PennEast Pipeline Company LLC today applauded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) issuance of a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), validating after nearly three years of scientific review and input from numerous stakeholders that the approximately 120-mile underground natural gas pipeline can be built with little impact on the environment.
With the Final EIS, two government agencies now have affirmed that PennEast Pipeline’s construction and ongoing operations will not harm the environment, including waterways. The second validation is from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which issued in February a Water Quality Certification as required by section 401 of the Federal Clean Water Act.
“Pipelines are the safest and most environmentally friendly way to move the energy on which we rely every single day to warm our homes, power our economy, and increasingly generate clean and reliable electricity,” added Tran. “New infrastructure like PennEast Pipeline is not only far better for our environment than relying on other less-clean fuels, but also for reducing electric and natural gas bills for families and businesses.
“Today’s Final EIS is a major step forward for the Project. We thank the FERC staff for its thorough review, input, and recognition that major infrastructure projects like the PennEast Pipeline can move ahead while protecting the environment, too,” said Tran. “We look forward to working with Pennsylvania and New Jersey permitting agencies in the coming months.”
The 120-mile Project is more than 90 percent subscribed under long-term contracts with local gas utilities, power generators and other energy customers. Local customers will benefit from the delivery of clean, American energy that is slated to be approximately 30 percent less expensive than natural gas supplies from the Gulf of Mexico, which have traditionally fueled the northeast. A study by Concentric Energy Advisors found that due to pipeline constraints in the region, consumers would have saved nearly one billion dollars during the winter of 2013-2014 had PennEast been in service. Prices during that winter spiked to more than 70 times that of non-peak periods.
Major business and labor organizations across Pennsylvania and New Jersey support PennEast Pipeline as a project essential to long-term economic growth. The world’s largest electric grid operator, PJM, also cited PennEast as a project that could enhance electric grid reliability.
Shouldn’t funding for future energy be focused on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels? I’m confused about the “need” for more oil. Hopefully we will find ways to focus less on our dependence for fossil fuels and more on renewable energy sources.
Agreed. And so many references to “clean burning” sounds like lobby-speak because carbon dioxide is still emitted.
PennEast admits on the docket and in the FEIS that the total number of permanent jobs will be fewer than a dozen for the entire 118 miles of the pipeline……….so it’s worth destroying people’s homes and farms for…………11 jobs????? Seriously?
Who is going to foot the bill for this project? Not the companies building the pipeline. That’s rich folks, you and I will be subsidising this pipeline throight higher rates. This natural gas is going to be sold overseas to European markets. Don’t let them fool you with there clever advertising.
No, federal regulators did not determine that PennEast can deliver enormous benefits to the region. Read the actual Executive Summary in the Environmental Impact Statement instead of running a commercial for PennEast and relying on nothing but PennEast’s talking heads for your facts. In fact, FERC determined that PennEast will cause environmental damage to the region, which they say might be offset by a bunch of potential mitigation measures which PennEast has yet to develop and FERC has yet to review. FERC also said outright that there will be minimal economic benefit to the project. They said that as early as July, but we didn’t see your article about that. PennEast will provide 11 permanent jobs for New Jersey and the temporary jobs will be for seven weeks. PennEast will pass on its costs to the captive rate payer and increase natural gas rates in NJ. Please see the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel’s comment to that effect. PennEast is not bringing in new supply to the region but rather displacing supply it already ships in other pipelines into its own so it can sell the gas to itself, increasing profits and failing the normal arms length relationship. Oh, and the bonus is that in order to make this “lottery” (NJ Div Rate Counsel) profit, PennEast plans to take 70% of the impacted landowners in New Jersey to eminent domain. It will condemn taxpayer preserved land and farms by eminent domain. Eminent domain is what happens when PennEast gets their Certificate, a detail you failed to mention in your article. I’m a business owner, too, but I’m not going to take other people’s property in order to make a profit, when I’m not providing any needed service to the community I’m impacting. Especially when New Jersey already enjoys some of the cheapest natural gas rates in the country and this project will increase those rates; when federal agencies agree the demand for natural gas in NJ will stay steady for the next decade; when this project will not provide even reasonable numbers of jobs; and when it will not bring any new supply of gas to the region, but rather just increase its profits by taking private and taxpayer funded land by eminent domain. PennEast is bad for New Jersey.
Renewable energy will provide employment for the future and protection for our environment. PennEast also gambles with clean water. The words “minimal harm” and “little impact” are used by PennEast to describe a pleasant picture to the public. The route is planned to go through streams and under the Delaware River, which provide drinking water for millions. Also through areas where digging could release natural arsenic into the water. I don’t feel anyone who looks at the science of this project could consider it ‘minimal harm” or “little impact’ indeed. Reminder: this is for private profit.