By Ted Caddell

Arguing that New York’s denial of a crucial water quality certification was “arbitrary and capricious” and ran counter to FERC approval, Constitution Pipeline last week appealed the state’s decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (16-1568).

Separately, the company also asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York for a declaration that federal law trumps state “permitting jurisdiction over certain other environmental matters” (1:16-cv-00568).

“We believe the court will agree that this permit denial was arbitrary and unjustified and improperly relies on the same failed arguments that the [New York Department of Environmental Conservation] made during the FERC certificate proceeding regarding the pipeline route and stream crossings,” the project’s sponsors said in a statement. “We are ultimately seeking to have the court overturn this veiled attempt by the state to usurp the federal government’s authority and essentially ‘veto’ a FERC-certificated energy infrastructure project.”

New York environmental officials denied the water quality permit for the 124-mile pipeline, which is designed to carry shale gas from Pennsylvania fields to markets in eastern New York and New England. (See New York Environmental Department Rejects Constitution Pipeline.)

It was the last regulatory approval needed for the project, which is backed by Williams Partners, Cabot Oil & Gas, Piedmont Natural Gas and WGL Holdings. It received FERC approval in December 2014.

The state said the application “fails in a meaningful way to address the significant water resource impacts that could occur from this project and has failed to provide sufficient information to demonstrate compliance with New York state water quality standards.”

The project sponsors charge that the state’s denial of the crucial permit will delay the necessary infusion of natural gas supply to the starved Northeast and block the estimated 2,400 direct and indirect jobs the project would bring to the region.