3rd Circuit Vacates NJ Water Permit for NESE Pipeline Project

Big Green scored a win yesterday — but not the win they're telling you they got. On Tuesday, September 8, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated the Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued last November for Williams/Transco's Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project — the $1 billion, 400,000 Dth/d expansion that carries Marcellus gas from Pennsylvania, across New Jersey, under Raritan Bay, and into New York City (see Trump Won: New York & New Jersey Issue Water Permits for NESE Pipe and Radicals Sue NY, NJ to Block NESE Pipeline Water Permits). Read the opinion closely, though, and the court flatly rejected the radicals' headline argument. It did find, however, that NJDEP wrote a sloppy permit and didn't show its work. The pipeline isn't dead. The paperwork is.

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