HEADLINE: “The Battle to Block TGP’s East 300 NJ Pipe & Compressor is Over”, y JIM WILLIS

“The lawfare battle brought by radical green groups in New Jersey, including Food and Water Watch, the NJ Highlands Coalition, and the Sierra Club, aimed at overturning the decision to permit….”

The Battle to Block TGP’s East 300 NJ Pipe & Compressor is Over

ANTI-DRILLING/FOSSIL FUEL | ENERGY SERVICES | INDUSTRYWIDE ISSUES | KINDER MORGAN | LITIGATION | PIPELINES | TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE

The lawfare battle brought by radical green groups in New Jersey, including Food and Water Watch, the NJ Highlands Coalition, and the Sierra Club, aimed at overturning the decision to permit and build an electric compressor station and a pipeline that connects to it, is over. Done. Finished. Can we please stick a fork in it? We’re talking about the battle to block a compressor project in West Milford, NJ, part of Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) East 300 expansion project, an upgrade of TGP to deliver an extra 115 MMcf/d of natural gas to Consolidated Edison and its customers in New York City and surrounding suburbs. The radicals just flamed out in a NJ appeals court and have no options left to challenge it.

East 300 consists of upgrading two existing compressor stations — one in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey — and building a new all-electric, no-emissions compressor station in West Milford. Anti-drillers attacked the new all-electric compressor station from the beginning (see Radicals Challenge No-Emissions Compressor in NJ Supreme Court). They failed to get NJ’s Supreme Court to rule against the project.

But you know radicals — they keep coming like the Zombie Apocalypse. Although East 300 is a FERC-approved project (i.e., a federal project), building the West Milford compressor involved obtaining a permit from the NJ DEP. The compressor is located in the Highlands Preservation Area, which sounds like some pristine nature preserve. It’s not. Take a look at the site before TGP began to build its compressor:

As you can see from the picture on the left (before construction), the area was in disrepair. A junk heap. In fact, before TGP bought the land and built the compressor, a waste recycling facility had been planned for that location, which would have emitted tons of greenhouse gases. In contrast, TGP’s all-electric compressor generates no greenhouse gases. The TGP compressor is also far quieter than a regular compressor and quieter than the proposed waste recycling facility. The argument of antis that this compressor would harm the environment and is noisy was a 100% lie, as we now see.

The NJ DEP issued TGP a Highlands Applicability Determination (HAD) exempting the West Milford compressor station construction from a full Highlands Preservation Area permitting review — a sort of fast-track permit. Work on the new West Milford compressor in NJ began in November 2022 (see Gas Haters Protest as New Emissions-Free Compressor is Built in NJ). As the project neared completion, the radicals were able to convince three judges of the NJ Superior Court (one step down from NJ Supreme Court) to pull the NJ DEP fast-tracked permit (see Antis Convince NJ Superior Court to Block East 300 Gas Compressor).

Food & Water Watch rejoiced. They thought they had stopped the project. But they didn’t. The court decision referred the permit and the project’s future back to the NJ DEP for further consideration. It didn’t take long for the DEP to issue permission to TGP to fire up the completed facility, which occurred on October 31, 2023, causing a temper tantrum by the wackos (see TGP East 300 NJ Gas Compressor Powers Up!). Antis Throw a Tantrum).

They appealed yet again. The appellate court just ruled that the greenies have no more case. Hit the road Jack, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more…

A four-year legal battle fought by environmentalists to stop the Tennessee Gas Company pipeline expansion through New Jersey appears to have ended in defeat.

The massive compressor station that Tennessee Gas built in West Milford to deliver natural gas to New York does not violate environmental restrictions contained in New Jersey’s Highlands Act, a state appellate court has ruled.

The appellate court ruled there was “nothing arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable” in the state Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to grant Tennessee Gas Company an exemption to the Highlands Act when it let the project go forward in 2021.

The DEP considered the potential impacts to the environment before it granted the exemption, the court ruled. The decision allows Tennessee Gas to continue operating the compressor station off Burnt Meadow Road, which pumps natural gas to Con Edison customers in New York.

Three environmental groups opposed to the expansion of fossil fuels – Food and Water Watch, the NJ Highlands Coalition, and the Sierra Club – sued the DEP, arguing that allowing the pipeline expansion would increase greenhouse gases and violate the state’s mandate to protect the 859,000-acre Highlands, which supplies drinking water to more than half of the state’s residents.

But the appellate court said the DEP considered those arguments when it first granted the exemption from Highlands Act restrictions in 2021. The court noted the compressor has already been operating for two years while the litigation was pending.

“There is no showing that the station’s operation has been detrimental to the Highlands Area,” the appellate court noted.

Although none of the gas is headed for New Jersey customers, environmentalists say the state assumes all the risks of explosion, fire, and increased water usage, but receives none of the benefits.

“This gas is not intended for New Jersey consumption,” said Elliott Ruga, the policy director for the NJ Highlands Coalition. “But the greenhouse gas that’s produced won’t stop at the New York border.”

Adopted in 2004, the Highlands Act aims to protect the watershed from overdevelopment. It divides the Highlands region into two sectors: a Preservation zone, where almost all development is off-limits, and a less-restrictive Planning zone, where sensible growth is encouraged.

The Highlands Act allows the DEP to grant exemptions to utilities for “maintenance and repair” and to “upgrade” their infrastructure. It was under this provision of the law that the DEP granted Tennessee Gas the authority to construct its gas compressor.

The three environmental groups sued, arguing that construction of the compressor plant on a 47-acre quarry site off Burnt Meadow Road wasn’t just “maintenance and repair” and hardly an “upgrade.”

Environmentalists won the first round in 2023, when the appellate court ruled the DEP should not have granted the exemption. But the NJ Supreme Court reversed that decision on appeal, and remanded the case back to the appellate division.

During the second round, the plaintiffs argued that allowing increased greenhouse gas emissions violated the Highlands Act. But the court surmised that the increased emissions would be over New York, and not New Jersey.

“Because the alleged increase in greenhouse gas emissions will occur outside the Highlands region it does not fall within the DEP’s review,” the ruling said.

In addition, the court said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission already considered the impact of greenhouse gas in 2012, when it approved the 7.6-mile pipeline extension between West Milford and Mahwah.

Ruga said having already lost before the NJ Supreme Court, last week’s appellate decision is the end of the lawsuit.

“I don’t think we can litigate this any further,” he said,

Kinder Morgan, the parent company of Tennessee Gas, did not respond to a request for comment.*

We’ll respond on behalf of Kinder Morgan (completely unauthorized): About darned time!

*NJ.com/Richard Cowen (Jul 7, 2025) – The battle to stop gas pipeline in N.J. Highlands is over

A little Tuesday frivolity for your enjoyment. Turn up the volume!

BOTTOMLINE: “Ruga said having already lost before the NJ Supreme Court, last week’s appellate decision is the end of the lawsuit.”