ENVIRONMENT

Pinelands pipeline in doubt after B.L. England owner quits natural gas plan

Russ Zimmer
Asbury Park Press

The owners of a South Jersey power plant have abandoned plans to draw fuel from a proposed Pinelands pipeline, handing environmentalists a big win and casting doubt on the pipeline's viability.  

Owners of the B.L. England power plant have pulled out of a plan to fuel the plant with natural gas from a controversial pipeline project that would pass through the Pinelands.

The B.L. England plant, one of the last coal-burning sources of electricity in New Jersey, will not be reborn as a natural-gas fired power plant, according to a court filing.

Not only does this withdrawal reverberate through the local economy, but it undercuts South Jersey Gas' stated argument that their prospective pipeline is necessary.

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Executives at the gas company say this was merely a setback and not the end of the Cape Atlantic Reliability Project.

“We’ve already begun to explore alternative solutions that will allow for a secondary supply of natural gas, needed to create reliability and resiliency for the 142,000 customers in Atlantic and Cape May counties who count on us to heat their homes and provide hot meals and hot water for their families,” said Dave Robbins, the president of South Jersey Gas, which first pitched the project officially in 2012, in a news release.

However, conservation groups, which have been warning of adverse effects on the climate and sea levels that accompany the burning of natural gas, were cheering the news.

“This is a big win for clean air and a major setback for South Jersey Gas pipeline," said said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, in a statement this morning. "The B.L England plant would have been the largest polluters and greenhouse gas emitter in this part of South Jersey. It is now going to close and not reopen. Without this plant, there is no need for the SJG pipeline. The pipeline should now be stopped,”

A message seeking comment from Rockland Capital, the Houston-based private equity firm that owns the power plant, was not immediately returned. 

Although there is a great deal of overlap with the issues at hand, the Cape Atlantic Reliability pipeline should not be confused with a second, separate Pinelands project: New Jersey Natural Gas' Southern Reliability Link.

The Cape Atlantic Reliability pipeline is a 22-mile long, 2-feet wide natural gas transmission pipeline from Millville to Upper Township. About half of that route is in the Pinelands, the largest tract of untouched forest and wetlands in the most developed state in the union.

After a drawn-out and contentious application process, the Pinelands Commission approved the project in February 2017

Soon after, the opponents of the project sued the commission and the pipeline's backers.

In a letter to the appellate court on Wednesday, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which represents the commission in legal matters, informed court staff that an upcoming hearing would need to be cancelled due to "new, important information requiring further consideration."

RC Cape May Holdings, a subsidiary of Rockland Capital, had divulged, for the first time, that the power plant at Beesley's Point "will not repower and will not be using the South Jersey Gas pipeline," the letter reads.

South Jersey Gas was prepared for this outcome, said Marissa Travaline, vice president of communications, this morning.

"You’ll probably see a different project going forward, but the good news is that this isn’t something we hadn't thought about," she told the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey.

Proposed route of a South Jersey Gas natural gas pipeline

But environmentalists see this material change as an opportunity for Gov. Phil Murphy, who campaigned on a platform that embraced clean energy and made several steps in that direction last year, to quash the pipeline project once and for all.

The approval process will need to begin anew, giving the Pinelands Commission (with two new members appointed by Murphy) another chance to decide if the pipeline is "primarily for the benefit of the Pinelands" — the standard for development within the protected land.

"Governor Murphy and his administration have steadfastly stood by their commitment to 100 (percent) clean energy by 2050, and because of that, we are beginning to see the makings of a fossil-free New Jersey," said Ed Potosnak, executive director of New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, in a statement this morning.

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com, @russzimmer