Pinelands pipeline passes, what's next?

TRENTON - Over a bizarre cacophony of boos, cheers, cowbell clanging and flutes, the Pinelands Commission approved the construction of a natural gas transmission line through the preservation area.

The 8-4 vote, which was held at the War Memorial Theater in Trenton ostensibly to accommodate a crowd that ended up being much smaller than previous commission events, looks like the end of New Jersey Natural Gas's four-year dance with the commission.

Watch the video above to see the moment the final vote was cast.

Opponents have pledged to sue to overturn the decision, which was not unexpected because the commission was rejiggered in 2014 to be more amenable to natural gas infrastructure.

The Southern Reliability Link, as the project is officially known, is a 30-mile pipeline that crosses into the Pinelands preserve via the Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst.

The pipeline would provide a backup source of natural gas to more than 1 million people in Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean counties, according to the proposal from New Jersey Natural Gas.

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Nearly all of the NJNG pipeline would be buried underneath existing roadways, save for a few spots including about 200-feet of forest area that would need to be cleared near Lakehurst.

After securing permission from both the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Board of Public Utilities, only the Pinelands Commission stood in the way.

The commissioners voting for the project: chairman Sean Earlen, vice chair Paul Galletta, Alan Avery (Ocean County Freeholders appointee), William Brown, Joe Chila, Jane Jannarone, Edward McGlinchy and Gary Quinn.

The commissioners voting again the project: Candace Ashmun, Mark Lohbauer, Richard Prickett and D'Arcy Rohan Green.

Bob Barr was absent and Edward Lloyd recused himself.

NJNG is in the process of securing final right-of-way agreements and permissions from the Joint Base, according to Michael Kinney, the company's spokesman.

"Once we have all the necessary permits, we can begin construction," he said. "Depending on the schedule, construction could take anywhere from ten to 12 months."

The commission's executive director, Nancy Whittenberg, prepared a report that recommended approval of the project, saying that it comported with the environmentally sensitive vision of the Pinelands that the commissioners are guided by.

But to the opposition, the gas company never satisfied the requirements for building this kind of infrastructure in the Pinelands preservation area.

The NJNG plan relied on the role of the Joint Base, the gas service to which NJNG said would be better protected by the pipeline even though there would be no direct connection. Multiple base commanders had endorsed the project.

"The new pipeline would place an alternative source of natural gas energy in the region but it would not be connected to the base," Lohbauer said in explaining his "no" vote. "Is this project actually associated with the base? The obligation to demonstrate that falls on the applicant and it has not been demonstrated."

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For some opponents, the pipeline fight not only represented a line in the sand for the sanctity of New Jersey's most treasured forests but as a chance to break from the mistakes of the past.

"The climate crisis is right here, right now," Lena Smith, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, said in a statement after the decision. "Building more fossil fuel infrastructure will bring more pollution and will only make the crisis worse."

This is the second natural gas pipeline that the commission has given its blessing to this year.

That's no coincidence, says Carleton Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.

"The proponents of the project want to get this done while Governor Christie is still the governor and before the next governor has a chance to make appointments to the commission," he said.

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In February, commissioners — in a 9-5 vote — signed off on the construction of South Jersey Gas's Cape Atlantic Reliability Project.

It was the commission's rejection of that project in 2014 which triggered Gov. Chris Christie's decision to step in and save the pipeline by reassigning or replacing commissioners.

In addition to the two Pinelands projects, state and federal governments are vetting two other natural gas pipelines:

PennEast: a 120-mile interstate pipeline that ends near Pennington in Mercer County.

Northeast Supply Enhancement: a $1 billion project that would cross the Raritan Bay from Old Bridge to Brooklyn.

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com