Supreme Court says Atlantic Coast Pipeline can cross under Appalachian Trail

In a 7-2 decision today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project can pass underneath the Appalachian Trail. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, Niina Farah reports for Energy & Environment News.

The decision overturns a 2018 Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the U.S. Forest Service did not have the authority to greenlight a key right-of-way permit for the pipeline, Farah reports. The Fourth Circuit ruled that the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act allows rights-of-way for pipelines on federal land, except for land in the National Park Service. Since the court found that the Appalachian Trail is a part of the system, only Congress could approve such a crossing.

Pipeline developers, led by Dominion Energy Inc., argued that upholding the decision would essentially block natural gas development on the East Coast, Farah reports. Environmental groups argued that since the NPS is responsible for administering the Appalachian Trail, it also has jurisdiction over pipeline construction on federal lands under the trail. So new pipeline construction cannot be allowed, the environmental groups argued, since the NPS has higher conservation standards than the Forest Service.

"During oral arguments, the justices questioned whether they could come to a narrow decision that drew a distinction between a surface trail administered by NPS and subsurface land controlled by the Forest Service," Farah reports. "In the majority decision the justices found that the Interior Department held a limited easement for establishing and administering the Appalachian Trail but that the land itself remained 'federal lands' under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service."