Justice wants quick ruling on MVP case, Va Dems introduce measure seeking further pipeline reviews

Jul. 27—West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday he has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for an immediate resumption of construction on the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline project.

"Basically it (the brief) is self-explanatory," Justice said during his weekly administration briefing. "We absolutely need the pipeline to go. We don't need any more delays. I'm very confident the Supreme Court will move and move in our way."

Construction was set to resume earlier this month on the natural gas pipeline project for West Virginia and Virginia after the U.S. Congress passed bipartisan legislation that ratified and approved all of the necessary permits for the project. The measure was signed into law by President Joe Biden. But about two weeks later, another stay was issued by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — despite the new law stripping the Fourth Circuit from jurisdiction over the case.

"West Virginians have been waiting for this project to be completed for years," the brief filed by Justice reads. "There are thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in critically important tax revenue to the state of West Virginia at stake. There are significant property rights and hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty revenues to West Virginia property owners at stake. As important as the Mountain Valley Pipeline is for the jobs, royalties and revenues so important to our economy, however, the natural gas that will be available once this project is completed is of even greater importance to this nation's energy security, and therefore to this nation's national security. This interest is paramount."

Justice said officials will "anxiously await" a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts is expected to hear the Mountain Valley Pipeline case.

The Republican governor said the 303-mile pipeline is expected to employ 2,500 workers during the construction phase, provide $131 million in tax revenues to Virginia and West Virginia, and provide an additional $45 million in annual tax revenue to Virginia and West Virginia.

Meanwhile, two Virginia Democrats announced Wednesday that they were introducing federal legislation that would require more public hearings and further federal review before natural gas pipeline projects can be approved and constructed. U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., and U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., cited the Mountain Valley Pipeline as a reason for introducing the Pipeline Fairness, Transparency, and Responsible Development Act.

"From our conversations with Virginians, it's clear that they have not been given adequate opportunities to make their voices heard in FERC's permitting decision-making processes, including in cases like the Mountain Valley Pipeline where their land could be taken away," Kaine and Warner said in a joint statement Wednesday. "That's an understandably frustrating situation, which is why we created this legislation to improve the way FERC gathers public input to help ensure that Virginians can weigh in on these decisions."

Kaine and Warner said the proposed measure would strengthen the public's ability to evaluate the impacts of and provide input on natural gas pipelines being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The bill would also require public comment meetings to be held in every locality through which a pipeline would pass at every stage of the review process, Kaine and Warner said.

The proposed legislation also would clarify the circumstances under which eminent domain may be used on natural gas pipeline projects.

According to Kaine's office, the bill doesn't apply retroactively so it would not impact the current Mountain Valley Pipeline project. His office said Thursday that Kaine was merely talking about learning lessons from the Mountain Valley Pipeline, along with the previously proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, to reform future pipeline processes.

In other news Wednesday, Justice announced during his administration briefing that the National Council on Compensation Insurance has filed a proposed workers' compensation loss cost decrease of 12.7 percent for the Mountain State effective Nov. 1, 2023.

This premium reduction results in a projected $20 million in savings to West Virginia employers.

During the media question section of his weekly briefing, Justice was asked about a poll that once again ranked him as one of the most popular governors in the nation. The same poll also suggested his popularity or favorability ranking had dropped by a few points.

"When you announce you are going to run for the United States Senate, there are shots taken at you and you expect that," Justice said. "But you are always happy to see that people are standing right with you and are proud of what you are doing in West Virginia. I feel like we have joined hands — myself and the people of West Virginia — and we have dug ourselves out of a tremendous hole and we have moved ourselves forward."

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens