New Jersey’s Attorney General (AG) Office said yesterday it willfile by “no later than” Friday a petition seeking court review ofFERC’s decision awarding a certificate to Transcontinental GasPipeLine to proceed with the construction of a hotly-disputedpipeline expansion through the northern part of the state.

In the petition, the state plans to challenge an April ruling inwhich the Commission voted out a certificate for Transco’sMarketLink project, which would expand the pipeline’s existingsystem in Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey by 700 MMcf/d

The appeal will be filed at the request of state Gov. ChristineTodd Whitman in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Theproposed project has been fiercely contested by landowners in bothstates, by New Jersey lawmakers and by Whitman.

New Jersey announced it intended to challenge FERC’s decisionwithin days after it was issued in late April. Whitman threatenedall along to take the Commission to court if it gave the go-aheadfor the MarketLink expansion. She even appealed to PresidentClinton for help last year. The state won a reprieve last Decemberwhen FERC approved MarketLink, but withheld its certificate untilit could produce evidence of further market support for theproject.

In approving MarketLink, the Garden State intends to argue thatFERC failed in its legal obligation to properly address the safetyof the proposed expansion, failed to protect New Jersey’senvironment and failed to properly consider a proposed alternativeto the expansion.

The certificate granted to Transco is conditioned on thepipeline first submitting executed contracts for all of theexpansion capacity, ridding its project contracts of market-outclauses and showing that its contracts will not hinge on theavailability of upstream transportation on the proposedIndependence Pipeline.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.