SC Joins Coalition to fight NJ Transit’s Fossil Fuel Project

New Jersey Sierra Club along with other environmental and citizen groups will announce a new coalition effort to fight NJ Transit’s proposed fossil fuel power plant in the Meadowlands. The NJ TRANSITGRID is a grid powered by a fossil fuel power plant in Kearny, New Jersey that would provide electric power to NJ Transit facilities in northeast New Jersey. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

“NJ Transit’s call for fossil fuel power plant is not resilient, it is just the opposite. The plant will cause more pollution and greenhouse gases in an area with failing air quality levels. This project is a one two-punch with the already proposed Meadowlands power plant. We are here to call on NJ Transit to derail from this dangerous and unnecessary project. We are also here to ask Governor Murphy to put a moratorium on fossil fuel projects. We should be looking at greener and cleaner alternatives for a resiliency grid that will protect its riders and citizens of New Jersey.

“The Murphy Administration must protect our lungs! NJ Transit’s power plant in Kearny will emit over 383,000 tons of carbon dioxide along emit heavy metals and chemicals like ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and mercury. This power plant will cause serious health impacts to nearby communities, especially to EJ communities who are already choking on air pollution. Ozone levels are so high that it may put sensitive individuals at risk, including such as children, the elderly and people suffering from asthma, heart disease and other lung ailments.

“NJ Transit have failed to look at the impacts on building on top of a Superfund Site. The proposed site location for the natural gas powerplant is on top of the former Koppers Seaboard Coke and By-Products plant. Contamination from past operations, like coke production, gas conditioning, coal-tar produced toxic chemicals like benzene, lead, mercury and other harmful metals has been capped, however building a power plant can cause serious safety and environmental implications. The proposed site is also in an area that floods, especially when Hurricane Sandy hit.

“There are cheaper and cleaner alternatives that NJ Transit can use for their resiliency project.  The 140MW goal for the project can be achieved by building solar panels in the proposed site, on railyards, in parking lots at train stations. The current costs are $1 Million per MW for Solar Farms so that would only cost $140 million versus the $526 million proposed for Kearny power plant. Using microgrids would not be concentrated at a single point of failure for flooding or any other issue compared to natural gas plant.

“Relying on natural gas is not resilient versus renewable energy that is on site. Mass transit is important to get people out of their cars and reduce GHG’s, but we give that advantage up if we burn more fossil fuels to power our trains. That is why it is critical that NJ Transit rescind their approval for their proposal. NJ Transit need to look at no-bid alternatives like using renewable energy like solar, wind, geothermal, and using battery storage and flywheels. These alternatives are not only cheaper, but safer for us and the environment. The purpose of this project is to protect us from another Sandy. By building more fossil fuel projects, it will make another superstorm like Sandy happened again and the damage would be even worse.”