Some have billed it as a David vs. Goliath struggle: Local residents fighting the controversial PennEast pipeline construction and the companies behind it, and, in the process, continuing slingshotting legal obstacles hoping to delay or kill the project.

Residents have been whipsawed with good and bad news recently. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave PennEast permission to begin the project, ruling that market benefits will outweigh any adverse impact on landowners, including those in Towamensing, Lower Towamensing, Penn Forest and Kidder townships in Carbon County and Easton and the townships of Bethlehem, East Allen, Lehigh, Moore, Lower Nazareth, Lower Saucon, Upper Nazareth and Williams in Northampton County.

The $1.3 billion, 120-mile pipeline proposal would slice through Carbon and Northampton counties en route from Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania to Mercer County in central New Jersey.

After getting this approval, PennEast officials announced that they will file eminent domain proceedings against property owners who will not agree to the company’s “generous” purchase offers.

Although downhearted, opponents vowed to continue their opposition against this project. Then came a ray of hope: The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection denied PennEast’s application for permits for portions of the project. In a letter to PennEast earlier this month, the DEP said the company can file a new application, which PennEast most assuredly will do.

The New Jersey DEP said PennEast did not provide sufficient information to complete the application. So while it might give opponents some hope, it appears that the New Jersey action is merely a temporary roadblock in the protracted process.

New Jersey opponents have a new ally in the recently installed governor, Phil Murphy, who campaigned in opposition to the pipeline and urged the DEP to reject the application. On Feb. 5, a group of state legislators, municipal officials and property owners held a rally to voice their opposition to the proposed pipeline.

Assemblyman Leonard Lance, a Hunterdon County Republican, has been a vocal opponent of the pipeline, saying that it would split Hunterdon in two.

“The current PennEast pipeline proposal has not satisfied my great concerns over the protection of taxpayer-financed environmentally sensitive open spaces that I have long fought to protect and preserve,” Lance said, “and I have strong reservations about the potential use of eminent domain to compel Hunterdon County landowners to sell easements and rights of way along the proposed pipeline route.”

A prominent sign at the rally said, “It’s un-American using eminent domain for corporate gain.”

Even as Lance was speaking, PennEast officials were readying court papers to file eminent domain lawsuits against 44 landowners in Pennsylvania, a quarter of them in Carbon County. They followed through on the threat the day after the New Jersey rally. Before the filing, PennEast sent out letters after FERC agreed to conditional approval on Jan. 19, giving property owners until Feb. 5 either to settle with the company or face eminent domain proceedings.

The company says that it has reached agreements with about half of the affected property owners and is continuing to work with many others to try to come up with an equitable settlement that satisfies both sides. It told FERC that it will use eminent domain only as a last resort.

The company said in Carbon it wants permanent easements, which it would keep for the operation of the pipeline and temporary easements to be used during construction.

Opponent groups, such as Save Carbon County and the New Jersey Sierra Club, pledged to fight on with more protests and behind-the-scenes efforts. They see the pipeline as a scourge on the environment and on sensitive wildlife and natural habitats.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has scheduled a civil disobedience training session for 6 p.m. Feb. 20 in Lambertville. The Save Carbon County group is considering sending representatives.

They fear that what happened concerning the Sunoco pipeline project could happen here. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection this month fined Sunoco $12.6 million for environmental violations at its Mariner East 2 pipeline, which stretches 350 miles from a Marcellus Shale deposit in western Pennsylvania to a terminal near Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, supporters of the PennEast project say it will give area residents one of the most affordable and abundant supplies of natural gas in North America, leading to the lowering of gas and electricity costs and increase reliability, improve air quality and make the region more competitive for jobs.

This titanic struggle is yet another example of which conflicting interests will prevail: companies with deep pockets looking to provide a more affordable product, making more profits in the process, or those concerned with the impact on the beauty of the pastoral refuge they sought as their life sanctuary. Stay in touch with the Times News for further developments.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com