The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) resumed the appeal process and reopened the comment period on the Islander East project earlier this month. The public comment period will extend to Nov. 20 and a public hearing on the project will be scheduled this fall in Connecticut, NOAA said in a Federal Register notice. Meanwhile, on Aug. 8, NOAA officially closed the record on the Millennium Pipeline appeal, leaving 90 days for it to make a final decision on the project.

Both Islander East and Millennium received certificates from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last September but were subsequently blocked by state rulings that they violated the state’s Coastal Zone Management Programs. It was the first time the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), which is administered by NOAA, had been used to block major natural gas pipeline projects.

The states charged that the projects violated their coastal programs because they would harm the environment, wildlife and other coastal resources. The 442-mile, 700 MMcf/d Millennium Pipeline, which would stretch from Lake Erie to New York City mostly looping Columbia Gas Transmission’s existing system, would impact the sensitive Haverstraw Bay area of the Hudson River. The Islander East project, which initially would carry 260 MMcf/d and ultimately more than 400 MMcf/d from Connecticut to Long Island, would impact Long Island Sound.

Project sponsors, meanwhile, have asked the Commerce division to overturn the state rulings, saying they did everything possible to minimize their impact on the environment and have exhausted the route options on projects widely seen as necessary to support energy reliability in the Northeast and in New York City and Long Island in particular (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19, 2002, Sept. 19, 2002, Dec. 9, 2002, July 31, Aug. 6). Millennium Pipeline is sponsored by subsidiaries of NiSource, TransCanada PipeLines, and Duke Energy. Islander East is sponsored by Duke Energy and KeySpan.

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