Williams Cos. awaits a decision from New Jersey regulators on its request for approval of its Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project .
The Oklahoma-based company complied with a recent September 25 deadline at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Before Williams can move ahead with the pipeline project, it will need approval from the New Jersey agency. However, the agency has no statutory deadline to issue the permit needed to move ahead with the project.
The company’s plan calls for an extension of its existing Transcontinental natural gas pipeline system from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, through New Jersey and beneath the Raritan and Lower New York Bays to Queens in New York City.
Williams owns the 10,000-mile transcontinental system through a subsidiary, the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company LLC, known as Transco and the line runs from Texas to New York City and transports 15 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States.
But Williams faces growing opposition from environmental groups and local officials in New Jersey’s Somerset County Franklin township where a new compressor station would be built.
As reported by Inside Climate News, the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline has three main components: the 3.4-mile Madison Loop in Middlesex County, which runs adjacent to an existing Transco right of way and is designed to increase delivery capacity in New Jersey; the 23.5-mile Raritan Bay Loop in Middlesex that goes under Raritan and Lower New York Bays to Queens, and a new 32,000 horsepower compressor station in Franklin Township would assist with accelerating flow through the existing pipeline.
Charlie Kratovil is a central Jersey organizer for the advocacy organization called Food and Water Watch.
“It’s just unfortunate that we have to defeat this once again, because there’s a lot of things we could be working on if we weren’t sort of forced to fight this battle once again,” Kratovil said.
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