High Court Green-Lights Pipeline Route Through Appalachian Trail [View all]

[douglas9]

WASHINGTON (CN) — Atlantic Coast Pipeline won the right to cut through the Appalachian Trail with a 7-2 Supreme Court reversal on Monday.

Once completed, the 605-mile natural gas pipeline will span West Virginia to North Carolina, including one 16-mile stretch of the George Washington National Forest.

Though the pipeline company obtained special-use permits to that end from the U.S. Forest Service, environmental groups that filed suit claimed that any work would require congressional approval because a tenth of the pipeline in the forest would run through the Appalachian Trail.

The Fourth Circuit agreed to block construction on the basis that the National Park Service that administers the Appalachian Trail, but the Supreme Court reversed Monday.

Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said federal lands cannot be converted into the property of the National Park System merely because the Park Service obtained rights-of-way agreements for the length of the trail within national forests.

https://www.courthousenews.com/high-court-green-lights-pipeline-route-through-appalachian-trail/