appeals brought by Big Green groups. The three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (we call it the 4th Circus) are bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. These three leftwing judges find the smallest, nitpicky things to use as an excuse to block the completion of the 94% completed, 303-mile MVP project. MVP has just filed a request with the 15 members of the 4th Circuit to appoint three new judges in their place.
Every “game” comes to an end when play must stop and a winner, and a loser, are declared. If you watch basketball you know that the final couple of minutes can last what seems like a lifetime. One team, up by 2 or 3 points, gains possession of the ball and they are in the lead. What do they do? Play keep-away. Run the clock down so the opponent can’t score to tie or pull ahead. What does the opponent do? Try to foul the person with the ball, or call for a time-out, in order to stop the clock and (hopefully) when the ball is thrown in and play resumes, regain possession and score. In a sense, that’s what is happening with the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia. Right now anti-American Big Green groups have possession of the ball (having co-opted leftist judges) and they are ahead by one point, hoping to end the game by running out the clock. Will they succeed?
The editorial writers at the Wall Street Journal have taken notice of something MDN has been trumpeting for more than four years: The same three Democrat judges who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit keep killing U.S. energy projects. Specifically, they’re prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. These three leftwing judges find the smallest, nitpicky things to use as an excuse to block the completion of the 94% completed, 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Enough!
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project from West Virginia to southern Virginia, has decided to roll the dice for a third time with the radical judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by applying for a new permit to cross 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest (see 
With all due respect, Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), is making a big mistake, in our humble opinion. Equitrans issued its first quarter 2022 update this morning. The big announcement from the update is that the company plans to file for new permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow MVP to build through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. The radically left U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) has ruled against MVP and those same permits twice before. Equitrans CEO Thomas F. Karam says he thinks the third time will be the charm. We say, don’t hold your breath.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has (for months) forcefully pushed the issue of completing the 94% done-and-in-the-ground Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, a 303-mile pipeline from WV into Virginia. In early March Manchin let all five Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners know of his displeasure that MVP, along with other pipeline projects, is delayed (see 
We didn’t see this one coming! Must be the intense pressure from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had the intended effect (see 
Last December the Democrats who sit on the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board rejected issuing an air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate extension that will run 75 miles from Virginia into North Carolina (see 
Radical green groups, including the Sierra Club (
The clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. the 4th Circus) have done it again. Two weeks ago Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) asked the full court, all of the judges (called en banc) to rehear a couple of recent decisions by three of their clown members (see 
Environmental radical Freeda Cathcart, who was once arrested for resisting and interfering with a U.S. Forest Service agent at the site of tree cutting for Mountain Valley Pipeline in Giles County, VA (see 
Exactly three weeks ago MDN brought you the big news that Equitrans Midstream was considering an appeal of two recent rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that overturned a permit and FERC decision to allow Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), now 94% complete, to finish construction (see 
Our advice to landowners who own land in the path of a pipeline has always been to negotiate with the pipeline builder. It may seem as if the builder holds all the cards, especially if they have eminent domain authority (the power to condemn and “take” the land for use in constructing the pipeline). Our observation has been that most pipeline companies are reasonable and willing to accommodate requests to tweak routes. What is not reasonable is to refuse to negotiate in hopes you can block the pipeline from crossing your property. In those cases, the property is taken anyway and you then go through a protracted, years-long process of a court case to determine the value of the taking. Such a case has just begun in Roanoke, Virginia federal court over property taken for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).