Put The Brakes On Power Plant In Newark, 20 NJ Lawmakers Say

NEWARK, NJ — Citing “growing public opposition,” a group of 20 lawmakers – including several from Essex County – have thrown their support behind an effort to put the brakes on a proposed power plant in Newark.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was among those to sign a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy this week, expressing their “strong opposition” to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s (PVSC) proposed methane gas-fired power plant.

Other officials who signed the letter were state senators Sandra Cunningham, Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Shirley Turner, Andrew Zwicker and Patrick Diegnan, and state assembly members Annette Chaparro, Angela Mcknight, Clinton Calabrese, John McKeon, Thomas Giblin, Mila Jasey, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Sterley Stanley, Daniel Benson, Raj Mukherji, William Moen Jr., Britnee Timberlake, Sadaf Jaffer, Angelica Jimenez and Pedro Mejia.

The sewerage commission has released a statement in response to the letter, defending the proposal and saying that it "continues to fully explore clean energy alternatives for the facility." Read More: Sewerage Commission Defends Newark Power Plant Proposal, Cites Sandy

The PVSC is proposing to build a new natural gas power plant at its existing wastewater treatment facility at 600 Wilson Avenue in Newark. The long-running proposal is part of a resiliency blueprint that sprang up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

During the infamous storm, the PVSC wastewater facility in Newark was flooded, spilling billions of gallons of raw or partially-treated sewage into the Passaic River. Read More: Superstorm Sandy Caused Flood Of Excrement In New Jersey 10 Years Ago

Since then, the PVSC has rolled out a sweeping series of renovations to avoid future calamities. Part of that plan includes building a plant which would provide backup power to their wastewater treatment plant if the grid goes down.

If approved, it would be the fourth gas-burning power plant in a community that already struggles with harmful levels of toxic air pollution from decades of environmental racism, advocates have protested.

• See Related: NJ Activists Fight 2 Proposed Plants: 'Stop Dumping On Newark'
• See Related: Essex County Trash Incinerator Unfairly Burdens Poor, Critics Say
• See Related: Waste Processing Plant Off The Table In Newark; Aries Nixes Plan

The PVSC has maintained that the plant will use state-of-the-art emission controls and will have a “negligible impact to the community.” But while advocates say they understand the need to build resilience in the face of the climate crisis, the agency should do so with a solution that “prioritizes as much renewable energy as possible and doesn’t involve a new, dirty energy power plant.”

Several local government bodies in nearby towns and cities have since passed resolutions against the proposed power plant, including Alpine, Bayonne, Hoboken, Jersey City, Kearny, Livingston, Maplewood, Secaucus, Union City and Weehawken. Read More: More NJ Towns Oppose Power Plant Proposal In Newark

‘PROTECT THE HEALTH OF VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES’

Gov. Murphy made the environment a major part of his platform during both of his gubernatorial campaigns.

In 2020, Murphy signed one of the strongest environmental justice laws in the nation, which makes it harder for the owners of major sources of air pollution to build a new facility, expand an old one, or renew an existing permit in areas that are considered “overburdened.” Read More: NJ Law Gives Urban Areas A Powerful Tool To Fight Polluters

To qualify, a neighborhood needs to have 35 percent low-income households, 40 percent minority households or 40 percent of households with limited English language proficiency. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, about 348 municipalities have overburdened communities within their borders, and the law impacts 4.6 million people in New Jersey. Read More: New DEP Rule Would Protect Already Polluted NJ Communities

Mayor Baraka and the other 19 officials referenced the state’s environmental justice law in their letter this week. They wrote:

“We the undersigned legislators write to express our strong opposition to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s (PVSC) proposed methane gas-fired power plant in Newark. While we agree with the goal of making PVSC more resilient to extreme weather events, we strongly oppose the siting of what would be the 4th gas power plant located in one of the most polluted regions and environmental justice communities in the country.

“Together we have made several strong commitments to remediate New Jersey’s history of disproportionate pollution burdens in low-income and communities of color, including enacting one of the strongest environmental justice laws in the nation. And your issuance of Executive Order No. 274 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent below 2006 levels by 2030 is critical to avoiding the worst case scenarios of runaway climate catastrophe. Siting another polluting power plant in Newark would violate the spirit of these essential commitments, and would disproportionately impact several predominantly black, brown and low income communities in Essex and Hudson Counties.

“In response to growing public opposition, PVSC had modified its permit application to reduce the operating hours for the power plant, and stated they would try to convert the turbines to burn ‘renewable fuels’ such as Hydrogen at an undetermined future date. Unlike truly renewable technologies like wind, solar, and battery storage, these dirty fuels would add to the burden of health harming air pollution. Burning hydrogen to power turbines is not commercially feasible, and hydrogen when combusted has the potential to create up to seven times the amount of NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) pollution as burning methane gas. NOx is already one of the worst pollution problems in the region, contributing significantly to the disproportionate health problems of our residents.

“Governor Murphy, we urge you to do everything in your power to protect the health of our most vulnerable communities. We ask PVSC to withdraw its permit application to the NJDEP for a new methane power plant to demonstrate a good faith effort by the agency to explore alternatives and truly listen to the communities it will impact. Administrative Order 2021-25 currently in effect does not include the requirement for a cumulative public health impacts assessment to be completed prior to a permit decision, a key provision in the law.

“Once the EJ Law is implemented, we urge PVSC to collaboratively with your office to redesign this project using clean renewable energy and grid hardening technologies that will not increase the pollution burden on our most vulnerable residents or exacerbate the climate crisis. We look forward to working together to ensure the development of the most economic, resilient, and publicly beneficial project for the residents of our great state.”

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