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New Jersey's largest utility company looking to sell its stake in PennEast New Jersey's largest utility is trying to sell its stake in PennEast's proposed pipeline that would carry natural gas from Luzerne County to Mercer County, New Jersey. A PSEG spokesman said Thursday that the company intends to remain a customer of the pipeline to bring natural gas to its customers. But spokesman Mike Jennings says PSEG wants to focus more on its core business of running and building power plants. He said PSEG is in the process of constructing three new power plans in Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey PSEG has a 10 percent equity stake in the roughly 120-mile, $1.2 billion pipeline project. With purposeful design, breakthrough efficiency and state-of-the-art technology, the all-new Prius Prime is more than the most advanced Prius yet. It’s the new possible. See More PSEG would be one of the pipeline's second largest customer, drawing 125,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day, according to PennEast documents. New Jersey Natural Gas Company would draw the most from the pipeline at 180,000 dekatherms per day. The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce holds event to present The PennEast Pipeline Economic Impact Study at DeSales University on Monday. On Thursday, PennEast spokeswoman Patricia Kornick said PSEG's decision to sell its stake does not change the outlook or schedule for PennEast pipeline. The sale must be approved by PennEast's other stakeholders: NJR Pipeline Company, SJI Midstream, Southern Company Gas, Spectra Energy Partners, and UGI Energy Services, which will be the operator of the pipeline. Kornick said PSEG made a "fairly typical business decision," and that it's not unusual for company's to make such decisions. She said she's not concerned since PSEG wants to remain a customer. Pipeline opponents, however, saw the decision as another win for environmental activists who have raised concerns about the pipeline's impact on local waterways, environmentally sensitive species and their habitats. "Having a partner withdraw shows that this project is unneeded and hurts the environment," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "All the public opposition has been slowing the project down and creating more roadblocks and hurdles. This shows that our strategy is working." Tom Gilbert, campaign director of ReThink Energy NJ and NJ Conservation Foundation, agreed PSEG's decision shows the project is unnecessary. "The other companies behind PennEast should follow PSEG's lead," he said. "Instead of redundant gas infrastructure, we need renewable energy projects which create three times as many jobs and deliver clean, abundant, homegrown energy." PennEast is awaiting approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The commission expects to release a final environmental impact statement on the project next month, with a final decision in July — which PennEast expects to be favorable — authorizing the construction of the pipeline, Kornick said Thursday. The project is expected to be finished in the second half of 2018. In Northampton County, the pipeline would cross through Lehigh Township, Moore Township, East Allen Township, Upper Nazareth Township, Lower Nazareth Township, Bethlehem Township, Easton, Lower Saucon Township and Williams Township. Read the original article here.