The New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) has filed a legal brief in support of Transcontinental Pipeline’s request for a full review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This comes after a three-judge panel from the court nullified regulatory approval for the expansion of the Transco natural gas pipeline in New Jersey.
Attorneys Daniel S. Weinberger, Jennifer A. Hradil, and Andrew J. Marino from Gibbons P.C. submitted the amicus curiae brief on September 20 on behalf of NJBIA. The association is seeking a rehearing by the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the decision made by a three-judge panel on July 30.
In that unanimous decision, Circuit Judges Cornelia Pillard, J. Michelle Childs, and Bradley Garcia overturned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) approval of the Transco Regional Energy Access Expansion Project. The project includes adding 36 miles of new pipeline in Pennsylvania and infrastructure upgrades in New Jersey.
The appellate panel sided with arguments from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the State of New Jersey, and others who claimed federal regulators did not adequately consider both the necessity of the project and its impact on state laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The case was sent back to FERC for further consideration.
NJBIA’s brief argues that New Jersey relies heavily on interstate pipelines to import natural gas from Pennsylvania since it does not produce or have reserves of its own. As one of the nation’s top consumers of natural gas, many industries in New Jersey, especially manufacturing, depend on a stable and reasonably priced energy supply—a situation threatened by the appellate panel’s ruling.
“The elimination of the project will materially increase costs for New Jersey’s consumers of natural gas, including New Jersey’s manufacturers and other businesses,” states NJBIA's brief. It also mentions that this ruling could negatively affect national energy security and economy, particularly impacting New Jersey.
By prioritizing analysis from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities over FERC's findings and siding with state authorities, NJBIA contends that “the Panel Opinion thus effectively afforded individual State governments the ability to block construction of interstate gas pipelines.”
