May 16, 2018: Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied FERC’s motion to hold the Sierra Club and partners’ challenge to the Mountain Valley Pipeline in abeyance. FERC had argued that the case should be paused indefinitely to give the Commission more time to respond to rehearing requests filed in November 2017. The Natural Gas Act requires that FERC act on such requests within 30 days, but FERC regularly uses so-called “tolling orders” in an attempt to give itself more time to respond. Meanwhile, even as FERC claims that court actions are therefore premature, it allows pipeline companies like Mountain Valley to begin constructing the pipeline. The court directed the Commission to file the certified index to the record within 30 days, and indicated that a briefing schedule would be forthcoming.