A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court has again dismissed a lawsuit from six Southwest Virginia landowners who say their land was improperly seized to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Cletus and Beverly Bohon of Montgomery County, Wendell and Mary Flora of Franklin County, and Aimee and Matt Hamm of Roanoke County argue that Congress erroneously delegated eminent domain power to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which in 2017 authorized pipeline developers to use that power to take land for the 303-mile natural gas project.
The judges on Tuesday reaffirmed their June 2022 agreement with a district court’s ruling that dismissed the lawsuit against FERC and Mountain Valley, stating that under federal law the district court lacks jurisdiction to hear the landowners’ lawsuit filed in 2020 because the appeals court already took up a related case filed in 2018.
“In other words, the Bohons’ suit came too late,” wrote judges Cornelia Pillard, Robert Wilkins and Justin Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mia Yugo, an attorney with the Roanoke-based law firm Yugo Collins who represents the landowners, said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a second time. The high court already sent the case back to the D.C. Circuit once, in April, after the landowners appealed the previous dismissal.
Yugo said Tuesday’s ruling failed to address the challenge to FERC’s authority and said recent Supreme Court rulings in other cases confirm the landowners’ position that such a challenge must be decided by trial in district court.
“Private property is the bedrock of liberty,” Yugo said in a statement. “This case presents a critical issue for the country. The Landowners are entitled to their day in court and that should have already happened.”
A FERC spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday, saying the agency doesn’t comment on matters before the courts.
Mountain Valley Pipeline spokesperson Natalie Cox said in an email that Mountain Valley is pleased with the outcome of the court decision.
The pipeline is planned to run from West Virginia through six Virginia counties, ending at a compressor station in Pittsylvania County. Equitrans Midstream, the company that owns the largest stake in the joint venture, says the pipeline is scheduled to be operational this quarter.
The project was first announced in 2014 and initially was scheduled to be complete in 2018 with a price tag of $3.5 billion. It has been delayed by years of legal and permitting challenges as its cost estimate has more than doubled to $7.2 billion.
Supporters say the pipeline will help transport natural gas from Appalachian shale deposits to mid- and south Atlantic U.S. markets, meeting a need for domestic energy. Opponents have said the project is unnecessary, unsafe and harmful to the environment.
Lawsuits focusing on the pipeline’s impact on federally protected endangered species and national forests were dismissed in August. Judges cited legislation from this past summer that kept the U.S. from hitting its debt ceiling and also included a provision approving the pipeline’s remaining outstanding permits and shielding those permits from further legal challenges.
In October, the landowners filed an emergency injunction to have construction work on their land stopped while their case was pending. The same three-judge panel denied that request.
The Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments later this year in a related case regarding compensating the Bohons for the land seized by eminent domain.