New Jersey has enough natural gas, too much in fact, given the spike in local and global temperatures, but this isn’t stopping Williams Companies from insisting we need more, over and above a state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) objection that we don’t.
However, with an approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in their back pocket, Williams Companies is “in full construction” of the sprawling, multistate gas Regional Energy Access pipeline extension.
In opposing FERC’s support for this climate destabilizing project, a coalition of environmental organizations that includes the Sierra Club has been joined by eight attorneys general and the NJ Ratepayer Advocate.
In July, the Niskanen Center (Washington, DC-based environmental think tank) filed a joint opening brief on behalf of the NJ Conservation Foundation, NJ League of Conservation Voters, and others to contest FERC’s decision. The brief was filed in concert with Earthjustice, representing Food & Water Watch and the Sierra Club.
The NJ Rate Counsel, which represents consumers in disputes with regulated industries, also filed a brief in support of the challenge. Also, the attorneys general of New Jersey, Washington State, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Vermont filed a joint amicus brief (companion filing) to support the challenge to FERC’s flawed authorization of this unneeded project.
The legal briefs underscore the importance of carefully considering the implications of the Regional Energy Access project and its potential effects on New Jersey’s energy landscape and the health and safety of local communities.
The project, which includes expanded gas-fired compressor stations in Branchburg and Old Bridge, NJ, and a new compressor station in West Deptford, NJ, is an extension to a 10,000-mile pipeline system that extends from South Texas to New York.
With pictures of farm fields instead of muddy pipeline trenches and smog-filled overburdened communities, Williams Companies has falsely attempted to portray this pipeline expansion as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and good for the planet.
Despite Williams Companies’ contentions that New Jersey needs additional pipeline capacity, the NJ BPU last year determined, based on a study by London Economics, that New Jersey can already “easily meet firm demand” for natural gas during normal winter conditions and even during colder than normal winters, based on past experience.
“It is unacceptable in 2023 for FERC to be greenlighting and expanding continued fossil fuel projects while the impacts of climate change are at New Jersey’s doorstep,” said Anjuli Ramos, director of the NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Resource
https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filedownload?fileid=04238D77-C754-C169-A000-81EEF0200000