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<p>PennEast is one step closer to constructing its bi-state, 118-mile natural gas pipeline.</p><p>The company, a consortium of six natural gas suppliers that includes UGI Energy Services, submitted Thursday its formal application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC), an independent agency that will review PennEast&#8217;s request to build, operate and own the pipeline, which originates in Luzerne County.</p><p>PennEast is seeking to obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, a crucial compliance permit that grants private companies the power to provide public services.</p><p>Thursday&#8217;s submital was a &#8220;milestone&#8221; along the many stages of the $1 billion project&#8217;s nearly year-long pre-filing phase, which included a thorough evaluation period and several dozen alterations to the pipeline&#8217;s path, said Peter Terranova, chairman of the pipeline&#8217;s board of managers.</p><p>The latest variation altered the pipeline&#8217;s path near near Plains Township and Laflin Borough, moving the route north of East Saylor Avenue near Popple Construction&#8217;s Valley Stone Quarry. The adjustment was made to ease fears that blasting in the area could pose a safety risk, among other concerns shared by local stakeholders, pipeline officials said.</p><p>Terranova described the pipeline&#8217;s current route as &#8220;pretty decent&#8221; but noted there was still potential to tweak its ultimate path.</p><p>Originating in Luzerne County&#8217;s Back Mountain near Dallas High School, the 36-inch, underground pipeline is slated to cut through parts of Wyoming, Plains and Jenkins townships and Laflin before continuing southwest though Carbon, Northampton and Bucks counties.</p><p>The pipeline, which officials said will deliver approximately 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to customers in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ends approximately 118 miles later in Mercer County, New Jersey.</p><p>&#8220;We put a lot of work into this route,&#8221; Terranova said Thursday in a conference call. &#8220;We made a number of adjustments. We know we&#8217;re not done.&#8221;</p><p>Far from done, too, is the backlash pipeline officials receive from property owners.</p><p>Acknowledging the defiance of landowners at &#8220;a number of properties&#8221; who refused to allow surveyors access to their land, Terranova said opportunities to collaborate and fine-tune the route are running out as project pushes forward.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s urgent that people that didn&#8217;t let us on their property do so,&#8221; he said, adding that it was &#8220;premature&#8221; to discuss acquisition of land rights. Landowners would be given every opportunity reach a fair accommodation, he said.</p><p>Officials have met with over 700 landowners across more than 60 percent of the route, Terranova said. Many of the properties yet to be visited are in New Jersey.</p><p>Not to be understated was the pipeline&#8217;s affect on the state&#8217;s economy, said David Taylor, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturer&#8217;s Association.</p><p>&#8220;In every way that matters, energy is life,&#8221; Taylor said Thursday. &#8220;America&#8217;s high level of energy consumption, ever high and rising quality of life&#8230; I&#8217;ll never apologize for that. That&#8217;s what we want for our families and our communities.&#8221;</p><p>If PennEast is able to connect the region&#8217;s natural gas assets, Taylor said the price for the end user is less.</p><p>Meanwhile, pipeline officials will await FERC&#8217;s draft environmental impact statement, a collection of findings and recommendations derived from PennEast&#8217;s application. Another public comment period will follow before a final impact statement is released.</p><p>The pipeline is expected to be completed in 2018.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

PennEast submits application to build natural gas pipeline from Back Mountain to New Jersey