NFG Tells Court Constitution Decision DNA to Northern Access Case

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Yet more drama and intrigue in National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) lawsuit against the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Three years ago NFG proposed and filed to build the Northern Access Pipeline project–a $455 million project includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the project in February of this year (see NFG’s Northern Access Pipe in NY/PA Gets FERC Approval). However, in April of this year, the DEC ruled against granting the project stream crossing permits, effectively killing it, at least for now (see Cuomo’s Corrupt NY DEC Blocks NFG Northern Access Pipeline Permit). NFG sued the DEC in the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn their denial (see NFG Sues NY DEC in Fed Court re Northern Access Pipe Rejection). A similar court case was filed by the Constitution Pipeline against the DEC with the 2nd Circuit. The court ruled against the Constitution and for the DEC on August 18 (see Court Rejects Constitution Pipe’s Case Against NY DEC; Now What?). Predictably, the office of NY’s corrupt Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, filed a letter with the 2nd Circuit (copy below) saying, in essence, the Constitution case is just like this one, so the court should rule the same way: against NFG and for the DEC. However, a few days after that, NFG’s attorneys filed their own letter (copy below) pointing out the fallacy in the previous letter. NFG says the Constitution is very narrow, and in fact ultimately supports the NFG case against the DEC…

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