Susan Meacham, Milford, N.J.
PennEast’s proposed pipeline has been proven unnecessary. U.S. Energy Information Administration reports confirm national seasonal usage has been static since the 1970s. In addition, proposed legislation could allow PennEast (PE) to surcharge customers for infrastructure costs. PE wants to lower supply costs and begin exporting, which will increase their profits, at our expense.
PE surveyors are here from Mississippi, North Carolina and Florida, and flee when challenged. PE is suggesting “incentives,” pleading for “closed” municipal meetings without full committees to avoid recorded minutes, and pitting neighbor against neighbor.
Why? PE desperately needs more surveys, especially in New Jersey, where they have less than 35 percent. PE cannot sue landowners for eminent domain without filing for and receiving a FERC Certificate of Need and Convenience. And a FERC application requires many more survey permissions than they have.
Residents, municipalities and civic groups have given FERC thousands of comments documenting health risks from pipeline leakage and compressor stations; arsenic contamination of well water; increased flooding from cleared lands; environmental damage that cannot be “mitigated”; reduced property values; loss of organic farm certifications and income; loss of historic and geological sites (PE suggests it would “blast” the Milford Bluffs); and the constant threat of accidents near homes and schools.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania communities must stand strong against this unnecessary project by denying/rescinding survey permissions and rejecting any offers from PE or its associates. The very real harm this project could do to us all would be here long after PE’s money was spent.
Susan Meacham
Milford, New Jersey
