New Jersey and the state’s Department of Law and Public Safetypetitioned the D.C. appellate court yesterday to review two FERCdecisions giving Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line the green light tobuild a hotly-disputed pipeline expansion through the northern partof the state.

In the petition, the state mounted a challenge to theCommission’s April ruling granting a long-awaited certificate toTransco for its MarketLink project, which would expand thepipeline’s existing system in Pennsylvania and northern New Jerseyby 700 MMcf/d.

The state did not ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.Circuit to enjoin Transco from building the project while the caseis being considered. “It’s an option that’s open, but it is not onethe state has decided to pursue at the moment,” said DanaContratto, a partner in the D.C. law firm of Crowell & MoringLLP, which has been retained by New Jersey.

He noted a number of other petitions for review might be filedwith the court by the Monday deadline. Approximately 112 partieswere involved in the proceedings at FERC, Contratto estimated,adding that the figure didn’t include landowners.

The appeal was filed at the urging of state Gov. Christine ToddWhitman, whose office “was very much involved in the proceedings”at the Commission. The proposed MarketLink pipeline expansion hasbeen fiercely contested by landowners in both the Garden State andPennsylvania, by New Jersey lawmakers and by Whitman.

New Jersey announced it intended to challenge FERC’s decisionawarding the certificate within days after it was issued in lateApril. Whitman threatened all along to take the Commission to courtif it gave the go-ahead for the MarketLink expansion. She evenappealed to President Clinton for help last year.

The state won a reprieve last December when FERC approvedMarketLink, but withheld the certificate until Transco couldproduce evidence of further market support for the project. NewJersey also is asking the court to review the December decision.

A spokesman for the state’s Attorney General Office said NewJersey intends to argue that FERC failed in its legal obligation toproperly address the safety of the proposed expansion, failed toprotect New Jersey’s environment and failed to properly consider aproposed alternative to the MarketLink expansion.

The certificate granted to Transco in April was conditioned onthe pipeline 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.

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