September 13, 2016 – Andrea Sears, Public News Service (PA)
Delaware Riverkeeper says the PennEast Pipeline would clear 400 acres of forest and cross 234 bodies of water. (Niteshift/Wikimedia Commons)
BRISTOL, Pa. – The public comment period on the PennEast Pipeline Draft Environmental Impact Statement closed Monday, and one environmental group has mounted a major challenge to the project.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has submitted eighty pages of objections to the content and omissions of the draft EIS, prepared by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, believes the document is so deficient that it violates the National Environmental Policy Act.
“It’s got huge data gaps,” she said. “It’s wrong on the information all the way around, either because it’s got misinformation or misleading information, or because it’s missing the information altogether.”
The developers of the project say the 115-mile, 36-inch diameter underground pipeline would reduce energy costs and support thousands of jobs.
But van Rossum said the pipeline isn’t necessary. She pointed out that both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the pipeline would end, already have more natural gas than they need.
“It is wholly inappropriate to be destroying our environment, and taking people’s property through the power of eminent domain, so that the PennEast Pipeline Companies can attempt to get a competitive edge over other pipelines,” she added.
In the past 30 years, FERC, which is funded by the industries it regulates, has rejected only one of the pipeline projects that have gone before its commissioners for approval.
By the end of this year, FERC is expected to reach a decision on the PennEast draft EIS. Van Rossum said the commission could issue a new draft and open a new public comment period, or it could decide to advance the current document as the final environmental impact statement.
“And if they do that, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network is well postured to bring a legal challenge against that draft EIS and to win,” she noted.
In March, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed a federal lawsuit claiming the commission has a conflict of interest and is biased in favor of the oil and gas industry.
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