To the editor:
In a glossy card recently sent to residents and businesses in municipalities along the proposed route of their pipeline, PennEast made outrageous claims that the pipeline would provide school funding, property tax relief and money for open space preservation. These claims are deceptive, to say the least.
PennEast tries to tug at our heartstrings by claiming the pipeline would provide “Property Tax Relief for Seniors and Families.” What relief would they provide for seniors and families who would lose a significant amount of the market value of their property, or find they are unable to sell it at all because a pipeline passes through it? It seems very possible that any taxes generated by the pipeline could be offset by such reduced property values.
And they have the gall to claim the pipeline would produce more open space funding! Is this supposed to make people feel better about scarring of land already preserved with their tax dollars?
Earlier this year PennEast wrote to Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) requesting access to a preserve that we own and to one of our conservation easements for temporary workspace and permanent easement rights. They also suggested we initiate a Green Acres diversion process whereby they would preserve equivalent acreage elsewhere. In other words, they would provide the public with a one-acre parcel in some random location in exchange for the loss of habitat and scenic value of land already preserved.
Needless to say, FoHVOS rejected the offer. In part, our response states: “We are obliged to preserve in perpetuity the land in which we and our preservation partners invest taxpayer dollars. Converting even a small part of the land for a staging area for infrastructure installation and attempting to put it back as if nothing happened does not fit the definition of ‘perpetuity.’ ” We stand by those words and we urge residents to ignore PennEast’s shoddy attempts to convince us that their pipeline would put dollars in your pockets. It won’t.
Patricia Sziber
Executive Director, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space
