New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has refused a permit to four oil and gas companies hoping to build a 124-mile-long fracked gas pipeline, which would have travelled from Pennsylvania through New York State. DEC officials used the Clean Water Act to reject the permit for the Constitution Pipeline Project on the grounds of the damage the pipeline would do to water supplies. today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permitted the destruction of 20 miles of trees along the pipeline’s route through Pennsylvania. Earthjustice, the non-profit environmental law group that opposed the project, said the FERC had acted prematurely and illegally. New York’s decision will lend weight to criticisms that the FERC is too sympathetic to fossil fuel projects.
New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has refused a permit to four oil and gas companies hoping to build a 124-mile-long fracked gas pipeline, which would have travelled from Pennsylvania through New York State. DEC officials used the Clean Water Act to reject the permit for the Constitution Pipeline Project on the grounds of the damage the pipeline would do to water supplies. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permitted the destruction of 20 miles of trees along the pipeline’s route through Pennsylvania. Earthjustice, the non-profit environmental law group that opposed the project, said the FERC had acted prematurely and illegally. New York’s decision will lend weight to criticisms that the FERC is too sympathetic to fossil fuel projects.