JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – Texas-based Spectra Energy Corp. announced a deal Tuesday between one of its subsidiaries, Texas Eastern Transmission, International-Matex Tank Terminals, in Bayonne, and Bayonne Plant Holding.
Under an agreement reached between the three entities, IMTT and Bayonne Plant Holding will transport natural gas from Spectra Energy’s proposed natural gas pipeline to IMTT’s 540-acre facility in Bayonne. According to a release issued today from Spectra, the proposed pipeline would interconnect with IMTT’s terminal and Bayonne Plant Holding’s facility to supply natural gas to fuel boilers and combined-cycle power generation facilities.
If the proposed pipeline project receives approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, IMTT and Bayonne Plant Holding would receive peak day usage of nearly 40,000 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) day once the proposed pipeline is built and goes into service, according to the Spectra release.
Spectra has proposed building a roughly 20-mile underground natural gas pipeline through Linden, Jersey City near the Hoboken border, and Bayonne.
The pipeline would then cross the Hudson River into New York to connect the company’s existing pipeline infrastructure in the region to Manhattan and Staten Island.
The proposal has been controversial and has met with opposition from local residents, activists, and elected leaders – including Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, members of the Jersey City and Hoboken city councils, and U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). Opponents argue the pipeline presents a potential hazard to the neighborhoods through which the pipeline will run and will lower property values along the pipeline route. Opponents have also argued the pipeline would benefit New Yorkers at the expense of residents in the Garden State since the natural gas would be used for energy customers there, not in New Jersey.
The deal announced Tuesday between Spectra, IMTT, Bayonne Plant Holding is the first to benefit energy customers in New Jersey.
A spokesperson for Mayor Healy was not available for comment Tuesday. – E. Assata Wright