Court Stops Natural Gas Pipeline Through Northeastern States

A federal appeals court has rejected the approval by a U.S. agency of a natural gas pipeline, halting the project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s 2023 approval for the 36 miles of pipeline did not adequately take into account increased greenhouse gas emissions the project would generate, a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled. The commission estimated the project would generate an enormous amount of emissions, or GHG, for the next 50 years. “But it then walked away from the relevant issues with a fatalistic shrug, asserting that ‘it is unable to determine how individual projects will affect international, national, or statewide GHG emissions reduction targets or whether a project’s GHG emissions comply with those goals,'” U.S. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs wrote in a 33-page ruling dated July 30....