Bluegrass Pipeline Aborted Before It was Born – RIP

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Is it time to declare the Bluegrass Pipeline dead? It certainly appears that way. The Bluegrass, you may recall, was a $1.5 billion joint venture between Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners project that would have piped natural gas liquids (NGLs, mostly ethane) from the Utica/Marcellus all the way to Gulf Coast for processing and sale. Some 200 miles of the pipeline was due to be built through Kentucky–the Bluegrass State. But the wacky libs of Kentucky pushed back, suing Bluegrass over its plan to use eminent domain. In March 2014, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Bluegrass could not use eminent domain (see Judge Rules Bluegrass Pipeline Cannot Use Eminent Domain in KY). At that point Williams and Boardwalk squabbled over the future of the project (see Williams Stops Work on Bluegrass Pipeline, Boardwalk Says “It’s Not Dead”). The case moved on to the Court of Appeals. In May 2015, a three-judge panel agreed with Franklin Circuit Judge Shepherd that only pipeline companies that are or will be regulated by the state’s Public Service Commission can use eminent domain (see Appeals Court blocks Bluegrass Pipeline eminent domain). The case went all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court where, last week, the high court ruled the lower court rulings will stand. Case closed…

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