Approving a large construction project through Congress, as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia is trying to do for Mountain Valley Pipeline in his state, is highly unusual and, according to legal scholars, rests on very thin precedent.
Manchin released legislation on Sept. 21 that would approve the stalled pipeline, a roughly 300-mile project started in 2018, as would a separate bill from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
Manchin’s bill, part of a broader measure to overhaul the federal permitting process for many energy and infrastructure projects, would also curtail legal challenges against the pipeline and direct lawsuits filed about the project to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., rather than the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, which has dealt the companies building the pipeline a series of legal setbacks.
