CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is expressing gratification after the U.S. Supreme Court again agreed with a West Virginia- and Texas-led 18-state coalition to block a Montana district court’s decision that he says brought construction of many pipelines nationally to a grinding halt.
“This decision will help protect West Virginia jobs and ensures that one Montana district court judge doesn’t possess the power to drive national policy on such a critical issue,” Morrisey said July 6. “Our record on protecting West Virginia jobs is second to none. We will continue to litigate and defend the energy jobs and all of the workers of our state from far-reaching and deeply problematic judicial decisions.”
The Supreme Court’s move lifts what Morrisey says was "a sudden and unexpected halt to construction projects far beyond and unrelated to the project in question." It came one day after Duke Energy and Dominion Energy announced July 5 they were halting construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Morrisey called that decision "a shortsighted move that will cost West Virginians more than 1,500 jobs," adding that "if ever there was a time to revisit a decision, this would be it."
Getting back to the Montana case, the original lawsuit focused upon a permit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline. Morrisey's 18-state coalition argued the district court order inappropriately used that issue to strike down all projects that employed the same permitting process nationwide.
Morrisey and the others argued that without a stay by the Supreme Court, the district court order in Montana would have immediately disrupted the economy at an already precarious time as the projects — and the energy resources they provide — are critical to each state. The coalition also said the district court ruling would make needed infrastructure projects significantly more costly and time-consuming — and potentially render some completely unfeasible.
Morrisey says oil and gas now account for more than half of domestic energy production. And for the first time since 1957, America produces more energy than it consumes.
The West Virginia- and Texas-led brief carries support from attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.