x
  1. Home
  2.  News
  3.  Local News

Tree cutting begins on pipeline after appeal fails

| 15 Feb 2013 | 06:54
    Take a look at the map. How do you see the pipeline? The Sierra Club says the environmental consequences of all four eastern legs of the 300 Line must be evaluated together because they are functionally inter-dependent and designed to act as a complete loop. The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company says this argument has no merit. How do you see it? Post your comment at the bottom of the article.
    Take a look at the map. How do you see the pipeline? The Sierra Club says the environmental consequences of all four eastern legs of the 300 Line must be evaluated together because they are functionally inter-dependent and designed to act as a complete loop. The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company says this argument has no merit. How do you see it? Post your comment at the bottom of the article.

MILFORD — Tree cutting for the Tennessee Gas Pipeline upgrade is already underway, following a Feb. 6 federal court ruling that denied the stay requested by four environmental groups.

On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave the go-ahead to tree cutting in a section of the 44-mile upgrade that falls within the Delaware River basin.

The federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week denied an emergency motion for a stay that had been filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, New Jersey Highlands Coalition, the Sierra Club, and New Jersey Chapter to stop FERC from allowing Tennessee Gas to proceed. The groups sued to prevent work on the upgrade from starting until a still-pending legal challenge of the upgrade's impact on the environment is decided.

In denying the appeal, the court said only that “petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending court review.”

Faith Zerbe, monitoring coordinator with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said Friday that the cutting has already begun. The last hope to stop the project is the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), she said, urging pipeline opponents to write DRBC letters of protest.

DRBC is a regional body whose members include governors from the four basin states — Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware — and an engineer from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who serves as the federal representative. They are equal partners in the planning, development, and regulation of the river basin.

Zerbe said Tennessee Gas is acting fast because they know the public doesn't want it.

"All hands!" Zerbe wrote in an blast email Friday. "We need to keep the pressure on DRBC and Commissioners to...stop the chainsaws! Today chainsaw crews started cutting (they just got FERC approval yesterday and are chomping at bit) to get as much damage done before we stop them!"

She said Tennessee Gas "can only cut trees and are not allowed to do trenching or digging."

Challenge to piecemeal permits
The wider legal challenge still pending argues that Tennessee Gas illegally gained piecemeal permits for smaller pipelines designed to create a much larger project. According to Sierra Club, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should have completed a single Environmental Impact Statement on these projects because they loop the entire eastern leg of Tennessee’s 300 Line and are inter-dependent.

The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company says Sierra Club’s assertion that the environmental consequences of all four eastern leg projects must be evaluated together because the projects are functionally dependent and designed to act as a complete loop of the 300 Line has no merit. Editor's note: How do you see it? We'd like to know. Post your comment at the bottom of this article.