New Jersey regulators have issued the final state permit needed for a controversial expansion of natural gas infrastructure across Central Jersey.
The state Department of Environmental Protection approved an air permit for the proposed expansion of a Williams Transco compressor station, leading environmentalists to threaten a legal challenge.
The permit, issued on Monday, clears the way for construction of a 32,000-horsepower natural gas-fired facility in Franklin Township in Somerset County. The compressor, called Station 206, will expand Williams Transco’s pipeline capacity, a key component of its Northeast Supply Enhancement project, or NESE.
The New Jersey Sierra Club, in a statement, said it “will continue to legally fight NESE at every level,” arguing that the project will benefit New York, while New Jersey will bear a pollution burden.
New York “should be looking for alternatives to provide energy to its Long Island residents that do not compromise both the health of New Jerseyans and New Yorkers, dump tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, rip through our lands and wetlands and dredge up toxic chemicals in the Hudson and Raritan Bays,” Taylor McFarland, conservation program manager for the Sierra Club, said in a statement.
The broader NESE project includes 3.4 miles of new pipeline between Old Bridge and Sayreville and a 23-mile line beneath the Raritan Bay and New York Harbor, connecting New Jersey and New York. It also includes a new compressor station and 10 miles of pipeline in Pennsylvania.
Larry Hajna, a DEP spokesman, said the company’s application satisfied all state requirements. The permit, he said, “ensures that two natural gas turbines at the proposed compressor station comply with all applicable state air quality regulations.”
The new air permit comes after other key approvals were granted by federal, New Jersey and New York authorities late last year. Those marked a stunning turnaround for the NESE project, which appeared dead after years of rejections by New Jersey and New York.
Williams Transco has said the project will ensure peak-demand reliability in New York, particularly Long Island. Environmental groups, though, say the Somerset County compressor station will worsen local air quality, despite monitoring requirements, and undercut New Jersey’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“This decision flies in the face of science, public opposition and the DEP’s own 2020 determination that the project failed to meet New Jersey’s environmental standards,” Jesse Sutherland, policy director for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement. “At a moment when New Jersey should be accelerating a transition to clean energy and protecting overburdened communities from more pollution, the Murphy administration is choosing to side with fossil fuel CEOs.”
Source: https://www.njspotlightnews.org/video/nj-approves-air-permit-for-natural-gas-station-amid-environmental-fury/