Misinterprets Responses to FERC Data Request
The PennEast Pipeline Company has not submitted a recent alternative route with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as deceptively claimed by the New Jersey Sierra Club in a November 29 news release.
PennEast has not submitted route alternatives since the end of September, when it announced 33 route modifications largely in response to input from landowners, agencies and others. “This is the latest example of the New Jersey Sierra Club and its director Jeff Tittel spreading misinformation, deceiving communities and making inflammatory statements about the Project,” said Pat Kornick, PennEast spokesperson.
“The irresponsible release might bode well for Sierra Club fundraising, though such questionable credibility hinders honest, factual dialogue about the Project.”
In a November response filed with FERC in part at the request of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, PennEast details the significant additional impacts that would occur to avoid designated Important Bird Areas (IBAs). PennEast’s response concludes “It is preferable to utilize the currently proposed route and minimize impacts to the IBA and migratory birds by utilizing the appropriate avoidance and minimization measures.” Using the information submitted at the request of FERC, Tittel falsely overstates the number of route deviations that PennEast has filed since its original application in September 2015.
“It is clear that PennEast has NOT recommended submitting the route to which Jeff Tittel refers, and while disconcerting, it is not surprising that he would mischaracterize it this way,” said Kornick.
“When other mitigation measures are available, it is ludicrous to suggest that PennEast would propose adding 20 miles to the length of the Project and to cross the Delaware River not once, but twice. He either was sloppy in his reading of PennEast’s response or he intentionally misrepresented it. Either scenario demonstrates that neither he nor the New Jersey Sierra Club can be trusted as a credible source, particularly regarding the PennEast Pipeline.”
The PennEast Pipeline will address an area of significant pipeline constraint and will reduce natural gas and electricity costs in the region, improve reliability and promote economic growth. It will connect southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey families and businesses with abundant, low-cost supplies of natural gas for decades to come.
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