Photo by Javier Sierra
On Monday, February 24, the US Supreme Court heard arguments about a revoked US Forest Service permit to allow the 600-mile long fracked gas Atlantic Coast pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail—a unit of the national park system—on national forest land.
The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) would cross two national forests, national park land, and steep, forested mountains in the central Appalachians. This is a destructive and unneeded project, and Dominion and Duke Energy’s haste to build has spurred agencies on with rushed timelines and shoddy permits.
Today’s arguments came from the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Cowpasture River Preservation Association, Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, Highlanders for Responsible Development, Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, and Virginia Wilderness Committee, and the Sierra Club, representing itself and Wild Virginia.
“For the past six years, communities have been speaking out against the damage this unnecessary fracked gas pipeline would cause to our health, water, and climate,” said Kelly Martin, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign.
“It is a dirty, dangerous project that would endanger communities, harm wildlife, pollute our air, damage water quality, and change the character of our land. Today, our fight against the ACP took us to the Supreme Court, but the fight didn’t start here and it won’t end here.”
The Sierra Club and the coalition of amazing grassroots organizations have long argued that the ACP is also unnecessary.
What’s next after this day at the Supreme Court? Today’s arguments are now in the hands of the justices. But regardless of the outcome of this Supreme Court case, the ACP faces many unresolved permitting issues stemming from risks and obstacles in the proposed route and dwindling demand for new gas-fired power generation. The project has already lost in court eight times, and lawsuits challenging its primary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are still in court. Court decisions halted all construction over a year ago, and less than 6% of the total length of the pipeline is in the ground.
To learn more about this dangerous boondoggle of a pipeline, read up on our many previous articles that tell the stories of the affected local communities and the yearslong fight they’ve committed to in opposing the ACP. You can also watch the press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court that happened after Monday’s arguments.