The Southern Environmental Law Center has outlined why it is suing two federal agencies over a methane gas pipeline that is being buried through the heart of the Black Belt.
The Black Belt News Network has covered the pipeline and the lawsuit from the beginning. SELC says it has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allowing companies to sidestep environmental laws when constructing the pipeline.
The lawsuit includes South System Expansion 4, a $3 billion project that calls for burying about 290 miles of natural gas pipeline from Clarke County, Mississippi east to Augusta, Georgia. The pipeline, which will mostly be buried alongside existing natural gas pipelines, will pass through Elmore, Autauga, Dallas, Perry, Marengo and Sumter counties, according to the application from Southern Natural Gas Co…