Opponents of a proposed $246-million compressor station on an existing Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. line must include the company in its appeal of the project’s exemption from a state environmental law, the New Jersey Supreme Court said April 11.
塞拉俱乐部,食物和水看和新泽西Highlands Coalition filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection for exempting the pipeline company, a unit of Kinder Morgan, from the requirements of a state law, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, protecting an area in northern New Jersey.
Tennessee Gas filed a motion to intervene, which a lower court had denied.
塞拉俱乐部新泽西分会的前执行指导杰夫·蒂特尔（Jeff Tittel）告诉ENR，该诉讼是针对授予该豁免的国家机构提起的，因为此类行动仅限于受监管的公用事业。新利18备用“州际气管管道不是实用程序。国家无权授予豁免。”他说。
田纳西州的天然气认为，它在上诉中具有“无可争议的经济利益”，因为任何搁置该项目的豁免的决定都可能会延迟建设，并影响其履行其合同义务的能力。
该项目包括一个19000马力的电动压缩or turbine and upgrades to two existing compressor stations but will not include any new pipeline construction, according to Kinder Morgan. The proposed site for the new compressor station is a previously disturbed industrial parcel, formerly used as a quarry and other industrial and commercial purposes, the company said.
升级将使现有管道系统的天然气容量每天增加115,000个DEKATHERMS，以满足纽约州公用事业公司合并Edison的指定市场需求。
金德·摩根（Kinder Morgan）说，这也将有助于消除该地区的容量限制，尤其是在高峰需求期间，该地区于2020年申请了联邦能源监管委员会的项目批准。
In another pipeline dispute, FERC on April 8 approved a request by the developer of the $6-billion Mountain Valley Pipeline to change its construction method to cross 120 water bodies along a 70-mile route by using tunneling rather than open cut. The move amends the company’s permit issued in 2017.
The project still must obtain a water crossing permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and approvals from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
The 303-mile project, which is nearly completed, would transport fracked gas from the Marcellus Shale in northern West Virginia to southern Virginia.
“Mountain Valley's usage of trenchless waterbody crossings will result in fewer environmental impacts than the crossing method that the commission approved under the original certificate,” FERC Commissioners Richard Glick and Allison Clements said in a statement, noting that it would be an improvement over the status quo.
