PennEast Pipeline

Last week PennEast Pipeline, a $1 billion, 118-mile pipeline from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ, filed a request with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for water crossing permits (full copy below). PennEast has faced a series of legal challenges–in particular from virulent Big Green groups THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum) and the New Jersey Sierra Club (Jeff Tittel). Somehow Big Green groups seem to have been able to exert undue influence over the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, which rejected granting water permits in June (see NJ DEP Rejects Water Permit for PennEast Pipeline – What’s Next?). However, PennEast continues to make progress. In April the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable, final environmental impact statement for the project, which is typically a prelude to issuing a final go-ahead (see FERC Issues Favorable Final EIS for PennEast Pipeline Project). Earlier this year, in February, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection issued a water permit for the project, which is being challenged in court by Big Green groups (see PennEast Pipeline Gets 401 Water Quality Certificate from PA DEP). PennEast acknowledges the Army Corps will still need information from other government agencies before it grants a water permit–but that’s OK. PennEast is simply getting its ducks in row by filing now, which has antis like van Rossum and Tittel in a dither…
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The New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) sent PennEast Pipeline a letter yesterday saying they have closed the application for water-crossing permits for the project–without granting those permits. In April the NJDEP temporarily rejected the permits, giving PennEast another 60 days to respond to requests for more detailed information about the project (see NJ DEP Temporarily Rejects PennEast Request for Wetland Permits). The NJDEP says PennEast isn’t making sufficient progress and so they are simply closing the book on it. Which may sound like the end of the line for PennEast. That is, if you read statements by radical environmentalists like Jeff Tittel from the Sierra Club. Except it’s not game over. PennEast says, in essence, “No problem. Thanks anyway. We’ll be back and refile the application shortly.” Which they can do. Below is a copy of the letter from the NJDEP, some select (biased) coverage from anti-fossil fuel mainstream media, and a full statement from PennEast, to set the record straight…
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PennEast Pipeline is caught between a rock and a hard place in New Jersey, and the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) isn’t lifting a finger to help. In April, MDN told you NJDEP has temporarily rejected PennEast Pipeline’s Freshwater Wetlands Individual Permit and Water Quality Certificate application, submitted April 6 (see NJ DEP Temporarily Rejects PennEast Request for Wetland Permits). NJDEP said in their response that PennEast has not provided enough detail about the project–leaving out key pieces of information for two-thirds of the pipeline’s 37-mile trek through NJ. NJDEP says they want the application refiled within 30 days, and if PennEast doesn’t give them what they want within 60 days, the DEP will consider the application “withdrawn.” Here’s the Catch-22: In order to get the details needed via surveys, PennEast needs access to property. But many NJ landowners have been convinced by groups like the odious Sierra Club to deny permission. So PennEast can’t do their surveys to get the details needed for the the NJDEP. Since it’s a federally approved project, NJDEP certainly won’t issue eminent domain to allow PennEast access to survey. For that, PennEast must wait on FERC. It’s rumored that FERC will grant eminent domain sometime this summer for PennEast to allow them the right to access NJ (and PA) properties of holdout landowners. Antis are elated and breathlessly say PennEast will be delayed for months, maybe years (doing things like multi-year surveys on plants). PennEast continues to say the NJDEP’s responses are routine and being handled. Who’s right?…
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Once upon a time, during the Obama reign of terror, the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as headed by the odious Gina McCarthy, blasted the PennEast Pipeline project (see Obama EPA, National Park Service Try to Rain on PennEast Parade). The Obama/McCarthy EPA made an outrageous claim: That building PennEast “may” end up causing arsenic in groundwater supplies. Totally bogus. And pathetic. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) didn’t fall for EPA’s arsenic and old lace. They approved the project in April (see FERC Issues Favorable Final EIS for PennEast Pipeline Project). Along with the change in the presidency has come some clear-headed thinking in Washington, DC–including at the EPA. Make no mistake–the EPA is still overly populated with Obamadroids that need to be canned. However, there’s enough of a change at the EPA that the agency has just sent what we would call a love letter to FERC, about PennEast. In it, the EPA says, “FERC’s efforts to consider and actively engage EPA to discuss comments, which resulted in improved or modified documentation provided in the [Final] EIS and improved safeguards for protection of human health and the environment.” And because of that, “many of our concerns and objections [to PennEast] have been or will be addressed.” In other words, everybody has now kissed and made up. EPA is feelin’ good about PennEast. And so are we…
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The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has temporarily rejected PennEast Pipeline’s Freshwater Wetlands Individual Permit and Water Quality Certificate application, submitted April 6. NJDEP said in their response that PennEast has not provided enough detail about the project–leaving out key pieces of information for two-thirds of the pipeline’s 37-mile trek through NJ. NJDEP says they want the application refiled within 30 days, and if PennEast doesn’t give them what they want within 60 days, the DEP will consider the application “withdrawn.” The news from NJ comes on the heels of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also telling PennEast they need more information too. Radicalized antis are rejoicing and their mouthpieces in mainstream media are painting this as a grim development for PennEast–perhaps the death rattle has begun. PennEast, on the other hand, is treating the news as a minor bump in the road–the application has just a “few outstanding items” that PennEast needs to track down and provide to the DEP, and then all will be just fine. We suppose the next 30-60 days will tell the tale…
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Today is, hopefully, a joyous day for the PennEast Pipeline. Today is the day that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is supposed to, after three delays, issue the project a final Environmental Impact Statement. If/when that final EIS is issued, the only step remaining, from the federal perspective, is a certification of the project. Typically a favorable final EIS is the big step, and the certification then is perfunctory–a given. We have to confess we are on pins and needles because the project has now been delayed three times, a red flag in our book (see FERC Delays PennEast Pipe 3rd Time, PennEast Spins as ‘Good News’). However, anticipating a favorable final EIS, PennEast applied with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a Freshwater Wetlands Impact Permit. For some reason, the act of filing for that permit before receiving the final FERC EIA has anti-fossil fuelers in an outrage. They claim PennEast has jumped the gun, that they are behaving like the project is “inevitable” (which it is, by the way). Arrogant. And how dare these evil, filthy, fossil fuel-polluting companies DARE do something they (anti-fossil fuel nutters) don’t want them to do? That’s the “moral” outrage we’re seeing in New Jersey’s far-left “media” reporting on it. For us, it’s a routine application for a permit. For them, it’s the end of their contrived, perfect, snowflake world…
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