A federal appellate court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case challenging key water permits for a 32-mile gas pipeline that would supply fuel to a planned Tennessee Valley Authority gas plant.
The lawsuit, brought by Sierra Club and other conservation groups, alleges that the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s approval of Clean Water Act permits for the Cumberland pipeline project bypassed site-specific environmental reviews.
Pipeline owner Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGP) and the state argued that sufficient analysis had been conducted.
The case came before judges Karen Nelson Moore, Eric Clay and Amul Thapar in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Moore and Clay, both Clinton appointees, previously voted for an injunction temporarily halting construction. Thapar, a Trump appointee, dissented.
