By William Opalka

Opponents of a 124-mile natural gas pipeline that would provide New York and New England access to Pennsylvania shale gas have threatened to go to court next week to force federal regulators to reconsider their approval of the project (CP13-499, CP13-502).

The proposed Constitution Pipeline won a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 2.

Stop the Pipeline, a citizens group intervening in the case, said it will go to court if FERC does not consider its request for a rehearing “on the merits” by Friday. The group is being assisted by the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, which lists environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a supervising attorney.

FERC issued a procedural order for rehearing on Jan. 27 but has not taken any further action. Pace said this amounts to a “constructive denial,” a de facto refusal to rehear the case without an actual order saying so.

Stop the Pipeline said in its request for a rehearing that the certificate of public convenience was illegally granted before the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had issued water quality permits and before constitutional questions of affected property owners were resolved. It also said that FERC violated federal law by separating this project from other gas infrastructure projects in New York that should have been reviewed in total.

ISO-NE says inadequate natural gas infrastructure has threatened reliability and driven up power costs as New England has become increasingly reliant on gas as fuel for electric generation. The region, which now relies on gas for about half of its power generation, sees prices spike on cold days when more gas is needed for home heating and the grid operator has to turn to expensive fuel oil.

The Constitution Pipeline, which is entering the final phase of environmental reviews by New York regulators, would start in Susquehanna County, Pa., and travel northeast through New York, where it would connect with the Tennessee Gas and Iroquois Gas pipelines.

Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee pipeline is a major east-west natural gas artery that supplies Texas and Gulf Coast gas to upstate New York and New England.

The Iroquois pipeline heads to the southeast, serving New York City and its environs. An expanded compressor would be added by Iroquois in nearby Wright, N.Y., at the terminus of the Constitution line.

Constitution’s path includes a section of New York that has its own potential for fracked shale gas. However, in December, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo effectively banned the practice due to health concerns. (See Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York.)

Williams, Cabot Oil & Gas, Piedmont Natural Gas and WGL Holdings are partners in the Constitution project.

“There is this supply of stranded gas that is needed in New England that can’t get there because the infrastructure hasn’t kept up,” said Christopher Stockton, a spokesman for Constitution. If permits are granted, construction would start this summer and take about a year, with the pipeline in operation by mid- to late 2016.

He added that the Pennsylvania supply, closer to where it is ultimately used, would cut fuel costs by half. Most of the natural gas currently used in New York and New England originates in the Gulf Coast and Texas.

The Constitution project is now before the New York DEC, where an extended comment period ended in late February. Opponents said they delivered 5,000 comments to the department office in Albany on the final day and now believe the project is in trouble.

DEC permits and approvals are required for construction and operation of the pipeline. Additional permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are also pending.

The 30-inch pipeline would deliver 650,000 dekatherms of gas per day. The pipeline was first proposed in April 2012.

This pipeline is essentially parallel to the New York section of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline. The Kinder Morgan project is two years behind Constitution in the regulatory and planning cycle, with proposed operations in 2018.