A federal appeals court has opted not to delay construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, moving the project one step closer to a start in Southwest Virginia.
In an order Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied a request for a stay sought by Appalachian Voices and five other conservation groups.
The organizations had argued that cutting trees, clearing land and digging ditches for the natural gas pipeline would cause “irreparable environmental harm” to pristine lands long before the appellate court has time to consider their underlying claim — that a federal agency should never have approved the project in the first place.
