Matter of Petition of New Jersey Natural Gas Co. for a Determination Concerning the Holmdel Regulator Station Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-19-2017 Petition

The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed the Board of Public Utilities’ (BPU’s) 2022 decision granting the New Jersey Natural Gas Company’s (NJNG’s) petition to construct an aboveground natural gas pressure reduction facility and associated heating equipment. The court found that sufficient evidence in the record supported the decision and declined to substitute its judgment for the BPU’s on the “critical question of whether the Project is reasonably necessary for the service, convenience or welfare of the public.” Among the arguments rejected by the court was Holmdel Township’s contention that the BPU erred by not applying state climate laws—the Clean Energy Act, the Global Warming Response Act, the 2019 New Jersey Energy Master Plan: Pathway to 2025, and “New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act: 80x50 Report: Evaluating Our Progress and Identifying Pathways to Reduce Emissions by 80% by 2050.” The court found that the BPU did not act arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably in finding that the project was “reasonably necessary” as an interim reliability measure. The court said the finding was consistent both with the statutory requirement to provide safe, adequate, and proper service to customers and with the Energy Master Plan’s policy goal for gas utilities to provide reliable, resilient, and affordable service. The court noted that under a “Time of Application” rule, the project’s environmental impact was to be measured by standards and requirements in place at the time NJNG filed its petition, not by “emission goals that are to be achieved in the future.”