Under the Natural Gas Act, a pipeline company can apply to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. If FERC issues the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and the pipeline company meets many other conditions, it can obtain the power take private property.
A few weeks ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted conditional approval of the PennEast Pipeline. FERC is a federal agency which regulates gas pipelines and issued an order to allow PennEast to proceed forward with its project on January 19, 2018. This approval will allow PennEast to file complaints in the United States Federal Courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania seeking to exercise the power of eminent domain to take property rights to install the pipeline.
Since this announcement, the most common question has been: what happens next?
Shareholder Timothy P. Duggan recently joined Jacqueline Evans, property owner and member of Homeowners Against Land Taking (HALT), on an episode of PrincetonTV hosted by Natasha Sherman. Mr. Duggan and Ms. Evans talked at length about the proposed PennEast pipeline and its anticipated effect on parts of Central New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.