New Jersey wins legal challenge to PennEast natgas pipeline
Source: Reuters
COMMODITIES SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 / 10:55 AM / UPDATED 42 MINUTES AGO
New Jersey wins legal challenge to PennEast natgas pipeline
Scott DiSavino
3 MIN READ
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday barred PennEast Pipeline Co from using a federal law to seize properties controlled by the state of New Jersey in order to build a proposed $1 billion natural gas pipeline.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said in its decision that the U.S. Natural Gas Act does not allow companies to condemn state controlled land in federal court because states enjoy sovereign immunity from such actions under the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
PennEast obtained approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build the pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in January 2018 and promptly sued in federal district court to use the federal government’s eminent domain power to gain access to 131 properties along the route in New Jersey under the U.S. Natural Gas Act.
New Jersey, which opposes construction of the pipe, did not consent to PennEast’s condemnation suits on 42 of the 131 properties it controls. The state holds possessory interests in two of the properties and non-possessory interests in the rest, most often through easements requiring the land be preserved for recreational, conservation or agricultural use.
PennEast needs the land to build its 120-mile (190-km) pipeline, which is designed to deliver gas from the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania to customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-penneast-natgas-new-jersey/new-jersey-wins-legal-challenge-to-penneast-natgas-pipeline-idUSKCN1VV1WB
