The US Supreme Court has upheld a permit for the controversial Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project, ruling that the US Forest Service did have the authority to grant a right-of-way to allow the gas pipeline project to cross the Appalachian Trail in West Virginia, reversing a decision by the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/year) 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. The nearly US$8bn gas pipeline project entered construction in the spring of 2018. However, the construction was suspended in December 2018 due to a local opposition and legal challenges, and the project has been delayed. In May 2020, Dominion Energy confirmed plans to commission its the project in early 2022, provided the group is allowed to cut trees along the project's route between November 2020 and March 2021.