Pinelands panel set to vote again on controversial pipeline project

Three years after it rejected South Jersey Gas' controversial application to build part of a 22-mile-long gas pipeline through protected Pinelands forest, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission is scheduled to vote Friday on whether to permit a nearly identical project.

To accommodate what is expected to be a large crowd, the 15-member commission has relocated its monthly meeting from its offices in Pemberton to the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Route 70 in Cherry Hill. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m., with no public comment period scheduled before the vote.

There is a chance, however, that the commission will delay its vote to another day.

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, a conservation group opposed to the pipeline, has petitioned the Appellate Division of Superior Court for a stay of Friday's vote. It alleges that the commission in December created new rules for reviewing such projects without proper notice or public comment.

Such a stay likely would come no later than Thursday, Carleton Montgomery, the alliance's executive director, said Wednesday.

Barbara Ann Del Duke, spokesperson for South Jersey  Gas, said the company is "hopeful for approval" of the project, which would "deliver a balanced energy reliability solution to customers in southern New Jersey."  While the pipeline is intended primarily to serve the power plant, the company says it will also serve as a backup supply to 142,000 customers in the event that the sole transmission pipeline serving the region becomes incapacitated.

Contrary to a popular perception, Upper Township will continue receiving $6.3 million in energy receipts taxes regardless of whether the power plant stays in operation, according to Jon Moran, senior legislative analyst for the New Jersey League of Munipalities. "The annual distribution has been based on what each muncipality received in 1997," when the state changed its energy receipts tax revenue formula, Moran said in an email. Current and prospective revenues are "based on the proportion of energy infrastructure they hosted" two decades ago.

A vote on the pipeline likely would be close, since a majority of eight votes is all that is needed to approve or reject the application, and six members who voted in favor of the route in January 2014 will  vote again this time.

Four members who voted against it last time, and one declared opponent who recused himself in 2014, also would vote Friday.

With those votes seemingly predictable, Friday's outcome will likely hinge on the board's four newcomers. These include Frank Hays, the sole member appointed by the U.S. secretary of the interior, who was named last month. Hays' predecessor voted nay in 2014.

Bob Barr, appointed by Gov. Christie in 2015, is generally thought to favor the application because he was endorsed for the position by State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D., Cape May), who strongly supports it, as does the Republican Christie. At the time of his appointment Barr said he would "keep an open mind."

If Barr votes yea and either Giuseppe "Joe" Chila, the Gloucester County appointee, or Jane Jannarone, Cumberland County's appointee, joins him and six others, the application would have the eight votes it needs. The 2014 vote was a 7-7 tie, insufficient for approval.

Opponents of the project say they will immediately appeal an approval.

Montgomery said the alliance has also raised objections to Chila's right to vote on the project since he belongs to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 351, whose members would likely see employment if the project goes through. As such, the alliance contends, Chila has a possible conflict of interest.

A public comment session on the project, held last month at a church hall in Browns Mills, drew a crowd of about 250, with dozens left standing, and chanting, outside.

Advocates for the pipeline, which would supply gas to an electrical-generation plant on the Great Egg Harbor River in Upper Township, say its approval would create and save jobs in South Jersey and keep a major source of tax revenue in place.

They also argue that converting the coal-fired B.L. England generating plant to natural gas would greatly reduce the emissions of particulates, nitrogen oxide, and sodium dioxide that pour from the 40-year-old "peak" plant on the few days each year it is in operation.

Peak power plants go online only when demand for electricity is very high, and prices for power are running high as well. The plant's owner, Rockland Capital of Houston, sells electricity to the 13-state PJM grid.

Opponents of the project insist the Pinelands Commission must reject the application because 10 miles of the pipeline would pass through protected forest in Cumberland County where such infrastructure is barred.

South Jersey Gas says it would bury the pipeline four feet below the shoulder of Route 49 and similar roadways, and that the route is less costly and environmentally damaging than several alternatives.

Several environmental groups, including the preservation alliance, the Sierra Club, and Environment New Jersey, contend that a gas-fired power plant operating nearly every day would be a major source of the greenhouse gases that promote climate change. They say it would provide no significant improvement over a part-time coal-fired plant.