State of New Jersey Requests a Rehearing of FERC’s Approval of PennEast

A message from New Jersey Conservation Foundation and ReThink Energy NJ campaign director Tom Gilbert

Tom Gilbert, campaign director, ReThink Energy NJ and New Jersey Conservation Foundation

February 16, 2018 — Today, Tom Gilbert issued the following statement: “New Jersey today rightly opposed FERC’s flawed review of PennEast. In its request for a rehearing of FERC’s recent order, the state made it abundantly clear that PennEast has failed to demonstrate the need for its pipeline and justify its threat to our water and destruction of preserved open space. The state’s additional move to prevent PennEast from taking private homes and property showed strong leadership to protect the public interest from this unneeded pipeline.”

In its letter, the State said that FERC’s review of PennEast:

• Relied on “woefully insufficient data” and “staggering information gaps”
• “Erred in finding the Project fulfills the public interest” and was based on the decisions of “six self-interested natural gas companies”
• “Failed to assess the … impacts to environmental resources”
• Is ultimately “defective”, and “at best, premature”

Previously, the State’s Attorney General called PennEast “patently misleading” in its dealings with the State.

A recent expert report submitted to FERC also found no need for PennEast, even on the coldest winter days, and showed that New Jersey already has an excess of 1.7 billion cubic feet of pipeline capacity each day.

Download the letter that the State of New Jersey sent to FERC requesting a re-hearing for PennEast here.