Unions Create Coalition To Support Pilgrim Pipeline Project

Several unions from New York and New Jersey and a Bergen County freeholder are fighting for the 2,000 construction jobs the Pilgrim Pipeline would create if it is built.

Eight unions and John A. Felice have formed the Coalition to Support Pilgrim Pipeline. The Coalition will advocate for the construction of the 178-mile long pipeline and has launched a website.

The pipeline would be constructed between Albany, New York and the New York Harbor and would run through 28 Bergen County municipalities.

More than 2,000 jobs would be created if the pipeline were to be constructed, according to the Coalition.

“For union workers in New Jersey and New York, the Pilgrim Pipeline is one of the most significant energy infrastructure projects to be proposed in years,” Roger Ellis, coalition spokesperson and business agent for the Heavy and General Construction Laborers Local 472, one of the coalition’s members, said in a statement. “A vast majority of these jobs will be filled by workers from local unions in both states.”

The pipeline would consist of two parallel underground pipes carrying 400,000 barrels of petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel, home heating oil, and jet fuel from the harbor north. Crude oil would be delivered south to New Jersey.

The pipeline would also help decrease the United States’ dependency on foreign sources of crude oil, the coalition said.

“For decades we have been reliant on foreign energy. We’ve been spending billions of dollars on getting energy from people who want to kill us,” Felice said. “Anything that will make us more energy efficient and helps us move energy in an efficient manner I am for.”

All 28 Bergen County municipalities the pipeline would be located in have passed resolutions opposing its construction.

The New Jersey Sierra Club is also against the pipeline being built. The group said the pipeline could have potentially impact the Passaic and Pompton rivers, which provide drinking water to 1 million area residents.

“They know that Pilgrim Pipeline could be a disaster for their communities, especially for public safety and the environment,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Bakken oil is not only the most flammable, it’s the most explosive, and no matter how to ship it there will be serious disasters.”