How progressive.
Via Fox News:
A federal appeals court cited Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax to slam the U.S. Forest Service for granting a private company a permit to build a natural gas pipeline across two national forests and the Appalachian Trail.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA., said in a ruling on Thursday that the U.S. Forest Service “abdicated its responsibility to preserve national forest resources” when it granted the permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to Dominion Energy, the pipeline’s lead developer, NPR reported.
“We trust the United States Forest Service to ‘speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,’” the three-judge panel said in the ruling, quoting the classic story.
The court decided that the Forest Service did not have the authority to grant the permits to build a pipeline that would originate in West Virginia and stretch across Virginia and North Carolina.
The pipeline plans caused uproar among environmental groups as parts of it would have to be built through the George Washington and Monongahela National Forests and across the Appalachian Trail, the NPR reported.
“This conclusion is particularly informed by the Forest Service’s serious environmental concerns that were suddenly, and mysteriously, assuaged in time to meet a private pipeline company’s deadlines,” the judges said.[…]
Dominion Energy said they will appeal the decision in a statement to NPR.
“If allowed to stand, this decision will severely harm consumers and do great damage to our economy and energy security,” said Aaron Ruby, a spokesman for Dominion Energy.
“Public utilities are depending on this infrastructure to meet the basic energy needs of millions of people and businesses in our region.”