NJ Sierra Club Flat Out Lied About Why The NESE Pipeline Was Killed

Sierra Club Takes Credit For Killing Pipeline

NY Gov. Cuomo Killed The Pipeline 4 Years Ago By Enforcing NY Climate Law

Sierra Club Obscures Toothless NJ Climate Law & DEP Lax Regulation

Sierra Club Misleading Implies That The FERC Process Killed Pipeline

A friend just forwarded a press release issued yesterday by the NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The release took credit for killing the proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline under Raritan Bay, see:

• NESE Mess is Finally Cleaned Up- Williams Transco Project is Dead 

Williams Transco decided not to renew their FERC extension for their Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, which expired on Friday, May 3, 2024. The New Jersey Chapter, including the Raritan Valley Group and Central Jersey Group, has been fighting this fossil fuel project for the past eight years. The New Jersey Chapter celebrated this incredible victory with environmental organizations in Keyport, NJ.

There are at least 4 major errors in this press release.

Let’s drill down on a few.

I’ve written numerous times about pipeline regulation. I wrote specifically about the NESE pipeline, see:

• Murphy DEP “Denial” Of Raritan Bay Pipeline Permits Exposes Huge Gaps In DEP Regulations On Climate And Water Quality Impacts

In all those efforts, I’ve tried to make 2 fundamental points in order to correctly focus the efforts of pipeline activists and media reporters:

1) the NJ DEP has strong statutory and regulatory authority under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act to deny the “water quality certificates” (WQC) to kill proposed pipelines, but the DEP refused and failed to enforce this authority.

To illustrate this failure, I have cited NY State DEC’s denial of WQC’s to kill permits.

The Williams NESE proposed pipeline was killed by NY DEC on May 5, 2020 by denying the WQC. You can read the NY DEC’s regulatory basis here.

The NY DEC’s decision provides a model for enforceable State climate laws and State environmental regulatory leadership.

It also exposes major flaws in NJ’s toothless, unenforceable, and aspirational Global Warming Response Act and the total failure of leadership by the Murphy DEP.

2) The NJ Global Warming Response Act is toothless and does not provide authority to NJ DEP to deny permits based on the aspirational greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the Act, see:

• Senate Environment Committee Chairman Smith Introduces Legislation To Put Regulatory Teeth In The Global Warming Response Act

In contrast, the New York State Climate law does provide authority to NY DEC to deny permits for proposed projects that would violate greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, see:

• What A Difference A State (Law) Makes

In fact, the NY DEC relied on this NY climate law to deny the NESE permits back on May 15, 2020.

You can read the media coverage here: (Politico):

• Cuomo administration cites new climate law in denying controversial New York, New Jersey pipeline

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration denied a permit for a pipeline to supply natural gas to Long Island and New York City in a landmark decision citing the state’s sweeping climate law.

You can read the NY DEC regulatory basis here (scroll to page 14 to get to the climate analysis).

So, assuming the goals are to kill pipelines and enforce climate goals:

•  Why would the NJ Sierra Club not tell the truth about what really killed the project?
• Why would they let NJ DEP off the hook for failure to enforce Section 401 of the Clean Water Act?
• Why would they ignore and thereby allow loopholes to persist if NJ’s toothless Global Warming Response Act?

This is way beyond a simple oversight or even gross incompetence.

It amounts to intentionally providing cover for the Murphy DEP and Senator Smith’s failure to put teeth in the NJ Global Warming Response Act.

3) The Sierra press release states that: “Williams Transco decided not to renew their FERC extension for their Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, which expired on Friday, May 3, 2024.

This falsely implies that Williams made the decision, when it was Governor Cuomo’s NY DEC that made the decision by killing the project back in May 2020.

Why would an environmental group give a fossil energy company credit for a decision that really was the result of a government environmental permit denial?

It also falsely implies that the FERC review process is what killed the NESE pipeline (instead of NY DEP WQC and climate regulatory review).

This an egregiously misleading claim, because it not only diverts focus from the real regulatory sources of the kill, but the FERC rubber stamps virtually every pipeline project and the FERC standards are lax and the FERC review process is a waste of time and resources.

4) Sierra Club activists served as cheerleaders to Gov. Murphy and his DEP and the NJ Global Warming Response Act.

• “Green” Sycophants Provide False Praise To NJ Gov. Murphy For Killing Raritan Pipeline

The NJ DEP had nothing to do with killing this pipeline. Just the opposite: they failed to enforce Section 401 of the CWA while NY DEC did to deny the WQC and kill the project.

The NJ GWRA is toothless, but the NY climate law provides regulatory teeth that NY DEC used to kill the NESE pipeline.

Accordingly, Sierra Club activists were misguided and misfocused and were totally ineffective and had zero impact.

It is grossly unethical to take credit for the work of others.

Worse, they now continue those misguided efforts and intentionally mislead and lie to the public.

Shame on them.