Atlantic Coast Pipeline hits biggest roadblock yet as federal appeals panel throws out critical environmental permit

Proposed route of Atlantic Coast Pipeline
(Associated Press map; click to enlarge it)

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been dealt one of its biggest setbacks by a federal appeals court, which threw out an important permit last week, saying lead developer Dominion Energy didn't adequately protect endangered or threatened species in the pipeline's proposed path and the federal agency that is supposed to protect them didn't do its job as it fast-tracked permitting.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "vacated a permit that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued last year just 19 days after the same court blocked the agency’s previous finding that the massive natural gas pipeline would not jeopardize the viability of four endangered or threatened species," Michael Martz reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the opinion that Fish and Wildlife "appears to have lost sight of its mandate" under the Endangered Species Act by approving the permit so quickly, and that the agency failed to show how the pipeline wouldn't threaten endangered bumblebees in Bath County, Virginia, on the West Virginia border, or freshwater mussels in three West Virginia waterways. "The ruling also concluded that the reissued permit failed to establish 'enforceable take limits' for an endangered bat species in Virginia and West Virginia and threatened crustaceans that live in underground limestone karst formations in the Shenandoah Valley," Martz reports.

Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said he expects the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Fish and Wildlife Service will be able to quickly resolve the issues raised by the court, and says he believes the project remains on track to be completed by late 2021, Martz reports.

This isn't the first time the pipeline has faced legal roadblocks. "A series of adverse rulings by the 4th Circuit on federal permits for the project prompted the pipeline company, led by Dominion, to change its construction plans earlier this year," Martz reports. "The company suspended work in December after the 4th Circuit issued a stay on the biological opinion for the entire length of the pipeline, not just the 100 miles or so that Dominion contends would affect endangered or threatened species addressed in the permit."