The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will host a virtual hearing early in 2021 regarding permits for the first phase of PennEast Pipeline Company’s plan to build a 36-inch natural gas pipeline running through parts of Carbon and Monroe counties.

Phase 1, which Penn­East officials said they hope to have in service by November 2021, entails around 68 miles of the pipeline from Dallas Township in Luzerne County to Bethlehem Township in Northampton County. It also includes construction of a 0.5-mile lateral of 4-inch diameter pipe in Carbon County to serve the Blue Mountain Resort.

Other associated above-ground infrastructure for the first phase of the project will consist of interconnect meter stations, mainline valves, a single compressor station in Kidder Township, and their appurtenant facilities and equipment.

The hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. Permits under review include Chapter 105, Water Obstruction and Encroachment, required for activities located in, along, across or projecting into a watercourse, floodway or body of water, including wetlands; and Chapter 102, Erosion and Sediment Control, required for earth disturbance associated with oil and gas exploration, production, processing or treatment operations or transmission facilities when earth disturbance is 5 acres or greater.

Individuals who wish to observe or present testimony at the formal virtual public hearing must contact Colleen Connolly at 570-826-2035 or coconnolly@pa.gov, a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the hearing to reserve time to present testimony. All comments, whether delivered orally during the virtual hearing or submitted in writing to RA-EPPENNEAST@pa.gov carry equal weight and consideration with DEP. Written comments will be accepted until close of business on Jan. 20.

When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the PennEast Pipeline Co. its certificate of public convenience and necessity in 2018, PennEast was required to have the pipeline completed and in service by Jan. 19, 2020. FERC granted PennEast a two-year extension, however, extending that date to Jan. 19, 2022.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dealt a major blow to the pipeline in 2019 when it rejected a request for a rehearing on the use of eminent domain to acquire properties in New Jersey.

In September 2019, the court ruled that PennEast can’t use eminent domain to acquire 42 properties that are owned by the state and preserved for farmland or open space.

The judges wrote that while the federal Natural Gas Act allows private gas companies to exercise the federal government’s power to take property by eminent domain, that doesn’t extend to state-owned properties.

The properties fall under the 11th Amendment, which protects states from lawsuits by private parties in federal court, the panel concluded. PennEast has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision, but the court has not announced whether it will hear the case.

Acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall filed a brief earlier this month, asking the Supreme Court to grant PennEast’s request for a review.

“If permitted to stand, the decision will threaten to enable states to functionally nullify FERC’s pipeline siting decisions whenever they would affect either land owned by a state in fee or private land in which a state asserts a non-possessory interest, potentially even when the state obtains the land or interest after FERC has approved the pipeline route,” Wall wrote in the brief. “In the government’s view, the disruptive nature of the court of appeals’ decision on a vital sector of the economy is too significant to leave it undisturbed.”

Phase 2 of the project is anticipated to continue from Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, through Bucks County and then across the Delaware River into New Jersey. Permits for Phase 2, according to the Pennsylvania DEP, will be considered at a future time.