Page 11 - NorthAmOil Week 24

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

Supreme Court ruling a

breakthrough for pipelines

A Supreme Court ruling has been hailed as a breakthrough for

the Atlantic Coast pipeline, and also bodes well for the stalled

Mountain Valley project

US NORTHEAST THE path to completion for major oil and may cause us to miss the forest for the trees, but
gas pipelines in North America has not been at bottom, these cases boil down to a simple
WHAT: straightforward. As well as attracting local and proposition: a trail is a trail, and land is land,”
The Atlantic Coast environmental opposition, such projects often Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote
pipeline has overcome a get held up by complex, lengthy regulatory on behalf of the majority.
significant hurdle. review processes and occasionally by litigation.
However, a ruling by the US Supreme Court Major hurdle
WHY: this week has been hailed as a significant victory The Supreme Court’s ruling eliminates the big-
A Supreme Court ruling for the $8bn Atlantic Coast pipeline, and is also gest hurdle standing in the way of the Atlantic
upholds a permit allowing thought to have positive implications for the Coast pipeline, which has been stalled since 2018
the pipeline to cross another project – the Mountain Valley pipeline. owing to a stop-work order issued by federal reg-
under the Appalachian On June 15, the Supreme Court upheld a per- ulators on different concerns. However, this does
Trail. mit for the Atlantic Coast project to pass under not mean Dominion and partner Duke Energy
the Appalachian Trail that had been granted by can immediately resume construction on the
WHAT NEXT: the US Forest Service (USFS). The court ruled 7 pipeline.
The ruling is good news to 2 that the USFS had the authority to issue the “This will not guarantee that the pipeline will
for the Mountain Valley permit, which had been in dispute after a federal be built, but it greatly eases the path forward for
pipeline, which would appeals court had withdrawn it, arguing that the its construction,” Robert Percival, the director of
require a similar permit. Appalachian Trail is controlled by the National the environmental law programme at the Uni-
Park Service. versity of Maryland, was quoted by Bloomberg
Operator Dominion Energy and the federal as saying.
government contested the appeals court’s rul- RS Energy Group commented in a note that
ing, arguing that while the National Park Service the 2018 stop-work order had been issued
manages the Appalachian Trail, the underlying because of deficiencies in US Fish and Wildlife
land is part of a national forest, putting it within Service (USFWS) permits relating to endan-
the USFS’ jurisdiction. The Supreme Court gered species. The energy intelligence firm
agreed. expects the USFWS permits to be restored
“Sometimes a complicated regulatory scheme this summer. However, a permit to build a

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