9,000-signature petition to block PennEast pipeline proposal to be delivered to federal agency Wednesday Watch video
TRENTON - Several state and local officials were joined on the Statehouse steps Tuesday by about 35 environmentalists and opponents of the proposed $1.2 billion PennEast pipeline, announcing the collection of 9,000 signatures on a petition opposing the natural gas project.
Several elected leaders, including state Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-16th Dist.), plan to travel to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to deliver the petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the pipeline application and has final say over whether it can be built.
"This petition represents an overwhelming bi-state opposition to PennEast," Zwicker said in a short speech. "This project as no public benefit whatsoever.''
The petition includes 4,832 signers from around New Jersey and 3,285 from Pennsylvania, as well as signatures from other areas in the country. In New Jersey, the most signatures were collected from Mercer and Hunterdon counties -- the two counties affected by the proposal -- with 798 and 1,012, respectively.
The PennEast pipeline, a 118-mile, 36-inch natural gas conduit planned to run from the Marcellus Shale region of Northeast Pennsylvania to Hopewell Township in Mercer County, has been vehemently opposed in New Jersey.
Lawsuit says PennEast illegally surveying residents' property
About 70 percent of property owners in the proposal's route in New Jersey have refused to let the company survey their land. Every municipality in Hunterdon and Mercer counties has passed resolutions opposing the pipeline and both counties have banned the company from public land.
"PennEast does not care about the environment," said Richard Dodds, a committeeman in Kingwood Township, Hunterdon County. "They care bout the money it will make, no matter what it takes."
A group of residents last week sued PennEast, saying the company was illegally surveying their land without permission.
The suit asks that the court move swiftly to block further surveying and PennEast's use of previous survey data because the summer deadline for the company to complete its application to federal regulators is approaching.
A hearing was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Somerset County Superior Court.
PennEast pipeline opponents cheer independent review
Tom Gilbert, head of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, was among one of several environmental groups at the statehouse rally. Gilbert denounced the pipeline as unneccesary and unwanted and said the petition showed that residents don't want it.
"This confirms that this opposition is not only along the pipeline's proposed route, but from counties across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and beyond," Gilbert said.
But Jeff Tittel, head of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said public pressure on federal and state agencies, such as the state Department of Environmental Protection, which can issue needed permits to build the pipeline.
"We need real action to block permits," Tittel said in a release. "They might as well be sending these petitions to a brick wall, but if they did at least they could post the petition on the wall. We need real action to keep the FERC out of New Jersey."
Keith Brown may be reached at kbrown@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBrownTrenton. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.