U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Issues Mountain Valley Pipeline Yet Another Biological Opinion

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a new biological opinion and incidental take statement after the Fourth Circuit previously invalidated and suspended the authorizations twice already. Most recently, just last year, the court found that the agency failed to adequately analyze the project's environmental context when assessing the detrimental impacts to the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter, a species on the brink of extinction.

In the rushed process to deliver the biological opinion on the pipeline developer’s timeline, the Service even states that it neglected to consider relevant materials submitted by the public, and that “[a]s a result, FERC and the other action agencies will need to assess whether the materials contain any new information that might prevent them from relying on this Opinion to meet their obligations under Section 7 of the ESA."

Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign Director Patrick Grenter issued the following statement:

“MVP is a dangerous pipeline project that has already destroyed and degraded the habitat of endangered species along its route, in addition to the threat it poses to clean air, water, and our communities. It has been clear from the outset that the proposal to construct this pipeline across the steep slopes and sensitive streams of Appalachia will harm imperiled species and their habitats. In their decision process, the FWS was hasty to put out a new opinion that didn’t consider comments from the public. As for where the project stands now – since other agencies will need to assess the BiOp, and MVP still lacks several federal authorizations, by no means should FERC allow MVP to begin construction along any portion of the route.”