Court ruling puts the schedule for Williams' $1B Northeast gas pipeline at risk

The Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit turned down a request from Transco, the Williams unit building the line, for rehearing by the panel or the full court, ENR reported. On Sept. 8 the same court had thrown out New Jersey's Clean Water Act Section 401 certification. The judges found the state agency left monitoring rules for dredging in Raritan Bay unsettled and never explained how the dredging would meet state water standards. The file now returns to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which can add analysis, reissue the permit, change it or deny it.

The project adds about 37 miles of pipe and related facilities to the Transco system and 400,000 dekatherms a day of capacity for National Grid's customers on Long Island and in New York City. In New Jersey it includes Station 206, a compressor station to be built in Somerset County, the Madison Loop (3.4 miles of pipe in Middlesex County) and roughly six miles of line under Raritan Bay. In court filings, Transco said Station 206 needs about 13 months of construction and that federal regulators can't give a notice to proceed on New Jersey work without a valid state certificate. It had planned to start in the state on Oct. 1 and asked the judges to force an agency decision in time to break ground by Oct. 30, which they declined to do.

The court's objections concern only the bay crossing, where Transco did not plan to begin before March or April 2027. The vacated permit, though, also covered the compressor station and the Madison Loop. Just after the September ruling, Williams said it expected no schedule impact. New York's certification still stands, and Pennsylvania has approved its section. Absent further court action, the mandate that makes the ruling final is expected Oct. 29, according to ENR. Williams did not tell ENR whether it will go to the Supreme Court. The order sets no new date or cost estimate, Mugglehead noted.