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As public pressure intensifies in the wake of last week’s deadly California natural gas pipeline explosion, Mayor Jerramiah Healy says he will file for legal intervenor status on behalf of Jersey City in an effort to stop Spectra Energy’s proposed natural gas pipeline extension through the city.

However, the filing will wait several months, since intervenor status cannot be attained until a formal plan is put forth to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); Spectra expects to do that in December. Once that is in place, Healy says, he will file for intervenor status.

Intervenor status is a legal tactic by which an affected party becomes an official party to a FERC proceeding (more on this from FERC here). Under the commission’s rules, that status would give Jersey City several distinct advantages, including legal standing in federal court to appeal FERC’s final decision on the project and to participate in hearings with FERC administrative law judges. It is widely acknowledged to be the only way for the city, or any other concerned entity, to stop Spectra’s plans; activists have been pushing the administration to agree to file for weeks. Healy says last week’s disaster helped him make the decision.

“We believe that the terrible incident that occurred in San Bruno should be the death knell for this proposed pipeline in Jersey City,” he says. “However, since we expect Spectra to continue to move forward with its interests in this project, so will we in our opposition to it. That is why we have declared that we will file for ‘intervenor status’ at the appropriate time and we are putting FERC on notice that we intend to do so.”