Victory! Developer Abandons 116-Mile PennEast Gas Pipeline Project After Being Denied Proper Water Quality Permits

Photo by: Sierra Club

The developers of the controversial PennEast Pipeline project just announced that they are cancelling the project after being denied necessary water quality permits.

PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC’s 116-mile pipeline would have shipped fracked Marcellus Shale gas from Northeast Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River to New Jersey, where it would likely be sold to foreign countries.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection declined to issue Clean Water Act permits for the project in 2019, citing its potential impacts to water quality. Last week, PennEast cited their inability to comply with the Clean Water Act as their reason for halting the project. The pipeline would have threatened more than 88 waterways, 44 wetlands, 30 parks, and 33 conservation easements with leaks, explosions and pollution.

The project’s backers were planning to use eminent domain to take land from the state of New Jersey for the pipeline, a controversial practice that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

The decision comes as climate scientists raise the alarm about the rapid expansion of gas infrastructure worldwide, which leaks massive amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The United Nations and International Energy Agency recently found that the world will not be able to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis unless gas use is immediately curtailed and replaced with clean energy.

“In a major victory for the environment, the PennEast Pipeline has been defeated. Finally, after 7 years of fighting this disastrous fossil fuel project, we can breathe easier. PennEast tried to use every option they had to destroy preserved land, farmland, and state parks, but we were there every step of the way to make sure that did not happen. This victory happened because the public kept fighting by protesting, writing letters, campaigns, and large public outcry,” Taylor McFarland, Acting Director of Sierra Club- NJ Chapter, told WAN. “We want to thank the public and the Murphy Administration for all of their efforts to help stop this unnecessary and unneeded fossil fuel project.”

WAN welcomes this huge victory especially after the devastating oil spill on October 2nd in the city of Huntington Beach. Shockingly, 126,000 gallons of oil has leaked into the Pacific Ocean threatening the lives of many marine species.

To learn more about Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign and ways that you can take action to protection our environment, CLICK HERE!

You can help all animals and our planet by choosing compassion on your plate and in your glass. #GoVeg