The ruling reverses a lower court decision that blocked pipeline project
The US Supreme Court has removed a legal obstacle to the construction a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cross under the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
Monday’s 7-2 decision reversed a lower court ruling that blocked the construction of the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a project spearheaded by Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy and supported by the Trump administration.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the decision, which removes one of the several legal barriers to the project. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
“The decision is an affirmation for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and communities across our region that are depending on it for jobs, economic growth and clean energy,” Dominion said in a statement. “We look forward to resolving the remaining project permits.”
Environmental groups sued to halt the construction of the pipeline after the US Forest Service granted the project a right-of-way under the George Washington National Forest.
The Sierra Club, along with Southern Environment Law Centre and other green movements, argued that because the 2,200-mile scenic trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia, was considered a unit of the National Park System, federal agencies lacked the authority to grant a right of way for the pipeline. They added that only the Congress has the power to approve the crossing.
The Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the environmentalists in 2018 and vacated the special-use permit issued by the Forest Service.
Both Dominion and the Trump administration appealed the decision.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Forest Service retained the authority to grant rights of way across the trail.
“The lands that the trail crosses are still ‘federal lands’ and the Forest Service may grant a pipeline right of way through them — just as it granted a right of way for the trail,” Thomas wrote.
Kelly Martin, who leads Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, said the group will continue to contest the remaining permit applications.
“Nothing in today’s ruling changes the fact that the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous threat to our health, climate and communities, and nothing about the ruling changes our intention to fight it,” Martin told Reuters.
The project has faced major delays since plans were first announced in 2014 brought by legal challenges from environmental groups. The construction is now more than three years behind schedule and costs have ballooned from $3bn to $7.5bn.
Dominion said the pipeline will bring natural gas from West Virginia to growing markets in Virginia and North Carolina to support the shift to clean energy.
But environmentalist groups contended that the pipeline would ruin the pristine landscape, contaminate rivers and streams, and harm sensitive species.
