Pennsylvania landowners who have been fighting with Sunoco over the Mariner East 2 pipeline project have so far been unsuccessful in their attempts to bar the energy giant from using their land for the natural gas pipeline. Over the past year, they have seen a handful of unfavorable decisions from the Commonwealth Court, but with cases potentially on their way to the state Supreme Court and a recent pronouncement on environmental law by the justices, plaintiffs are hoping the litigation won't be over so quickly.

Earlier this month, the Commonwealth Court rejected Glen Mills attorney Charles Katz's challenge to Sunoco's eminent domain action, specifically ruling that the Pennsylvania Utility Commission's determination that a project is for a “public need” does not need to take into account the need to take each specific parcel.

The ruling came little more than a month after the court rejected another challenge to the project, this one brought by Rolfe and Doris Blume, who challenged, among other things, the sufficiency of the bond Sunoco posted for the taking. And less than two weeks before that ruling, the Commonwealth Court rejected another challenge, this time involving arguments about the Supreme Court's latest ruling on Act 13. That challenge was brought by landowners Stephen and Ellen Gerhart.