“No reliance on PennEast”

Yesterday, New Jersey Resources held its 2020 “Analyst’s Day”, when it woos financial analysts to pitch their financial story for growth.

In a surprise twist, the prepared remarks and presentations attached to the Analysts Day indicated that NJR had lost faith in PennEast coming to fruition anytime soon. NJR CEO Steve Westhoven stated:

“NJR remains committed to the PennEast project, but we’re removing a completely from our financial projections. PennEast is an important project for the Northeast. The uncertainty around an in-service state requires us to take this action. CapEx spend will continue to be prudent and minimal as the project work towards approval and construction.”

In the presentation, NJR has a slide showing their growth strategy for fiscal years 2021 to 2024. In all four columns, for each year, they reiterate “No reliance on PennEast”.

This means the project’s not dead yet, but NJR has about zero confidence in it going anywhere within 2021, and is noticeably going to reduce any additional investments into it.