Virginia AG Filed Amicus Brief in Litigation Over Pipeline Crossing Appalachian Trail

JANUARY 22, 2020

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s ruling invalidating the permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service allowing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. In the amicus brief, AG Herring said that “federal agencies charged with administering federal lands within [Virginia’s] borders must fulfill their statutory obligations,” and emphasized that the Forest Service “did not do so here.” The amicus brief stressed that the permitting process for the pipeline was “rushed and slipshod” and “driven by Atlantic’s arbitrary deadlines.”