BREAKING: U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates Nationwide Permit 12 for Entire Mountain Valley Pipeline

See below for the order issued a few minutes ago by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on the Mountain Valley Pipeline Clean Water Act Nationwide Permit 12 (“NWP 12”), vacating “in its entirety, the [Army] Corps’ verification of the [Mountain Valley Pipeline’s] compliance with NWP 12.” Wow.

UPDATE 10/3: I’m told that the court’s order “directly affects only the NWP 12 in the Huntington District — 591 streams — though it has implications for the other two Army Corps districts with jurisdiction over the streams MVP would cross.”

“Exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 717r(d)(1), we conclude, for reasons to be more fully explained in a forthcoming opinion, that the Corps lacked authority to substitute the “dry cut” requirement “in lieu of” West Virginia’s 72-hour temporal restriction. Accordingly, we VACATE, in its entirety, the Corps’ verification of the Pipeline’s compliance with NWP 12. “