Ocean City Patch Letter To The Editor: Pipeline Vote Is Costly For Everyone

To the Editor:

On Thursday, Sept. 14, in Trenton, the Pinelands Commissioners once again betrayed their oath to preserve and protect the Pinelands by awarding yet another gas company the right to build a pipeline through the Pinelands.

The two pipelines which the Commissioners are enabling through the Pine Barrens have two major "costs":

#1) To our planet and all life including humans: 82 in Texas, 61 in Florida and 40 Caribbean lives lost. This literally makes the Pinelands Commissioners voting to allow these pipelines accomplices to murder; and

#2) Economic costs to taxpayers: Clean, renewable energy is far less costly than fossil fuels when you include $180 billion just in Texas of dollars wasted in costs of recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Regarding their previous approval of the SJ Gas pipeline through the Pinelands to power BL England with fracked Gas: in Houston all the refineries were shut down by Hurricane Harvey. Wind turbines provided the only source of energy to Houston. BL England is located on the Great Egg Harbor River making it vulnerable to a Hurricane.

With President Donald Twittler, who said he "believes" the Climate Crisis is nothing more than a Chinese hoax as he withdrew America from the Paris Climate Agreement, the stage nationally and locally is set for a major lesson from Mother Nature.

The four Commissioners who voted against the Pipeline were eloquent in explaining why they did. Truly profiles in courage as it is likely to see them replaced by Mr. Christie before he leaves office, as he did with those who voted against the SJ Gas project, thus manipulating a successful second vote.

The nine ethically challenged Pinelands Commissioners serving their political masters, who in turn serve their corporate interests, gave no rational explanation for their yes votes. May they live long enough to sincerely repent.

Sincerely,

Steven Fenichel, MD

Ocean City resident