The pipeline project hit a major snag Wednesday when RC Cape May Holdings, the company that owns BL England, announced it was no longer interested in repowering the plant and would not tie into the planned gas line.

Environmental groups believe they are on the verge of victory in their long battle against a utility company’s plan to run a natural gas pipeline through a portion of the Pinelands in deep South Jersey after another company announced it was abandoning its plan to use the line to repower a Cape May power plant.

South Jersey Gas planned to build the 22-mile pipeline from Maurice River Township in Cumberland County to Upper Township specifically to fuel the formerly coal-powered BL England plant, which was to be converted to natural gas.

Conceived over five years ago, the project has generated controversy because the company’s preferred route crossed through part of the the protected Pinelands, New Jersey’s million-acre forest that is home to rare and endangered plants and animals, along with pristine drinking water.

But the pipeline project hit a major snag Wednesday when RC Cape May Holdings, the company that owns BL England, announced it was no longer interested in repowering the plant and would not tie into the planned gas line. Its decision, which was announced in legal filings, undermines the need for the project and the prior approvals it received from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and the New Jersey Pinelands Commission.

The stated mission of the pipeline was to enhance the reliability of energy and electricity supplies to Cape May and Atlantic counties, but supplying BL England was considered a key component since Pinelands development rules specify that utility projects like the pipeline are permitted in certain parts of the Pinelands, but only if the project provides a direct benefit to the reserve and its residents.

BL England was expected to be the only customer located in the Pinelands to receive gas from the proposed pipeline, although the company argued that residents living in the protected region would still benefit from the jobs and reduced pollution from converting the coal-fired plant to gas.

But without the power plant tie-in, the basis for the Pinelands Commission’s approval becomes null and void, said Carleton Montgomery, director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, the Southampton-based nonprofit that has fought the project since its inception.

“The commission approved the pipeline on the sole basis that all the gas would go to a new plant at BL England, a use located inside the Pinelands. It was a terrible argument, but now even that terrible argument is invalidated,” Montgomery said Wednesday night. “The BPU also relied on the representation that the pipeline would serve a power plant at the BL England site, so its approval too is invalidated. The only course now is for the Pinelands Commission and the BPU to withdraw their approvals of the pipeline altogether.”

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, which is defending the commission in an appeal of its decision filed by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and New Jersey Sierra Club, conceded that point in a Wednesday letter to the New Jersey Appeals Court that requested postponement of an April hearing in the case.

“Today … RC Cape May stated, for the first time, that the BL England electric generating plant will not repower and will not be using the South Jersey Gas pipeline. That filing offers new, important information requiring further consideration by the relevant state entities,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal wrote.

“The fact that (BL England) will not use the pipeline undermines the basis for the substantive approval at issue in this appeal,” Grewal added.

South Jersey Industries Vice President of Communications Marissa Travaline, said the company was not ready to abandon the project, but that it recognizes that its approvals were tied to the BL England plant and that substantial changes would likely be required.

“We recognize we’re looking at a different project,” she said, adding that no decision has been made about the direction the company will take.

Montgomery and other environmental leaders argued that the project, which was originally conceived during Republican Chris Christie’s tenure as governor and backed strongly by his administration, should officially be scuttled and that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy should likewise order a halt to other natural gas projects, such as New Jersey Natural Gas’ planned Southern Reliability Link pipeline through Burlington County.

That pipeline project also crosses a portion of the Pinelands on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and has generated similar outrage from both environmental groups and residents in Bordentown Township, Chesterfield and North Hanover who live near the pipeline’s route.

“The pipeline is not needed. It would cause serious damage in middle of the Pinelands and would increase climate impacts. The pipeline would also block Governor Murphy’s 100 percent renewable energy goals.,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We have been fighting to protect the Pinelands for 40 years and we will keep on fighting, but we need the state to step up and help. If Governor Murphy is true to his word on climate change, then he must stop unnecessary fossil fuels projects and put a moratorium in place.”

Food and Water Watch organizer Jocelyn Sawyer called the new developments surrounding the South Jersey Gas line "stunning news" and "a triumph for the residents and community groups across New Jersey that have fought to protect New Jersey's beloved Pinelands."

"Now it is time for Governor Murphy to further correct the damage done by the Christie administration by pushing the Senate to confirm new Pinelands Commissioners who will protect New Jersey’s most important environmental treasure," Sawyer added. "And the governor must lead the fight for a safe, livable climate by enacting a moratorium on all new fossil fuel projects across the state."