A federal court on Tuesday threw out federal regulatory approval of the Transco gas pipeline expansion in New Jersey, saying regulators failed to adequately consider the need for the project and its impact on state law aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remands the case back to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for reconsideration of those issues.
The lawsuit was brought by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and others who argued FERC’s 2023 decision arbitrarily overlooked the environmental consequences of the project, which expands an existing transmission line by adding 36 miles of new pipe in Pennsylvania and a compressor station and other infrastructure upgrades in New Jersey.
The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel had also intervened in the case arguing there was no market need for expansion and that the project would run counter to state law that requires a reduction in natural gas consumption.
The court said FERC’s decision “arbitrarily misconstrued New Jersey’s energy efficiency laws — which mandate sizeable and continuous reductions to natural gas usage by public utilities — as unenforceable,” the court ruled. “To the contrary, New Jersey law is mandatory and includes mechanisms for its enforcement.”
In addition to the impact on state climate goals, FERC also fell short in its review of the of market need and environmental consequences, the court said.
“The project is a substantial gas pipeline expected to transport large quantities of natural gas from points of extraction to points of use for decades to come,” the court said. “The record estimates enormous GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from the project for the next half century.”
FERC’s order “discusses climate change and GHG emissions, including its projections for those emissions … but the Certificate Order nowhere explains whether and how the Commission considered those emissions among the adverse effects it balanced and found to be outweighed by the pipeline’s expected benefits,” the court said.
About 73.5% of the gas from Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion project would go to New Jersey locations, the court decision said. The project would also provide natural gas to locations in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Maryland.
NJBIA Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor said the ruling was “disappointing” and hoped it would be reversed upon appeal.
“While we work on efforts to eventually decarbonize our economy, the fact of the matter is that we need natural gas now and will for decades to come,” Cantor said. “Opponents of natural gas pipelines, and their supporters, only put New Jersey residents in jeopardy when the next cold spell comes or when we need air conditioning in the next heat wave. Energy policy needs to be pragmatic, not ideological.”
