Comment on Pipeline rejected; appeal likely

The controversial Palmetto Pipeline won’t move forward without a legal battle. Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry on Tuesday announced he has denied Kinder Morgan’s application for a public needs certificate. Without it, the company cannot complete the steps necessary to condemn property along the proposed 210-mile pipeline route through Georgia. “After careful consideration of information in the application submitted by Kinder Morgan on behalf of Palmetto; numerous public comments submitted at seven public meetings held by Palmetto; two public hearings hosted by the Georgia DOT; and approximately 3,000 public comments submitted online and by mail to myself and the Utilities staff, the Department has determined that it will not issue a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity,” McMurry said in a written statement. The $1 billion project would route gasoline, ethanol and diesel from the Gulf Coast and from South Carolina to North Augusta, Savannah and Jacksonville, taking a buried steel pipeline through about 600 private tracts of land in a dozen Georgia counties along the Savannah River and down the coast. The company must get a certificate of public convenience and necessity before it can apply to the state Environmental Protection Division for an environmental assessment, the second hurdle it would have to clear before it could use the power of eminent domain. The question before the DOT’s McMurry excluded environmental concerns and was solely whether the company demonstrated public need in its application. His answer: No. “There is substantial evidence showing that the pipeline would not constitute a public convenience and necessity,” McMurry wrote in a four-page letter to Kinder Morgan. McMurry countered Kinder Morgan’s main argument for the pipeline — that it will reduce gas prices — with the company’s own statements. “Palmetto notes in its ...