Woodbridge Residents Speak For And Against 2nd Natural Gas Power Plant

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — At the most recent Woodbridge Council meeting, held last Tuesday night, Feb. 21, there were passionate protests both for and against a major natural gas power plant that is coming to Woodbridge.

This is a proposed 657- megawatt natural gas plant planned for the Keasbey section of Woodbridge. It will be owned by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV). You can read CPV's description of the plant here: https://cpv.com/2023/01/18/pub...

This would be CPV's second natural gas plant in Woodbridge. CPV owns the existing natural gas power plant that has been in operation since 2016 in Keasbey. This new plant would be located adjacent to the existing.

Both plants would use fracked natural gas, which is natural gas obtained by fracking methods.

CPV is currently awaiting an air pollution permit from the New Jersey Department of the Environmental Protection; they need that permit before they can build the second plant.

But both Gov. Phil Murphy and Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac have expressed support for the second plant.

McCormac said where the plant would be built is a brownfield and used to be a radioactive waste site.

"This involved the elimination of the worst polluting site in our town ... To date, what has been spent on this site has exceeded $200 million for the clean-up," the mayor said at the Feb. 21 meeting. "The Township has received more $100 million in PILOT payments so far (from CPV). The PILOT helped fund major athletic improvements at the Township schools; we now have turf baseball, football and softball."

"If anything, the technology has gotten better regarding emissions, so the second plant will clearly be cleaner than the first," he added.

The town councils of Highland Park, Sayreville and Rahway have all passed resolutions saying they are against the second plant. McCormac said in response:

"We don't care what other towns do, and they should not care what we do," McCormac told MyCentralJersey on Feb. 14. "It's what the industry needs."

Woodbridge residents Tom Maras and Ed Soefield got up and spoke in support of the plant.

"People need electric; Murphy just announced an electric car mandate by 2035," said Fords resident Soefield, who is an IBEW building trade union leader. "There's a shortage of electricity right now. And the only way to get more electric is that natural gas plant. It's the cleanest, it's EPA approved, unlike coal, oil or nuclear. If you want electric cars, if you want electric stoves, if you want electric police cars or electric school buses, you have to go with this power pant. You can't have those things without electricity ... Look at all those condos on Main Street, they need electric. Case closed."

He also said construction of the second power plant will bring in more than a thousand jobs to Woodbridge.

"I was out of electric for four weeks after Sandy. We need electric," he said. "The mayor has the right idea."

Countered another Woodbridge resident, a woman:

"I'm very concerned about this pollution that will be spilling from this additional plant in Keasbey," she said. "Mayor McCormac, please don't ruin your legacy."

The power plant discussion starts at minute 41:

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