Courts Block Multiple Pipelines in West Virginia and Kentucky

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has vacated permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, an interstate natural gas pipeline backed by Senator Joe Manchin, citing the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's failure to properly consider earlier violations of water quality standards by the pipeline. The pipeline's Virginia permits were approved days earlier, but the court ruled that West Virginia's reviews specifically had been insufficient. Manchin called the decision "infuriating," describing the pipeline as essential to American energy security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.