A challenge by environmental groups to the federal government’s approvals allowing the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross water bodies in Virginia belongs in a lower court, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the Fourth Circuit Friday.
And even if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has jurisdiction over the suit, it still should reject the groups’ motion to stay construction of the pipeline because the Army Corps reasonably determined that its reissued permits had no effect on protected species, the agency said.
The Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and three other groups filed a petition ...