Stop Woodbridge's 2nd Natural Gas Power Plant, NJ Residents Beg Murphy

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — In 2020, to great fanfare, Gov. Phil Murphy signed this environmental justice law, which he called one of the toughest in the nation.

And last week, at a Feb. 28 hearing on a second natural gas power plant proposed for Keasbey, some New Jersey residents asked why the governor is not enforcing his own law to stop the plant from being built.

"Two weeks ago Gov. Murphy said the new policy of the state is to get to 100 percent clean energy by 2035. It is a really radical idea," said Bloomfield resident Ed Glick at the hearing. "It's a good goal, but this project is very much alive. It is frankly just hypocritical. It's hard to swallow that. This thing of saying one thing and doing something else has to stop. This is a great place to stop it. This dirty, polluting, totally unnecessary plant that is all about the bottom line for the company."

“The proposed Keasbey fossil fuel plant would go directly against Gov. Murphy’s goal for New Jersey to achieve 100 percent clean electricity by 2035,” Tiziana Bottino of the New Jersey Sierra Club said March 1 in this press release.

A media spokesman for the governor did not respond to Patch for this article.

In his second term in office, Gov. Murphy unveiled plans that will dramatically increase New Jersey's electricity consumption:

Last month, he announced he wants only all-electric cars to be sold in the state by 2035. Murphy’s Energy Master Plan would require New Jersey residents heat their homes with electric only, and only use electric ovens and stoves. Murphy has said he will power New Jersey's massive spike in electric needs by building thousands of acres of wind farms off the coast, turning the Atlantic Ocean off the Jersey Shore into the largest wind farm in the world, an idea backed by President Joe Biden.

In fact, at the Feb. 28 hearing a spokesman for Competitive Power Ventures — the energy company that wants to build the natural gas plant — said one of the goals of the plant is to specifically provide a back-up if renewable energy from wind or solar does not work.

"As more renewables come online, we are seeing a greater need for flexibility in the system," said the CPV spokesman. "So the point of the Keasbey plant is to help maintain that reliability, keep the lights on."

150 people speak against power plant at 3-hour long Feb. 28 hearing

CPV was required by the state to hold last Tuesday's virtual public hearing.

Of the more than 150 people who signed up to speak at the three-hour long hearing (which you can watch here), Woodbridge residents were given priority, as they will be the most affected by emissions and air pollution from the plant.

"We live a mile away from the first power plant and totally disagree with another power plant in the area," said a Keasbey woman.

"I've been a resident of Woodbridge for 18 years. I wish our town council would oppose this project," said Colonia resident Jean Roy at the hearing. "I suffer from asthma related to air pollution. We have enough pollution here: We have ports in the area; the Turnpike, the Parkway go through town; there's already existing power plants in Woodbridge. We need to move away as quickly as possible from fossil fuels."

"It would be nice to have a plant built in one of the more affluent, prettier areas," he added. "I strongly urge the governor and the DEP to reject this plant."

If the state approves it, this would be CPV's second natural gas-fired power plant in Woodbridge's Keasbey section.

Since 2016, CPV has operated the Woodbridge Energy Center, a 725-megawatt power plant that the company says is one of the most efficient fossil fuel plants on the East Coast. At the Feb. 28 hearing, a CPV spokesman said the Woodbridge Energy Center is so clean it offsets six million tons of Co2 emissions from other plants in America. He also said the plant reuses grey water from the Middlesex County Water Treatment Authority.

The CPV spokesman also said the greenhouse gas emissions from the new plant would be "at the lowest level achievable in the U.S. from a natural gas-fired electric generating station."

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac repeatedly has called the Woodbridge Energy Center "one of the cleanest plants" in the state. McCormac supports the second plant opening, citing jobs and increased tax revenue to Woodbridge Township.

"If anything, the technology has gotten better regarding emissions, so the second plant will clearly be cleaner than the first," McCormac said just last week.

Keasbey an "overburdened community," state already determined

This second proposed plant will be located immediately adjacent to CPV's existing facility. This new proposed plant will be a 657-megawatt combined natural gas facility. It will used natural gas obtained by fracking methods.

The plant will provide enough electricity for more than 600,000 homes. The CPV spokesman did not say the electricity produced by the plant will go to Woodbridge or even New Jersey residents: Instead, it will be pumped back into the grid.

"One hundred percent of the power from this plant will be sold out of state for profit," warned Matt Smith of Food & Water Watch at the Tuesday hearing. "While the pollution will stay here — not just in Woodbridge and Keasbey, but Perth Amboy and dozens of communities downwind. Gov. Murphy must deny and reject this project."

The 2020 law signed by Murphy specifically "requires mandatory permit denials (to gas-fired power plants) if an environmental justice analysis determines a new facility will have a disproportionately negative impact on overburdened communities" — determined by having a substantial number of low-income or minority residents.

Woodbridge's Keasbey section classifies as one of these "overburdened communities."

When an Associated Press reporter asked the governor's office about this last week, he was referred to the state Department of Environmental Protection. DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said Competitive Power Ventures applied in 2017 for the air quality permit to open the second plant, before the 2020 law was written.

At the hearing, a small handful of people — most of them from the labor trade unions — spoke in support of the second plant, saying it will bring union jobs.

CPV is still waiting on a half-dozen environmental permits from the state and federal government, including that key air pollution permit it requested from the NJ DEP more than five years ago, in 2017.

New Brunswick newspaper New Brunswick Today uploaded the hearing to YouTube. Watch it here:

Ongoing Patch reporting on 2nd proposed natural gas power plant in Woodbridge:

Woodbridge Residents Speak For And Against 2nd Natural Gas Power Plant (Feb. 27, 2023)

3 New NJ Power Plants Coming, 2 Will Definitely Use Natural Gas (April 2022)