By KATE MISHKIN
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Less than a week after lawyers argued that a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline didn’t specifically address potential effects on endangered species, a panel of judges for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the environmental lawyers.
Tuesday evening, the judges invalidated the pipeline’s Incidental Take Statement, a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that describes the impact pipeline construction might have on endangered or threatened species.
Construction of the 600-mile-long Atlantic Coast Pipeline will disturb 11,755 acres of land and could affect five species of endangered plants and animals, including the Indiana bat and the rusty patched bumble bee, the project’s Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement say. The underground pipeline will transport natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia and into Eastern North Carolina.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/cops_and_courts/court-pulls-permit-from-atlantic-coast-pipeline-regulators-say-construction/article_69bc5c24-eb77-5b0a-a066-6d50b7c88ea1.html
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