CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey regulators are set to vote on whether a natural gas pipeline should run through the state’s federally protected Pinelands region, which includes more than a million acres of farms, forests and wetlands.
The Pinelands Commission is expected to make a final determination Friday morning on the proposal that has touched off a classic jobs-versus-environment battle in the nation’s most densely populated state.
Supporters say it will increase energy reliability, while environmentalists fear damage to the pristine Pinelands region.
The plan was narrowly defeated in 2014. But since then, Republican Gov. Chris Christie has replaced several Pinelands commissioners with supporters of the pipeline.
With a new Republican administration in power in Washington that is more receptive to fossil-fuel energy projects, the fate of the Pinelands pipeline is being closely watched by national energy and environmental groups.