The PennEast natural gas pipeline project is postponed once again in the Northeast area. The project will cover a total of 118 miles and is going to to cost approximately 1.3 billion dollars. It will span from Mercer County in New Jersey to Luzerne County in Pennsylvania. The anticipated service start is June 1, 2018.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reviewed the PennEast pipeline plans and decided that there was a need to put a halt on the project. This will take place from the 16th of December 2016 until February 17th of 2017. This marks the second major postponement for the project since its beginning. The project has garnered much opposition from the likes of landowners, residents and important governmental agencies.
Reasons For FERC Delaying The PennEast Pipeline
Contents
Route Issues
Some of the reasons for the delay has to do with PennEast wanting to use a route that both environmental and bipartisan agencies feel will cause issues. FERC maintains that PennEast is using both incorrect and outdated maps for the pipeline plan.
FERC also sent the company a substantial request for 46 sets of new data and demanded 34 corrections to PennEast’s application to build a 118-mile gas pipeline through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In several cases, FERC notes that PennEast’s maps are outdated, incorrect, and incomplete.
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An Environmental Nightmare
PennEast is eager to complete the pipeline even though there is overwhelming opposition to their project. FERC counters that PennEast has not made a proper plan for them to approve. They contend that the pipeline would destroy protected lands such as wetlands, streams, as well as wildlife. This is a major argument and has pulled in opposition from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the EPA (U.S Environmental Protection Agency), and the New Jersey Environmental Protection Department.
They contend that the pipeline’s effect on these lands would be devastating. The property value for landowners would plummet. Northeast residents highly value and love their state lands. People in the area are more environmentally conscious. Environmental groups claim there is no route that would be able to work for this pipeline that would not cause extreme devastation to the environment. Opponents such as Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club claims:
As Tittel said (and echoed by hundreds of comments from local environmental groups), the FERC review has fatal flaws. “Even with making this minimal changes, this project will still will be an environmental nightmare. They know that the FERC DEIS is fatally flawed and they cannot meet the regulatory requirements for water quality permits. That is the only reason they are changing the route so they can make it easier to get permits, not protect landowners,” he said.
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Self Dealing Interests
Utility companies in the area have signed contracts with PennEast and are, therefore, viewed as biased. Many of the owners of the utility companies are also PennEast owners. The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel makes the claims that these contracts are obviously in the self interest of the companies and not in the best interest of the consumers in the area or of the protected lands.
Clearly, this project only serves the gas companies affiliated with PennEast, which has been flat-out misleading to the public throughout its review process.
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Option To File Comments
On September 23rd PennEast decided to change their pipeline route again. Due to this development, FERC has reopened the option for any landowners or other affected citizens to voice their concerns through filing comments pertaining to the new route. This option opened on November 4th and ends on December 5th. This is PennEast’s 33rd route change since the pipeline project began.
The general consensus is that PennEast is not addressing the important public concerns, which is that there is no appropriate route for this pipeline. Residents and the various environmental agencies agree that any environmental area will be be devastated by the construction of this pipeline. Additionally, moving the route from one area to another does nothing to fix any issues. Indeed many feel that the pipeline itself is just not necessary at all. If you are a member of the community and you have concerns this is the time to have your opinion heard.
The public now has another chance to voice its opposition. All concerned citizens – not just affected landowners, as FERC tries to imply – should use this new comment period to continue to point out the issues with the route changes and the lingering fundamental flaws with the DEIS that still haven’t been addressed,” continued Waltman. “Unfortunately, 30 days is not nearly enough time for a substantive review of such a massive project, but the outpouring of comments we have seen is clearly working,” said Waltman.
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Where You Can File Comments
If you feel like commenting on PennEast’s new DEIS, please go to:
https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx
or
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20161104-3006
Another nugget of information is that Pennsylvania does not enforce a property tax on PennEast. This means that the Pennsylvania residents are the ones that will have to pay for any environmental issues or emergencies that could potentially arise because of the pipeline. This is discussed in more detail by this article from The MORNING Call:
Pennsylvania’s property tax exemption, critics say, will leave municipalities here with a pipeline in their towns and no new revenue to help cover the cost of emergency preparedness or potential environmental issues such as erosion or stormwater runoff problems.
“These pipeline companies make millions, they aren’t paying for the difficulties the townships are going to have,” said Democratic Sen. Andrew Dinniman, who co-sponsored the bill with Republican Sen. John Rafferty Jr.
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Since PennEast does business in Pennsylvania it must pay some corporate income taxes. Since PennEast is based out of Delaware, the corporate tax liability is significantly reduced.
Summary
The main proponents of the PennEast pipeline seem to be the natural gas industry that mainly own the company. It would truly not benefit the people that the pipeline should serve. The environment will not benefit from the PennEast pipeline and will face destruction and additionally, it will be an economical nightmare especially to the residents having to pay for it.
The infrastructure support that is needed for the use of natural gas is not available in the area where they want to construct the pipeline. Additionally, any homeowners that want to change their homes to be able to use natural gas will face astronomical prices for the conversion. This would include:
- Removal of their old oil tank
- Having a gas line installed
- Installation of a natural gas heating system
Its a huge undertaking and cost that is not worth what value the homeowner would get from it.