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A proposal to carry extra pure gasoline into New Jersey hit a brick wall final month, after regulators did not show that New Jersey wants extra gasoline. The court-ordered halt units up one other spherical of authorized motion. Nonetheless, it’s going to be a troublesome row to hoe. Pure gasoline is up in opposition to competitors from two newly hatched native clear power industries in New Jersey, within the type of offshore wind farms and the forthcoming Mid-Atlantic Clear Hydrogen Hub.
Clear Hydrogen Trumps Pure Gasoline
The builders of the Mid-Atlantic Clear Hydrogen Hub plan to re-purpose current gasoline pipelines with the intention of supporting a domestically produced clear hydrogen business.
The main points are nonetheless underneath negotiation, however the basic concept is to deploy renewable power and/or nuclear power to run electrolysis techniques, which separate hydrogen from water with the assistance of a catalyst. Sustainably talking, that’s a giant step up from the same old strategy to produce hydrogen, by extracting it from pure gasoline.
By way of producing one’s personal power domestically, that’s additionally a 180-degree flip in a brand new course. New Jersey doesn’t produce pure gasoline. Its gasoline utilities and different industries rely upon gasoline imported from different states.
The nuclear power problem apart, what New Jersey does have is a brand new offshore wind business. Presumably that will play a key position within the new hydrogen hub. Electrolyzers can run at night time, when residential and industrial electrical energy demand drops and wind speeds are extra optimum (see extra offshore wind background right here).
The Mid-Atlantic hub consists of components of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and southern New Jersey. It’s one in all a community of seven new H2 hubs throughout the US within the new $7 billion Regional Clear Hydrogen Hub program, funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation.
This system is run by the US Division of Power. As stipulated by the regulation, the Power Division is required to incorporate extraction from pure gasoline in this system. Nonetheless, gasoline shouldn’t be required to be current in every hub. The Mid-Atlantic hub is amongst these to exclude it in favor of different sources.
The Fracking Increase Continues
As for that proposed pure gasoline growth, it’s again to the drafting board for the Regional Power Entry Growth (REAE) challenge. The challenge comes underneath the umbrella of the century-old Oklahoma-based power agency Williams. The enterprise suffered some ups and downs again within the twentieth century, but it surely has ridden the fracking growth of the early twenty first century to a extra sturdy portfolio. “Today, the company is one of the largest gatherers and processors of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale-gas supply regions,” Williams says of itself.
Williams additionally notes that it has “continued to invest in expanding its Transco interstate natural gas pipeline system – the nation’s largest, and fastest-growing – to create access to the ‘best markets’ to the north and south of the Marcellus and Utica supply areas.”
Transco is the Transcontinental Pipeline, which brings methane gasoline from the Gulf Coast to markets within the southeast and northeast, with extensions in Pennsylvania in addition to New Jersey and New York. The REAE challenge goals at leveraging that infrastructure to extend capability.
What Is The REAE Gasoline Growth Challenge In any case?
Though Williams emphasizes that the growth would deploy its current pipelines and rights-of-way, it nonetheless includes new pipelines. On web page 8 of its July 30 ruling, the fifth Circuit notes that “The Project would consist of building approximately 22.3 miles of 30-inch-diameter lateral gas pipeline and 13.8 miles of 42-inch-diameter loop pipeline in Pennsylvania; one new gas-fired compressor station in New Jersey; modifications to five existing compressor stations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and the modification and addition of other ancillary facilities.”
The court docket additionally notes that 73.5% of gasoline from the Challenge would go to New Jersey, with the remaining divided amongst New York, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (right here’s the hyperlink to the ruling once more).
Who Wants Extra Pure Gasoline, Anyway?
To the extent that Williams was relying on the brand new REAE challenge to develop its methane footprint in New Jersey, it has some homework to re-do. So does the Federal Power Regulatory Fee, which issued an approval for the challenge final 12 months.
The fifth Circuit dominated in opposition to FERC on July 30, charging that the company did not account for the truth that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities issued a dedication in 2022 in regards to the want for extra interstate gasoline capability in New Jersey. The dedication was that there will probably be no want for extra capability by 2030 and past.
The Courtroom cited a 2019 unbiased capability examine commissioned by the Board in help of that dedication. As cited by the fifth Circuit, the Board reported that “under most demand scenarios, barring a major catastrophic event impacting one or more primary paths on a major interstate pipeline, New Jersey is well positioned with available interstate [natural gas] supply beyond 2030.”
The fifth Circuit additionally got here down laborious on FERC’s therapy of potential greenhouse gasoline emissions associated to the REAE challenge.
“The Commission’s decision not to make a case-specific determination about the significance of the Project’s anticipated GHG emissions, in light of its own stated precedent that it can do so, nor to explain why it believed it could not do so, was arbitrary and capricious,” the Courtroom wrote.
Good Luck With That New Gasoline Growth
If Williams fails to carry the REAE challenge into being, that wouldn’t be its first latest failure within the northeast area. In 2021, our mates over at Grist catalogued a laundry checklist of thwarted fossil power pipeline initiatives. That features the Williams-backed Structure challenge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which FERC authorized in 2014. Tree-clearing work was already underway when the New York Division of Environmental Conservation stepped in, and Williams backed out in 2020.
The New York DEC additionally got here down in opposition to a Transco-related challenge between New Jersey and New York in 2017. Williams reportedly dropped the concept just some months in the past, in Could of 2024.
For the file, Grist Options Lab contributor Gray Moran makes it clear that native property homeowners and native activists are the frontline fighters pushing again in opposition to new fossil power initiatives, with regional and nationwide environmental teams lending organizational and authorized help.
The case in opposition to the REAE challenge illustrates the community of authorized firepower arrayed in opposition to fossil power stakeholders within the Northeast.
In a celebratory press launch describing the fifth Circuit resolution, the non-profit regulation agency EarthJustice defined that it represents the organizations Meals & Water Watch and the Sierra Membership, whereas Delaware Riverkeeper Community and Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, had been represented by their in-house counsel within the case in opposition to FERC and the REAE challenge.
“EarthJustice co-counseled with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Niskanen Center, which represents New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New Jersey LCV, Aquashicola Pohopoco Watershed Conservancy, and affected landowner Catherine Folio,” EarthJustice added.
Offshore wind and clear hydrogen stakeholders in New Jersey may add to the resistance in opposition to new fossil power initiatives within the coming years, so keep tuned for extra on that.
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Picture: As an alternative of getting extra pure gasoline from elsewhere within the US, New Jersey rising its personal offshore wind business and a brand new clear hydrogen hub, too (courtesy of Mach-2).
