The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by Dominion Energy and the US administration on the 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/year) Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project in North Carolina (United States). In December 2018, the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a federal permit allowing the project to pass through a major hiking trail and two national forests, prompting the project developer to lodge an appeal.
The US$7.5bn Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project is developed by a joint venture of Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (Dominion Resources, 48%), Duke Energy ACP (40%), Piedmont NACP Company (a subsidiary of Duke Energy, 7%) and Maple Enterprise Holdings (an affiliate of Southern Company, 5%). The gas transmission project would deliver fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to North Carolina and Virginia. It has been on hold since the December 2018 ruling and the lengthy approval process will delay its completion until 2021 and is likely to raise its costs by an additional US$250m to US$7.75bn.