NJ Representatives Disappointed As Biden Backs PennEast Pipeline

PRINCETON, NJ — Two members of Congress from New Jersey have expressed their “disappointment” after the Biden administration backed the PennEast Pipeline in a Supreme Court case on Wednesday.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D- Mercer) and Tom Malinowski (D-Hunterdon) released a statement after the Department of Justice submitted a brief defending PennEast pipeline’s efforts to seize New Jersey land for the project.

“We are disappointed that the U.S. Department of Justice has submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in which it defends the PennEast Pipeline Company’s efforts to exercise eminent domain to seize public lands,” Watson Coleman and Malinowski said in a statement.

Watson Coleman and Malinowski said they agree with the state and the 2019 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals that bars private companies from condemning state-owned land for private use.

“New Jerseyans should not have to live in fear that their land will be taken and irrevocably altered to make way for a pipeline project that our state doesn’t want or need,” they said.

PennEast is planning to build a 120-mile natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, cutting through Hunterdon and Mercer Counties.

Watson Coleman and Malinowski said that in the past few years they’ve met with landowners who live up and down the proposed pipeline route, and have seen how the project could ruin farms, pollute the water and destroy their way of life.

“As policymakers, we have been active and steadfast in our opposition to its construction, and we will continue to pursue legislative and regulatory remedies to protect landowners in New Jersey should the Supreme Court ultimately rule in an unfavorable manner later this year,” they said.

"We urge the administration to stand with our constituents, with New Jersey, and with its stated commitment to environmental protection in opposing this unnecessary pipeline.”

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