By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
Hopewell Township Mayor Kevin Kuchinski was among a group of bipartisan elected officials who joined conservation leaders and citizens’ groups at the State Capitol in Trenton on Tuesday morning to announce the results of a regional petition opposing the proposed 118-mile PennEast natural gas pipeline.
The petition received more than 8,000 signatures from citizens across 2,000 zip codes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to the Hopewell Township Citizens Against the PennEast Pipeline. The non-profit organization was also represented at the event held on the steps of the State House.
Mayor Kuchinski and six other mayors from town located along the pipeline’s proposed route in both states traveled to Washington, D.C., the following day, Wednesday, May 11, to hand-deliver the petition signatures to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission offices in the nation’s capital.
The PennEast Pipeline Company is waiting for approvals from the FERC for a permit to proceed with construction of the proposed 36-inch pressurized pipeline that would start in Luzerne County, Pa., near Wilkes-Barre and pass through parts of Hunterdon and Mercer counties in New Jersey and end at a junction with an existing pipeline in southeastern Hopewell Township near Blackwell Road.
PennEast specifically is requesting that FERC issue what’s called a certificate of public convenience and necessity.
“We stand in opposition to the proposed PennEast pipeline, as it would take advantage of public investments for corporate gain,” Mayor Kuchinski said in a press statement. “More than a third of Hopewell Township is preserved open space and farmlands, and we made these investments for future generations, not the benefit of a private consortium.”
“New Jersey is already over-supplied with natural gas by existing pipelines, so there is no ‘public need’ for more,” the mayor said. “We should be investing in cleaner energy alternatives, not building redundant fossil fuel pipelines.”
A final ruling on the pipeline project from FERC is now set to come by March 2017, about seven months after the PennEast company originally requested a decision date by August of 2016. An environmental impact statement for the planned project is scheduled for completion by December 2016, according to FERC.
Besides, Mayor Kuchinski, a Democrat, the other elected officials on hand in Trenton on May 10 are Township Committee member Richard Dodds (Republican) of Kingwood Township; Mayor Ray Krov (R) of Holland Township; Mayor Susan Lockwood (D) of Delaware Township; Mayor Jill Popko (D) of Bordentown Township; Deputy Mayor Alex Robotin (R) of Chesterfield Township and Supervisor Kathy Gentner (R) of Durham Township, Pa.
Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, a Democrat representing parts of Hunterdon, Mercer and Somerset, issued a statement Tuesday declaring opposition to the PennEast Pipeline.
“The overwhelming bi-state opposition to the proposed PennEast Pipeline is rooted in facts presented by experts who, after careful consideration, concluded that the project would have no public benefit,” Mr. Zwicker said. “I implore the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to give this data similar scrutiny.
“The pipeline proposal represents a lack of respect for the rule of law, utter disregard for New Jersey’s natural resources and an assault on the ownership of private property,” he said.
He called for building more fossil-fuel infrastructure for “innovative, job-creating, clean energy solutions.”
Citizen representatives from New Jersey in attendance included homeowners on proposed PennEast Pipeline route; petition signers; Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions; Homeowners Against Land Taking – PennEast (HALT); Hopewell Township Citizens Against the PennEast Pipeline; N.J. Conservation Foundation; New Jersey Highlands Coalition; N.J. League of Conservation Voters; Pinelands Preservation Alliance; Raritan Headwaters Association; ReThink Energy NJ; Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association; and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.
To view a map of where the petition signers live, visit rethinkenergynj.org.
