The PennEast Pipeline company on Thursday announced it
would file its formal application with federal authorities for permission to
construct a $1.2 billion, 118-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from
northeastern Pennsylvania to Mercer County.
At a 10 a.m. telephone conference with reporters,
representatives from PennEast and trade groups said they would be filing the
formal application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sometime
Thursday, ending a nearly year-long pre-application period that has rallied New
Jersey environmental groups, municipalities and elected officials against the
proposal.
"The PennEast pipeline project is set to deliver
reduced energy costs to residents and businesses, thousands of good jobs and a
cleaner environment by cultivating clean-burning American energy," Peter
Terranova, PennEast board chairman, said during the call.
PennEast, a consortium of natural gas companies that
includes all four New Jersey gas providers, wants to build a 118-mile, 36-inch
pipeline stretching from Northeastern Pennsylvania to Hopewell
Township. It needs approval from the federal energy commission because the
proposal crosses state lines.
There was no immediate timeline available Thursday for
the federal approval process. PennEast has said, if approved, the pipeline
would be operational in 2017.
Thursday's announcement was derided by environmental and
opposition groups, including the New Jersey Sierra Club, New Jersey
Conservation Foundation, the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, the
Delaware Riverkeeper, Clean Water Action, among others.
"The proposed PennEast pipeline would
undermine and destroy decades of dedicated work to preserve land in this
special region of New Jersey," said Michele Byers, executive director of
New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "I am concerned not only about
damage to these preserved lands, but also about what this means for the future
of land preservation in our state."
During the call, Terranova cited figures from a study backed by Drexel University's business school
released earlier this year that said the pipeline would support 12,160 jobs and
create $1.6 billion in economic activity.
However, the project would create just 21 permanent jobs
directly dedicated to the upkeep of the pipeline, a company spokeswoman has
said.
About 2,500 temporary construction workers would build
the pipeline, a task expected to take about seven months, while the remainder
of the 9,960 jobs cited in the Drexel study would be ancillary positions
created by the estimated $1.6 billion in economic activity generated by the
construction, a company spokeswoman has said.
For instance, if the operator of a taco truck pulled up
to a construction area to feed hungry workers at lunchtime, that operator would
be counted as one of the 12,160 jobs supported by the a pipeline, under the
formula employed by the Drexel study.
The state Department of Environmental Protection in July sent a
letter to PennEast saying it could not evaluate which permits the
pipeline would need because PennEast had not provided enough information for
the agency to determine which permits it would need.
Because only about a third of the property owners in the
proposed pipeline's path through Hunterdon and Mercer counties have allowed the
company to perform surveys, the DEP doesn't have enough information to
determine which permits PennEast will need, according to a July 2 DEP letter.
Jack Herbert, of NJR Energy Resources, a partner in
PennEast, said on Thursday's call that PennEast would continue to work with the
DEP to determine which permits would be needed. He did not say whether more
homeowners have allowed the company to survey.
"We will work with landowners as much as we
practically can and continue to work with DEP while this goes on,'' Herbert
said.
Opposition to the project in New Jersey has been unanimous.
Every town the pipeline is proposed to run through has passed resolutions
against it.
Mercer County recently banned PennEast from
surveying on county owned lands. Hopewell Township and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation followed.
Source: NJ.com
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