The state of Georgia’s top transportation official has denied Kinder Morgan Inc’s request for a key permit to build a $1.12 billion gasoline and distillate pipeline through the southeast part of the state. In a letter dated Monday, Georgia’s Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurray said he had determined that Kinder’s proposed 360-mile (579 km) Palmetto Pipeline is not critical enough to allow the company to condemn property and obtain easements along its route to allow its construction. “There is substantial evidence that the construction of the proposed pipeline will not constitute a public convenience and necessity,” McMurray said in the letter addressed to an attorney representing Kinder in the matter, a copy of which was received by Reuters. Kinder Morgan was “evaluating all options to move forward with the project,” Ron McClain, the company’s head of products pipelines, said in a statement on Tuesday. The company did […]