NJ Towns Win Delay for Phase 2 of Garden State Expansion Pipe

You win some, you lose some. Today we brought you the news that THE Delaware Riverkeeper and other radical groups lost their case opposing the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see Riverkeeper Lawsuit Against Atlantic Sunrise Tossed by Fed Court). However, the same court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, went the other way on a different Williams project. Last August two New Jersey towns sued in federal court, seeking to overturn a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve Williams’ Transco Garden State Expansion pipeline project (see FERC Fights NJ Town Effort to Decertify Garden State Expansion). The project was created to address supply disruptions following Superstorm Sandy in 2012. By upgrading compressor stations and adding a new meter station, the Garden State Expansion project will supply an extra 180 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas to “a new delivery point on Transco’s existing Trenton Woodbury Lateral pipeline.” Two towns in Burlington County (Bordentown and Chesterfield) where some of the work would be done for Phase 2 of the project filed a lawsuit asking the Third Circuit to overturn FERC’s previous decision to allow the project. They also asked that permits issued by the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) be revoked. Yesterday the court ruled that NJDEP erred by issuing permits for the project. However, the court ruled that the towns' challenges to FERC's order allowing the project lack merit (and were dismissed). So, a partial victory--but still more delays because of the ruling re NJDEP...

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