At Public Hearing, Advocates to Urge Army Corps to Rescind Pipeline Rubberstamp

This afternoon, the US Army Corps of Engineers will hold the first of six virtual public meetings to hear testimony on its review of Nationwide Permit 12, a blanket permit which allows fossil fuel pipelines to receive approval without public notice, environmental review, or opportunity for any public involvement.

Currently the Corps considers a single oil or gas pipeline as thousands of “single and complete” projects, each of which having minimal impacts, effectively circumventing the environmental review and public input required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. 

"Nationwide Permit 12 has allowed the oil and gas industry to build numerous fossil fuel pipelines across the country, even on private property, without any project-specific environmental review or public input process,” said Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director Mahyar Sorour, who will testify at this afternoon’s hearing. “The health and wellbeing of communities must be our top priority, and moving forward major fossil fuel infrastructure projects without adequate review jeopardizes public health, can impact waterways, and furthers the climate crisis. As long as Nationwide Permit 12 is being used to rubber-stamp oil and gas pipelines, it ignores the intent of our laws and presents an ongoing threat to our water resources, our communities, and our climate. I urge the Corps to revoke Nationwide Permit 12 and resume its prior practice of fully evaluating the environmental impacts of individual fossil fuel pipelines." 

"The Mountain Valley Pipeline is emblematic of the failure of the Nationwide Permit 12, which uses the one-size-fits-all approach not suitable for such a complex, dangerous and unnecessary project. Since there has not been proper regulation and review, MVP has paid millions in fines for water quality-related violations and has caused environmental damages that will be felt by surrounding communities for many years to come,” Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative Caroline Hansley said. “Not only does it put numerous communities’ clean drinking water sources at risk—disproportionately impacting environmental justice and economically vulnerable communities, it also shuts out local communities from decision-making. Rather than fast-tracking this climate polluting project and various others, the Corps should properly evaluate the impacts of each pipeline and rescind Nationwide Permit 12."