Riverkeeper

Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)

[Editor’s Note: If you thought the Delaware Riverkeeper cared a whit about the Delaware River, this story should abuse you of that foolish notion. It’s about anything but!]

PennEast Pipeline, a 120-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that would have cost $1 billion to build and run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, is as dead as a doornail (see PennEast Pipeline Throws in the Towel – Project Won’t Get Built). In late September the partners in the project announced “PennEast has ceased all further development of the Project.” And yet THE (deluded) Delaware Riverkeeper is convinced PennEast will rise from the dead like Jesus Christ. So, Riverkeeper is suing to keep on suing–to keep PennEast dead and buried. We’ll explain.

Big Green – The force behind the Delaware PovertyKeeper a/k/a Riverkeeper

Riverkeeper and other Big Green groups, using money from the William Penn Foundation, Park Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and other funders of anyone willing to bash American energy, sued to block the certificate issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that allows PennEast to get built.

Never mind that PennEast still lacks key state permits (from New Jersey) and that PennEast has withdrawn all of the eminent domain lawsuits it filed in both Pennsylvania (see PennEast Stops Eminent Domain Lawsuits in PA – What Does it Mean?) and New Jersey (see Troubling: PennEast Pipeline Withdraws NJ Eminent Domain Lawsuits). There is zero chance of the pipeline getting built in either PA or NJ.

Given the project is dead, PennEast filed a motion to stop Riverkeeper, et al’s lawsuit to overturn the FERC certificate from continuing. Why pay even more money to lawyers to defend a pipeline that’s not going to get built? It’s called a “motion to hold in abeyance lawsuits.” Put a pause or otherwise stop the lawsuits.

Yet, Riverkeeper wants to continue on, apparently afraid that at some point PennEast will decide to try again to build. It’s irrational–but then, that’s the people who run Riverkeeper. They’re irrational and consumed with hatred of fossil fuels.

Riverkeeper issued the following press release, announcing it is suing in federal court to retain the right to keep on suing and drive the last nail in the coffin of a dead pipeline project:

On November 4, 2021, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, joined by Homeowners Against Land Taking–PennEast, Inc., filed a response in opposition to an October 29, 2021 motion to hold in abeyance lawsuits challenging FERC’s order issuing Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity — i.e. FERC approvals — for the PennEast Pipeline.

According to the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and HALT legal filing, conflicting statements made by PennEast to the press and in other court proceedings leave open the possibility that PennEast will continue to pursue construction of the Pennsylvania portion of the Project: • “PennEast has not abandoned its efforts to obtain state and federal authorizations that would allow it to construct the “Phase 1” portion of the Project in Pennsylvania.”

• “Any regulatory hurdles faced in New Jersey cited by Movants are not germane to PennEast’s ability to continue pursuing the Project’s construction in Pennsylvania. PennEast has made recent statements to the press that it is still pursuing the Project in Pennsylvania….”
• “PennEast has not withdrawn its Abbreviated Application for Amendment, ….” of its FERC Certificate to allow construction of Phase 1, the Pennsylvania portion of the project.
• “PennEast still has pending applications for Pennsylvania state permits that have not been denied, terminated, or withdrawn.”
• “PennEast still has pending applications for Department of the Army permits pursuant to Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act….”
•  “PennEast also has a pending application for a docket from the Delaware River Basin Commission….”

“PennEast has not withdrawn its project applications before any of the agencies and FERC has not withdrawn its Certification of the PennEast pipeline. Putting this case in abeyance means that PennEast would be free to continue to try to move this project forward through the multiple permitting agencies that still need to provide permits and approvals; and during this time we would be stripped of our ability to challenge the foundational FERC approval that allows this project to remain alive and viable. PennEast isn’t saying the project is dead, FERC isn’t saying this project is dead, why on earth would we voluntarily give away our biggest opportunity to drive a stake into the heart of this devastating fossil fuel, fracked gas pipeline? That would be just plain stupid,” said Maya van Rossum, the Dleaware Riverkeeper and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “Because PennEast continues to pursue an amendment to its certificate and other state and federal permits, the time is ripe for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider the arguments put forth by Delaware Riverkeeper Network and others in this challenge. From a lack of need to its devastating impacts on the environment, to the demonstrated false, misleading and missing information provided by the PennEast companies to FERC, there is no way to support approval of this project.”

The “movants” referred to in the filing who are requesting abeyance of the case by the court are: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission; New Jersey Conservation Foundation; The Watershed Institute; New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel; Township of Hopewell, N.J.; and Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.

Read the November 4, 2021 Response here and a copy of the lawsuit filed by Riverkeeper to retain the right to keep on suing may be found here.

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