The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the developers of the $1 billion PennEast natural gas pipeline can seize New Jersey land to build the project.
The decision announced Tuesday did not break along usual lines, with Republican appointees Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh voting in the majority with Democratic appointees Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both appointees of former President Donald Trump, dissented, along with Clarence Thomas, the most conservative justice, and Democratic appointee Elena Kagan.
The ruling reverses a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that project developer PennEast couldn’t seize New Jersey-owned land for the pipeline.
The PennEast court case was closely watched by the oil and gas industry, which feared letting the appeals court decision stand would have given states effective veto power over natural gas pipeline projects.
PennEast’s 116-mile pipeline would transport as much as 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from northern Pennsylvania to New Jersey.
