Court Denies Atlantic Coast Pipeline Re-Hearing

On Monday, February 25^th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s request for a rehearing related to the Court’s invalidation of the project’s U.S. Forest Service Appalachian Trail crossing authorization.  ACP’s petition was supported by the Department of Justice on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service, as well as by several prominent industry, labor, and business groups. The court also ruled that the Forest Service approval fell short of federal requirements, noting that it failed to take the necessary look at environmental impacts of the project from risks of landslide and erosion and violated its own regulations. In its decision the Court said, “A thorough review of the record leads to the necessary conclusion that the Forest Service abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources.”

In a press release, DJ Gerken, a Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said “The Fourth Circuit’s decision, now final, confirmed that this pipeline has to play by the same rules as everybody else. The Forest Service has never approved a new pipeline across the Appalachian Trail – but, under intense political pressure, it did for Atlantic, while ignoring routes that would avoid the forest.  Atlantic could reroute, but instead it should scrap this boondoggle and stop running up a bill it wants to stick to customers.”

Dominion Energy issued a statement on the ruling via spokesperson Karl R. Neddenien, which said “Dominion Energy expects an appeal to be filed to the Supreme Court of the United States in the next 90 days.  The company is also pursuing legislative and administrative options as previously discussed on Dominion Energy’s February 1, 2018 earnings call.  We are confident that the U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture have the authority to resolve the Appalachian Trail crossing issue administratively in a manner that satisfies the Court’s stated objection and in a timeframe consistent with a restart of at least partial construction during the third quarter.  We will continue to work to resolve the outstanding biological opinion issue as well as the Appalachian Trail issue and continue to believe, as a result, that at least partial construction will recommence in the third quarter of 2019. “