PennEast's Hail Mary Legal Challenge

摘要

In what is being viewed as hopeful news from the Marcellus Shale region, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by PennEast Pipeline Company to a ruling that prevents the company from seizing land in New Jersey through eminent domain. The high court will likely hear the arguments in April, which means there should be a ruling by late June. If built, the 36-inch, 116-mile (914-mm, 187-km) pipeline would carry as much as 1 Bcf/d (28 MMcm/d) of natural gas from northern Pennsylvania to New Jersey. At issue before the Supreme Court is the power of eminent domain as laid out in a section of the U.S. Natural Gas Act, which PennEast used as the basis to sue the state and other parties for access to more than 40 parcels of land.