Ten Reasons to Oppose the Pinelands Pipeline

Important Public Hearing Tonight – Be There!

Don’t Pimp The Pines!

Just Say NO WAY To M-O-A!

The only public hearing on the Pinelands Pipeline is tonight, 5 pm Galloway Township Municipal Building, 300 E. Jimmie Leeds Road, Galloway, NJ. (full information here).

Please go, bring friends and family, and speak out against this terrible fossil fuel project.

Here are the talking points of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) – and there is tons of information and analysis at the PPA website.

Here are bullets on my top ten reasons for opposing it:

1) Climate change imperative –

• approaching and already may have exceeded tipping points for catastrophic climate change
• rapid rate of increase in CO2 and GHG emissions must be stopped, followed by deep cuts in current emissions
• no more fossil infrastructure – accelerate transition to renewables
• Global Warming Response Act emission reduction goals ignored
• lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from the gas source (fracking); pipeline; & BL England plant and current climate impacts on Pines forests and ecology were completely ignored during the Commission’s review

2) Violates the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP)

• prohibited use in forest area
• CMP MOA regulations lack science based standards to assure “equivalent protection”  – unfettered discretion
• draft MOA seriously flawed –
• “waiver of strict compliance” – “demonstration of compelling public need” is the appropriate CMP review framework
• MOA with BPU is illegal – BPU not a public development agency. Can’t use BPU too justify a private corporate speculative investment.

3) Jeopardizes the Integrity of the Commission and the CMP

• appearance of an $8 million bribe to purchase approval
• the review process reeks of “regulatory capture” by South Jersey Gas Co.
• No independent scientific and engineering reviews
• Cave to political pressure by Governor Christie and special interests

4) The Project is not needed

• energy planning – demand forecast, capacity, efficiency, renewables, economic analysis – seriously flawed
• “reliability” is a post hoc rationalization – project designed long before Sandy
• the Christie Energy Master Plan does not trump the CMP and is not binding on the independent Pinelands Commission

5) Alternatives are feasible, more environmentally sound, and create more jobs

• alternative energy planning scenarios
• alternative pipeline routes
• alternative technology

6) Promotes fracking

7) Undermines investments, economics and technical aspects of renewable energy

8. continued operation of BL England plant

• slaughters billions of aquatic life and harms Great Egg Bay ecosystems and fisheries
• emissions create health risks for nearby residents

9) Huge ratepayer ripoff and corporate subsidy

• current huge SJG rate increase does not consider this $100 million pipeline
• will result in significant future gas and electric rate increases for south jersey
• BL England $400 million re-powering is a speculative investment – “merchant plant” –

10) Extremely Bad precedent – huge future implications

• gas export infrastructure
• electric infrastructure and other linear development
• other State “public-private partnership” MOA’s – “death by a thousand MOA’s”

[End Note: Of course, everyone must strenuously object to the arbitrary and illegal 3 minute time limit imposed on public testimony. South Jersey Gas has been granted hundreds of HOURS of behind closed doors access to Commission staff!

The Commission denied my OPRA records request to document the extent of this involvement, including meetings with Director Wittenberg, Counselor Roth, and planner Liggett and even the Commissioners themselves! So, in addition to gagging the public, they are trying to cover their tracks.

It would take me more than 3 minutes to explain why the Commission has statutory authority and jurisdiction to regulate the impacts of climate change and how the science shows that Pines forests and ecology are already being impacted.

And those critical legal and scientific points are assumptions in my first point! 

The only reason for the 3 minute limit is to suppress opponents arguments and ram the approval through to meet the financing needs (i.e. “regulatory certainty” and the DEP regulatory deadlines for the BL England plant (i.e. the December 31 “go/no go” certification).

That is an outrage that shocks the conscience – Chinatown!

[Update: oops, I left out pipeline safety issues – fires and explosions! And sinkholes! A real serious issue in already wildfire prone pines forests. Sorry, I probably left out lots of stuff!

Second oops – I left out risks of horizontal directional drilling under wetlands, lakes, rivers and streams. One accident would be a catastrophe.

Third oops – I left out impacts from disturbance resulting from construction of the pipeline – as Commissioner Ashmum said, it is “ridiculous” to claim that these impacts are “minimal”.

Fourth oops – not really an oops, I just received the PPA paper but was aware of the problem which was recently reported by Kirk Moore’s set up story: Pipeline pros and cons to be aired.

PPA paper destroys the “reliability” argument. I would add 2 things to that:

1) the project was designed and approved long before Sandy, so the reliability argument is merely a post hoc rationalization to provide a basis for regulatory approval and public support;

2) it is ludicrous to attempt to justify a fossil fuel project on the basis of reliability. The GHG emissions will make coastal storms and flooding far WORSE!