Federal court rules in favor of Pa. gas pipeline

A federal court has rejected a bid by a coalition of environmental groups to stop the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern Pennsylvania’s endless mountains.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that federal energy regulators were right to approve the 39-mile MARC 1 pipeline through Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming counties.

Some landowners have been fighting the company building the pipeline. They say Central New York Oil & Gas refused to negotiate in good faith on either monetary compensation or the pipeline’s route.

The company promotes the MARC 1 as key infrastructure in developing the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation underneath Pennsylvania and surrounding states that experts believe holds the nation’s largest reservoir of gas.

Central New York is a subsidiary of Inergy LP of Kansas City, Mo.