OREANDA-NEWS. April 10, 2017. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Spectra Energy's PennEast natural gas pipeline project, saying it could be built with little impact on the environment.

FERC's issuance of the final EIS is the final step the regulatory body makes before making a final decision whether to approve the project, which its developers originally expected to receive in July. But when that decision will actually arrive is less clear, as FERC now lacks the quorum necessary to approve projects following chairman Norman Bay's February resignation. The project has received a significant amount of regulatory and public opposition, including thousands of public comments filed with FERC against the project.

The 1 Bcf/d (28mn m?/d) project would stretch 118 miles (190km) from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, to Mercer County, New Jersey, and has already been delayed from its original start-up date of late 2017 to the second half of 2018.