2nd Natural Gas Power Plant Protested In Woodbridge

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — On Wednesday night, several dozen people rallied outside Woodbridge town hall, protesting the construction of a second natural gas power plant in the Keasbey section, long a heavily industrial part of town.

The plant would be owned and operated by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV).

If approved by Gov. Phil Murphy's administration, this would be CPV's second natural gas power plant in Woodbridge. For years now, CPV has owned and operated the Woodbridge Energy Center, which generates enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes every day.

The new plant is proposed to be built right next to the Woodbridge Energy Center. Both plants run on natural gas obtained by fracking methods.

CPV is still waiting on several key approvals from the state, including an air pollution permit it had to apply for from the state Department of the Environmental Protection.

"To my knowledge, Gov. Murphy has not made comments on this project," said Charlie Kratovil of Food & Water Watch, the environmental activist group that organized Wednesday night's protest. "The DEP is still reviewing their air pollution permit application, a process that has dragged on for over six years now."

(Kratovil is a familiar name in Central Jersey: He operates a local newspaper, New Brunswick Today, and is running this year — for a second time — to become the mayor of New Brunswick. This August, he scored a court victory in a lawsuit he filed against New Brunswick Police, to require police to release more information about the increase in shootings in New Brunswick.)

According to Food & Water Watch, Woodbridge Township has been intimately involved in allowing the second power plant to move forward.

The Woodbridge Redevelopment Agency selected CPV to be the designated redeveloper of the site, hence allowing CPV to design and open the second plant there, said Kratovil. And the Woodbridge Planning Board granted them site plan and subdivision approvals.

Also, in 2019 the Woodbridge Township Council and Mayor John McCormac unanimously approved a 30-year property tax exemption at the Keasbey site, said Kratovil. That exemption only goes into effect if the second power plant is build.

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac did not return repeated requests from Patch for comment.

Food & Water Watch said the DEP and the Murphy administration should outright reject construction of the second plant.

"If approved, the expanded CPV facility would emit more than 2.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses each year, and would be one of the largest single sources of climate-destroying carbon emissions in the entire state," said Kratovil. "We are calling on Murphy and his Department of Environmental Protection to reject CPV’s air permit application. If Gov. Murphy wants us to believe he is ready to be a climate leader, he will reject the Keasbey plant."

But a CPV spokesman said Kratovil is being disingenuous.

Federal regulators have determined the Woodbridge Energy Center to be a low-emissions plant, and it is ranked as one of the nation’s cleanest and most efficient power plants.

"Our company is completely focused on helping decarbonize (reduce the use of coal) in the U.S. by helping modernize our power system. What Mr. Kratovil purposely ignores is the displacement of older, less efficient generation every hour we operate. That is how we have gone from a 50 percent reliance on coal to almost half that across the U.S.," said Tom Rumsey, a spokesman for Competitive Power Ventures. "Mr. Kratovil simply takes our permits and pretends it is all incremental to today’s emissions. He knows better."

Wednesday's protest was called “Governor Murphy: Walk Your Talk on Climate" and it is part of a walk Food & Water Watch is organizing this fall from Newark to Red Bank to — as the group says — "draw attention to fossil fuel expansion projects in the state."

The following towns have all passed resolutions calling on Murphy to reject the second Keasbey power plant: Franklin, Edison, Highland Park, Hoboken and Perth Amboy.

More on this topic: 3 New NJ Power Plants Coming, 2 Will Definitely Use Natural Gas: Three power plants are coming to New Jersey, proposed to open in Newark, Kearny and the Keasbey section of Woodbridge (April 2022)