7-2 Victory for Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. – While another opinion garnered cheers from the LGBTQ crowd for seriously violating religious and economic freedoms by adding gender identity and sexual orientation as federally protected classes (read: legislating from the bench), another decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court may clear the way for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to finally begin construction.

The natural gas pipeline that would go from West Virgina, down across North Carolina, and terminate near the South Carolina border has been the subject of multiple struggles in the last few years. Notably, Governor Roy Cooper used his permit approval powers to leverage a $58 million personal slush fund from the pipeline companies, only to be found out by the legislature, sparking investigations and cover ups that are yet to be fully accounted for.

The pipeline was also the target of environmental activists, naturally. They’ve bogged down the project with multiple lawsuits, but the recent high court decision knocks down one of the most significant legal barriers.

From CFACT:

“[…] In a closely watched decision that will move one of the nation’s largest energy infrastructure projects a few steps nearer to realization, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) acted lawfully when it granted a permit for the proposed $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to cross under the Appalachian Trail.

The 7-2 ruling, handed down June 15, removes the biggest legal obstacle to the 600-mile pipeline, which would carry up to 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale basin in West Virginia to customers in Virginia and North Carolina.

Questions over which federal agency has the authority to issue a permit, known as a right-of-way, in the Appalachian Trail sector of the pipeline have kept the project tied up in courts. In issuing its decision, the Supreme Court overturned a 2018 ruling by the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the Forest Service lacked the authority to approve the right-of-way, because the Appalachian Trail is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Park Service (NPS). The pipeline wouldn’t actually “cross” the Appalachian Trail; it would be constructed and installed hundreds of feet beneath it. […]

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), one of the green groups suing to stop the pipeline, remained defiant after the ruling was handed down.

“While today’s decision was not what we hoped for, it addresses only one of the many problems faced by the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This is not a viable project. It is still missing many required authorizations, including the Forest Service permit at issue in today’s case, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon consider the mounting evidence that we never need this pipeline to supply power,” SELC’s DJ Gerken said in a statement. […]”

As you can see, the environmentalist whackos will incessantly sue to prevent productive, economy-boosting, life-enriching endeavors as long as they A) Can manufacture the pretense that it is devastating to the environment and, B) use the pretext of environmentalism to attack capitalism.

As such, even with this favorable ruling, it may be a long time before anything flows through an Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Read more from CFACT.