Even the West Virginia Environmental Council urged its members to contact Manchin to thank him. The Sierra Club called on Congress to pass it immediately. Leading climate scientists call it transformative. The climate change legislation, for which Manchin’s vote is considered vital, includes hundreds of millions of dollars for everything from ramping up wind and solar power to encouraging consumers to buy clean vehicles or cleaner heat pumps. ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight have been reporting for years on how a federal appeals court has repeatedly halted the pipeline’s construction because of permitting flaws and how government agencies have responded by easing rules to aid the developer. He did not respond to questions from Mountain State Spotlight and ProPublica, including about the reaction of residents along the pipeline route. “This is something the United States should be able to do without getting bogged down in litigation after litigation after litigation,” Manchin told reporters last week. Manchin has been pushing publicly for the pipeline to be completed, arguing it would move much needed energy supplies to market, promote the growth of West Virginia’s natural gas industry and create well-paid construction jobs. In essence, the Democratic leadership accepted a 303-mile, two-state pipeline fostering continued use of fossil fuels in exchange for cleaner energy and reduced greenhouse emissions nationwide. The provisions, according to the summary, will “require the relevant agencies to take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline” and would shift jurisdiction “over any further litigation” to a different court, the D.C. The agreement, which would require separate legislation, would also strip jurisdiction over any further legal challenges to those permits from a federal appeals court that has repeatedly ruled that the project violated the law. The White House and congressional leaders have agreed to step in and ensure final approval of all permits that the Mountain Valley Pipeline needs, according to a summary released by Manchin’s office Monday evening. The delays have helped balloon the pipeline’s cost from the original estimate of $3.5 billion to $6.6 billion. By filing lawsuits over the potential impacts on water, endangered species and public forests, they have exposed flaws in the project’s permit applications and pushed its completion well beyond the original target of 2018. Jarrell and many others along the path of the partially finished Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia fear that it may contaminate rural streams and cause erosion or even landslides. But the last few years have been anything but serene, as he and his neighbors have fought against the construction of a huge natural gas pipeline. Jarrell moved here nearly 20 years ago for peace and quiet. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.įrom his Summers County, West Virginia, farmhouse, Mark Jarrell can see the Greenbrier River and, beyond it, the ridge that marks the Virginia border. This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Mountain State Spotlight.
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