The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of PennEast Pipeline Company on Tuesday morning in its quest to acquire state-owned property in New Jersey for a multi-state natural gas pipeline project.

After court arguments earlier this year, the case hinged on whether a private company can use eminent-domain power to condemn state-owned land.

The decision overturns a federal appeals court ruling in 2019 that the company couldn’t use eminent domain to acquire 42 properties that are owned by New Jersey and preserved for farmland or open space.

“Although nonconsenting states are generally immune from lawsuit,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s opinion, “they surrendered their immunity from the exercise of the federal eminent domain power when they ratified the Constitution. That power carries with it the ability to condemn property in court. Because the Natural Gas Act delegates the federal eminent domain power to private parties, those parties can initiate condemnation proceedings, including against state-owned property.”

PennEast is planning to build its 116-mile pipeline in two phases, with the first including 68 miles of pipe and the portion running through Carbon and Monroe counties, entirely within Pennsylvania and ready to deliver natural gas in 2022.

Even with the decision, locals opposing the pipeline are not giving up hope that the project may never get off the ground.

“Today’s narrow 5 to 4 ruling by the Supreme Court is disappointing,” said Linda Christman of Save Carbon County, a group who has been fighting the pipeline since the outset. “We would have liked a knock-out punch to put this unnecessary and damaging pipeline to bed once and for all but we are prepared to continue our fight and we fully expect to win.”

Christman said PennEast still faces daunting hurdles including a clean water certificate from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a permit from the Delaware River Basin Commission and a certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for phase 1 of the project.

“In addition, they face still more court challenges,” Christman said.

PennEast’s second phase would include the remaining route in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a targeted completion of 2024.

““We are pleased that the Supreme Court kept intact more than seven decades of legal precedent for the families and businesses who benefit from more affordable, reliable energy,” said Anthony Cox, chair of the PennEast Board of Managers. “This decision is about more than just the PennEast Pipeline Project; it protects consumers who rely on infrastructure projects - found to be in the public benefit after thorough scientific and environmental reviews - from being denied access to much-needed energy by narrow state political interests. PennEast understood that New Jersey brought this case for political purposes, but energy crises in recent years in California, Texas, and New England, have clearly demonstrated why interstate natural gas infrastructure is so vital for our way of life, public safety and enabling clean energy goals.”

Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, also issued a statement expressing disappointment in the Supreme Court’s decision.

“As we face the existential crisis of climate change, it is devastating that our highest court has chosen to embolden fossil fuel companies, empowering them to trample over the rights and obligation of our state governments to protect its natural resources for the benefit of its residents, communities and future generations,” she said. “It is so disturbing that the profit making goals of a private pipeline corporation would be given greater respect and protection than the rights of states and people.”

During the arguments before the Supreme Court, PennEast attorney Paul Clement said, “If we lose this case, this pipeline will not be built anything like its current configuration. Until the law is changed, it would be at the mercy of New Jersey. I don’t think there is a way to reroute the pipeline in a way that doesn’t implicate a state land. It has to cross the Delaware River somewhere, and half of it belongs to New Jersey.”