Landowners Try to Get Natural Gas Act Overturned, Fail

Sometimes, when facing long odds, you just have to swing for the fences and hope for the best. Landowners in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline took just such a wild swing with a lawsuit they filed in a D.C. federal court. They sought a ruling that Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, lacked the power to exercise eminent domain over their property. They also asked to overturn the Natural Gas Act and invalidate all certificates of public convenience and necessity issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission pursuant to the Act. In an opinion issued earlier this month, the D.C. court joined other courts that have ruled on similar challenges, including the Western District of Virginia and the Fourth Circuit, and found that it did not have jurisdiction to entertain their suit. It therefore dismissed the case.

The landowners’ argument was simple, despite its breathtaking scope. They argued, among other things, that Congress had unconstitutionally delegated its authority to FERC and that the Act improperly permits FERC to transfer its eminent domain power to private entities.

The court, though, did not reach the merits of the landowners’ arguments. Instead, it began and ended its analysis with the jurisdictional question. The court noted that the Natural Gas Act prohibited U.S. District Courts from hearing cases arising under it and that Congress had the power to restrict the courts’ jurisdiction in that way. Accordingly, the court held that the landowners could not bring their case in that court. Instead, they should have raised their arguments in the FERC hearing and, if that failed, appealed the agency decision to the appropriate federal appellate court.

The decision was rendered in the case of Bohon v. FERC, Civil Action No. 20-6 (JEB), 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79639 (D.D.C. May 6, 2020).