Disputed Gas Pipeline Seen Surviving Without Congress or Manchin

Efforts to speed a long-delayed, overbudget natural gas project in Sen. Joe Manchin’s home state by revamping federal permitting rules will play out in agencies and courts for now, after Congress balked last month.

Manchin (D-W.Va.) failed to persuade his colleagues to back his energy permitting bill in stopgap spending legislation. But the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia could get the green light in coming months and go into operation by the second half of 2023 — the schedule the lead partner, Equitrans Midstream, proposed for the pipeline set to cross parts of West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina.