Energy and Environment Monitor

Facility Siting

Fourth Circuit Vacates but does not Reverse District Court Decision Barring Columbia’s Use of Natural Gas Act Eminent Domain Against Commonwealth of Maryland

May 23, 2022

The Natural Gas Act gives FERC-regulated projects the right to condemn private property.  In 2019, the Third Circuit ruled that those rights did not extend to property held by a state because states enjoy sovereign immunity from such suits.  The federal district court in Maryland followed suit, blocking efforts by Columbia Gas to install a short transmission line under a state-owned bike trail…

Federal Court in Pennsylvania Declines to Require Accumulation of Emissions from Non-Contiguous Compressor Stations for CAA Permitting

March 11, 2015

A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a series of gas compressors used to move gas from wells to larger transmission lines need not be considered a single “source” of air pollution.  See Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future v. Ultra Resources, Inc., No. 4: 11-cv-1360.  If the eight compressors had been considered a single “source,” then they would likely have been…