Justices OK pipeline backers' fight over Appalachian Trail

摘要

The Supreme Court today agreed to take up a heated dispute over a natural gas pipeline's crossing of the Appalachian Trail. Developers of the Atlantic Coast pipeline this summer fought a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found the Forest Service could not authorize the project to run hundreds of feet below the trail. The justices only accept a small fraction of petitions that make their way to the court, but a companion plea from Solicitor General Noel Francisco elevated the chances that the case would make it to arguments (Energywire, Sept. 30).