New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman has asked PresidentClinton to intercede to convince the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission to postpone action on the hotly contested MarketLinkexpansion project for 60 days.

In letters last Friday to both President Clinton and FERC,Whitman proposed the two-month delay so that New Jersey couldadequately review the final environmental impact statement (FEIS)that was favorable to MarketLink, as well as to the SupplyLink andIndependence Pipeline projects. The Commission’s decision to strikeall three of the controversial projects from the agenda at today’smeeting apparently was in response to Whitman’s letter.

A “decision of this magnitude should not be reached in haste andshould only be made after full deliberation and consideration ofthe concerns of those affected, especially when there appears to beno demonstrated urgency” for Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’sMarketLink project, which would traverse the northern portion ofNew Jersey, Whitman wrote to Clinton.

“Based upon our initial review of the [final] EIS, I continue tooppose this pipeline project. I am not convinced that the need forthis project has been adequately demonstrated. Certainly, it hasnot been shown to be compelling enough to counterbalance theadverse impacts of the proposed construction route on the NewJersey environment and the safety and well being of New Jerseycitizens,” she said.

A number of New Jersey lawmakers also sent letters to PresidentClinton seeking a delay in FERC action on the MarketLink expansion.They include Sens. Robert G. Torricelli and Frank Lautenberg, andReps. Rodney Frelinghuysen, William J. Pascrell, Steven Rothman andRush Holt. Rep. Barney Franks (D-MA) also sent a letter.

“Although the pipeline has not received its final permit fromthe FERC, I believe that the time is upon us to not only to preparefor legal steps, but to engage in all appropriate political actionas well,” Whitman said Friday in a prepared statement. Whitman hasthreatened to file legal action, possibly a temporary restrainingorder, to block MarketLink if FERC should approve the project.

“Our congressional delegation has pulled together in abipartisan fashion and [has] been fully supportive of our positionon this matter. I will be counting upon U.S. senators andrepresentatives to join me in appealing to the President and VicePresident to personally intervene by reviewing the proposedpipeline,” she noted.

FERC’s decision to pull the controversial MarketLink,SupplyLink, and Independence projects from today’s meeting agendaisn’t seen as troubling to Transcontinental, the sole sponsor ofMarketLink and co-sponsor of Independence. But if the projectsaren’t on the agenda for the Commission’s Dec. 15 regular meeting,then it’ll be nail-biting time, says a Transco official.

“I would expect we’d show up on the next [agenda]. If we don’tshow up…then we can all start really contemplating…I’ll startworrying a little bit more,” said Jamie Craddock, who as Transco’smanager of project development oversees both the MarketLink andIndependence projects.

In the meantime, she doesn’t believe FERC’s decision to strikethe projects from this week’s agenda portends trouble. “A lot oftimes when they [FERC Commissioners] have big orders to contemplatethey routinely get pulled off the agenda for one reason oranother.”

The Commission’s decision not to act on the controversialprojects “doesn’t mean anything other than somebody wasn’t 100%ready,” Craddock told NGI. She doesn’t believe it was influenced byGov. Whitman’s threat of legal action in the event FERC approvesMarketLink.

New Jersey “had threatened to file that lawsuit even before wewere on the agenda. So I don’t know that that had a whole lot to dowith it. You know it’s real easy to read a lot into things,”Craddock said.

In a related development, Texas Eastern Transmission deniedpublished reports that it also planned to sue if FERC approved theMarktetLink and Independence projects. “That’s totally premature.We have not gone out and said we would do that,” said Greg Rizzo,vice president of regulatory affairs, system planning and pricingfor Tetco. Asked if this was an option that Tetco was consideringfor the future, he replied, “we’ve not reached that point yet.”

At FERC last week, Tetco, whose markets would be threatened ifMarketLink and Independence were approved, strongly objected to theFEIS that was favorable to both projects. It urged the Commissionto postpone final action on the projects “until a supplemental FEISis prepared.” Tetco argued that FERC staff’s environmental studywas “fundamentally and fatally flawed” from both a legal andprocedural standpoint.

SupplyLink is a proposed expansion of ANR Pipeline’s existingsystem from Joliet, IL, to Defiance, OH. It would ship Canadian gassupplies to the greenfield Independence line, which would extendfrom Defiance to the Leidy Hub in Pennsylvania. At Leidy,MarketLink, an expansion of Transco’s existing system, wouldtransport additional gas supplies to Pennsylvania, New Jersey andother East Coast markets.

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