Tennessee Gas Pipeline and the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday pushed back against environmentalists' efforts to get a federal court to block construction of the Northeast Upgrade Project.
"Riverkeepers have failed to meet their heavy burden to justify the 'extraordinary and drastic remedy' of an emergency stay," Tennessee said their filing with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The Northeast Upgrade Project in Pennsylvania and New Jersey will add 636,000 Dt/d of capacity to Tennessee's 300 Line System. It includes construction of five pipeline loop segments totaling more than 40 miles of 30-inch-diameter pipe and the addition of 22,310 horsepower of compression.
The New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the New Jersey Highlands Coalition asked FERC to stop construction of the project. They argued, in part, that Tennessee unfairly split the expansion of its 300 Line into smaller components to avoid more scrutiny under the National Environmental Policy Act.
FERC denied the request January 11. Last week, the groups asked the DC Circuit for an emergency stay of FERC's order.
"Before this court can rule on petitioners' claims that FERC has violated NEPA and the [Natural Gas Act], [Tennessee] will irreparably harm petitioners' recreational and aesthetic interests," the petition said.
But both FERC and Tennessee opposed the request, arguing that the commission had thoroughly analyzed the environmental impact of the project. "The commission correctly declined to develop a programmatic environmental impact statement for unconnected natural gas projects," FERC said.
Tennessee also noted that the DC Circuit January 17 denied the groups' request to block the project under a different law.
In that case, the court found that "petitioners have not satisfied the stringent standards that apply to petitions under the All Writs Act that seek to stay agency action."
