PennEast Pipeline

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), charged with overseeing potential impacts on the Delaware River and the various tributaries that feed it, has once again stepped outside of its legal bounds. The PennEast Pipeline is a $1 billion, 118-mile pipeline from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ–part of it through the Delaware River Basin area. In 2014 the DRBC tried to tell PennEast and its sponsors that the pipeline will need their approval before it can be built (see DRBC Tells PennEast They Need DRBC (Not Just FERC) Approval). There’s just one teeny tiny problem with that–called the U.S. Constitution. The pipeline is permitted solely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)–not any other agency, including the quasi-governmental DRBC. PennEast told them as much (see PennEast Tells DRBC Not So Fast, FERC has Final Say on Pipeline). But silly little things like laws don’t stop power-mad liberals like those at the DRBC. Last summer FERC, in a bid to be gracious to the libs at DRBC, agreed to hold one joint hearing on the PennEast with the DRBC (see Anti Drillers Demand DRBC Hold 7 Meetings on PennEast Pipeline). The DRBC has decided it will take its marbles and go home. Yesterday the DRBC informed FERC, by letter, that they will no longer participate in the joint hearing with FERC and will, instead, hold their own hearings (plural) on the PennEast. The DRBC is clearly operating outside of its charter. The DRBC news got THE Delaware Riverkeeper titillated…
Read More “DRBC’s Lawless Action to Review PennEast Pipeline Apart from FERC”

We understand the value of a healthy, optimistic attitude. We consider ourselves to be a “glass half full” rather than “glass half empty” type of people. But we’re also realists. Last week the builders of the proposed PennEast Pipeline–a $1.2 billion, 114-mile, 36-inch diameter pipeline that will deliver approximately 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Marcellus gas fields of northeastern PA to locations in southeastern PA and across the border to Trenton, NJ–received what we considered bad news. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) told PennEast they would extend the amount of time they are taking until December of this year, rather than August, to complete their Environmental Review. And FERC won’t issue their final decision on authorizing the project until March 2017–at the earliest. PennEast had requested FERC wrap it all up by this August–an 8-month delay. In our book, that’s mildly bad news. But yesterday PennEast issued a press release saying the FERC announcement is an “important milestone,” almost lauding FERC for moving so quickly given a plateful of pipeline applications–even though it means the PennEast project now won’t be completed until 2018 instead of 2017. Is this a “glass half full” optimistic attitude? Or self-deluding denial? We can think of many reasons why it’s a manifestly bad thing that FERC has delayed–not the least of which is are multiple lawsuits sure to be launched by the radicals at THE Delaware Riverkeeper…
Read More “PennEast Spins FERC Delay as a Good Thing – Optimism or Denial?”