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Pipeline opponents' many routes to block major projects

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Pipeline opponents' many routes to block major projects

Legal and regulatory challenges to some of the natural gas industry's biggest pipeline projects are piling up as environmental groups and other opponents examine options to halt construction.

After the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission put off a decision on rehearing requests involving its approval of the 1.1-Bcf/d PennEast natural gas pipeline, an environmental group said it is counting on other agencies to block the project. On Feb. 22, FERC issued a tolling order for the PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC project, indefinitely extending the deadline beyond the 30 days required by law for the commission to decide whether to grant a rehearing of its decision to approve the project. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network said the order placed challenges to the project in "legal limbo."

"This is an incredible abuse of power and miscarriage of justice," Delaware Riverkeeper leader Maya van Rossum said. She expects that FERC will refrain from issuing a final decision until at least until February 2019 and allow PennEast to proceed with construction on the proposed conduit for Marcellus Shale gas supplies.

Delaware Riverkeeper and other pipeline opponents have criticized FERC's use of tolling orders because they prevent opponents from turning to federal appeals courts until FERC issues a final decision on the rehearing request. FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said tolling orders "allow the commission as much time as needed" to review such requests.

Van Rossum said she hoped that other agencies, such as the Delaware River Basin Commission and New Jersey regulators, will limit construction activities until FERC produces a more thorough environmental review of the project.

About a week later, on March 1, the Delaware River Basin Commission, which represents the U.S. government and the states that share the Delaware River, announced a plan to confine the scope of its review to the portion of the PennEast project in the river basin. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network said in letters to the Delaware River Basin Commission that the regulator's authority was not limited to certain portions of the pipeline and urged the commission to exercise its authority over the entire project.

In the case of the 1.5-Bcf/d Atlantic Coast pipeline project, which will deliver gas from Appalachian suppliers to mid-Atlantic and Southeast markets, pipeline opponents asked FERC to reconsider its approval of early construction activities such as tree clearing, tree removal and ground breaking. The Bold Alliance and the Bold Educational Fund argued that allowing these activities while a federal court reviews challenges to the project "deprives Bold and other parties of their due process rights," the groups' attorney, Carolyn Elefant, said in a Feb. 23 filing.

The groups also said that because Atlantic Coast developers have not secured the pipeline route across several parcels, the commission's authorization of construction would probably mean work could begin along only parts of the route. The Atlantic Coast project is a joint venture of Dominion Energy Inc., Duke Energy Corp., Southern Co. Gas and Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc.

Other environmental groups took the court route to challenge EQT Corp. and other developers of the 2-Bcf/d Mountain Valley gas transportation project. Appalachian Mountain Advocates, on behalf of the Sierra Club and other groups, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to keep the project from doing work that could disturb West Virginia streams until a decision is reached on the environmental coalition's appeal of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' water crossing permit. The coalition has argued that because West Virginia waived its right to issue a Clean Water Act certificate, Mountain Valley must secure an individualized permit for almost 600 stream crossings in the state.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has said it will keep a close eye on the Atlantic Coast and the Mountain Valley projects due to the level of citizen concern. The two projects are often grouped together by regulators and environmental groups.