× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Blocked by a federal appeals court panel from crossing the Appalachian Trail, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will have to wait for a federal agency to decide — for the third time — whether to allow the 600-mile natural gas pipeline to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The scenic parkway and national trail lie side by side in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but they intersect in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which last month threw out a permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service to allow the 42-inch-wide natural gas pipeline to tunnel beneath the Appalachian Trail between Augusta and Nelson counties.

The ruling on Dec. 13 prompted the National Park Service to ask the court last week to allow the agency to vacate the permits it had issued twice before for the project to cross the 469-mile parkway near Reeds Gap.

The proposal would allow the NPS to “consider whether issuance of a right-of-way permit for the pipeline to cross an adjacent segment of the parkway is appropriate,” the agency told the court in a motion made public Friday.

The delay sets up a likely legal showdown with environmental groups in March, when the 4th Circuit also will hear arguments over a disputed permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the panel stayed early last month.