More than 200 people came to tonight’s Pinelands Public Hearing in Galloway Township (Parkway “Hidden” Exit at Milepost 42).?? About half? supported the project–half were against.?? Obama’s campaign organization (OFA– Obama for America a/k/a Organizing for Action) and liberal Stockton College professors brought most opponents of the project.?? Liberty and Prosperity members were well represented, and made up roughly half of the crowd.??? But the Press of Atlantic City didn’t mention us.
For those new to the issue, here are the facts:
1. ??For years, the ?B.L. England? power plant at Beeseley?s Point (next to?Parkway Bridge at Mile 29) in Upper Township (Marmora), New Jersey gave cheap, reliable power to most of South Jersey.?? But environmental groups lobbied to close it because it burned coal and oil.
2. ?In 2007, Atlantic City Electric sold its Beeseley?s Point Power Plant to Rockland Capital Electric Company.??? Rockland spent?lots of money to get permits and change the plant to? burn cheap, reliable, ?green? natural gas from Pennsylvania.
3. ?Now the Beeseley?s Point Power plant is ready to make the switch to natural gas.?? All it needs is a 24 inch wide pipeline to bring the?natural gas roughly 120 miles from Pennsylvania to Upper Township.
4. ?All but 15 miles of that pipeline would be buried by the side of existing roads, next to existing water and sewer pipes.??? Roughly 15 miles would be buried under?a stretch of ?scrub pine? woods in government owned land owned by an independent state/federal agency known as the ?New Jersey Pinelands Commission?.
5. ?Besides providing South Jersey with cheap, reliable electricity, the pipeline would give our area backup natural gas to heat our homes and businesses during cold snaps.
6. ?Statistics prove it is much cheaper, safer, and ?environmentally friendly? to deliver natural gas by underground ?pipeline, than to deliver heating oil by railroad car and fuel trucks–especially during bad winter weather.
7. ??But Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said he and about 25 Sierra Club members will fight the project.? They claim it would ?undermine more than 30 years of Pinelands Protection?.
8. ?This is ridiculous!
A. ?South Jersey Gas Company has already agreed to build the 15 miles of pipeline underground, and to carefully replace the soil and replant any displaced trees and shrubs.??? The affected areas would be in better?shape than they were before.
B. ?Besides completely restoring the land, South Jersey Gas also agreed to pay $8 million in ?pay to play money? to the Pinelands Commission and environmental groups like the Sierra Club for ?education and outreach programs? (and of course salaries and benefits for employees of these groups).?? That comes to $100 per each foot of pipeline buried under the ground, or $530,000 per mile!
C. ?There is nothing in the Pinelands to protect!??? This area is called the ?Pine Barrens? because the soil is so poor that only useless ?scrub pine? trees grow there.?? That is the only reason this area was never farmed or built up during the past 400 years.
D. ? Until better supplies of iron were discovered, ?iron ?bog iron? was mined from the Pine Barrens and iron furnaces and forges were built there.?? The cannons used on Richard Somers?s ships during the Barbary War of 1801-1805 ?were made from iron mined, smelted, and?manufactured?in the Pine Barrens.
E. ?Until recently, the Pine Barrens was used for target practice by cannons from Fort Dix, and fighter-bombers from Maguire Air Force Base.
F. ?Every few years, massive forest fires destroy thousands of acres of the Pine Barrens, but within a few years, everything grows back so well that you can’t tell that everything had been destroyed..
9. ??So what is the real reason that?Jeff Teitel and the Sierra Club are?protesting this project?
A. ?Are they trying to shake down South Jersey Gas for more ?pay to play money??
B. ?Do they deliberately want to make natural gas and electricity so expensive? that people will support their ridiculous plans to double and triple election bills against to build expensive wind turbines in the ocean?
C. ?Are they dupes of? radical foreign enemies of America who will do or say anything to bring our country down????(That’s what New Zealand conservative?Trevor Loudon suggested when he spoke to us two months ago.????Loudon is starting to make sense.? ??? Remember that the same Sierra Club that complains of too much development and sprawl caused by population growth is the same Sierra Club that demanded and got open borders with Mexico to cause that population growth in the first place???? Why??? In much of Europe, environmental groups like the Sierra Club are often?called “watermelons” because they are “green on the outside, but red–communist-on the inside”.
D.??One more public hearing will be held?in New Lisbon at 9:30 A.M. this? Friday morning, December 13.
11. ?Also, please forward this notice?to everyone on your list, and post it in your? Facebook Pages, and local ?Patches?.??? Thanks.? Seth Grossman, Executive Director