By Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a key New Jersey water permit for U.S. energy company Williams Cos’ long-delayed Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline project in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
The court said in a ruling on Tuesday that it granted petitions by environmental groups, vacated the Water Quality Certification and remanded the case to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
“Following the Third Circuit’s decision, we are working promptly with state regulatory officials to address the court’s findings and remain committed to advancing the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project,” Cherice Corley, a spokesperson at Williams, told Reuters in an email.
“At this time, we do not expect the decision to adversely affect project construction or the anticipated in-service timeline,” Corley said.
A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit last November against the NJDEP for unjustifiably approving the certification for NESE, after first rejecting the project in 2019 for failure to demonstrate compliance with state water quality standards.
“When the water quality certificate was denied in 2019, that should have been the end of it,” said Charlie Kratovil, Central Jersey Organizer at Food & Water Watch, one of the environmental groups opposing the project.
NESE is a roughly $1 billion project under construction by Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co (Transco) unit that would expand the existing Transco gas pipe. NESE includes the construction of an offshore pipe in the Raritan Bay between New Jersey and New York.
The environmental groups contended that the underwater segment would require dredging the bay floor, stirring up sediment containing toxic contaminants like mercury and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which could pose risks to human health and marine habitats.
Williams officially broke ground on NESE in Brooklyn, New York, in April 2026.
In addition to NESE, Williams is developing another long-delayed gas pipe in the region, Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York.
Both projects were controversial in part because they were previously rejected by state environmental regulators and canceled by Williams in past years before U.S. President Donald Trump sought their revival after returning to office in 2025.
Williams said on its website that it targeted completion of NESE in the fourth quarter of 2027 and Constitution in the fourth quarter of 2028.
NESE is designed to move around 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas from Pennsylvania, across New Jersey and into New York.
Constitution, which is not under construction, is designed to move around 0.65 bcfd of gas from Pennsylvania to New York.
One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to supply around five million U.S. homes for a day.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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