{"id":2497,"date":"2020-12-16T21:27:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T21:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140135"},"modified":"2020-12-16T21:27:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T21:27:43","slug":"massive-fracked-gas-export-terminal-coming-to-southern-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/massive-fracked-gas-export-terminal-coming-to-southern-new-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Fracked-Gas Export Terminal Coming To Southern New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 9 a regional planning body, the Delaware River Basin Commission, gave a green light to a mammoth fracked-gas export terminal in Gibbstown, New Jersey.  It would export fracked-gas from the Marcellus Shale gas fields to Angola, among other countries.  The Governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey voted yay.  Governor Andrew Cuomo of NY abstained.  Environmentalists and concerned citizens had hoped Governor Phil Murphy of NJ would oppose the project.  Here is my letter to the Governor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Governor Murphy,<\/p>\n

I suggest a Zen workshop.<\/p>\n

You know \u2013 the kind where you sit cross-legged.  You stare at a blank wall.  Once-in-a-while someone sneaks up behind you.  They hit you with a stick.  Presto, you wake up.<\/p>\n

Clearly, you are not awake.  After all, you just did a big favor to an investment fund based in Tokyo, the SoftBank Group.  They own \u2013 through a labyrinth of holding companies \u2013 Delaware River Partners, LLC. That\u2019s the company that made the application for the project.<\/p>\n

Bookmark that LLC.<\/p>\n

Please explain.  Why did you vote for this project?<\/p>\n

Was it because you think the residents of New Jersey and Pennsylvania should make sacrifices for the people of Puerto Rico and Jamaica \u2013 the countries where agencies have contracted to buy this fracked gas, even while significant segments of their populations know wind and solar is much more appropriate for sun-drenched and hurricane-prone islands? What about Angola? Is that top on our list of priorities?<\/p>\n

Was it because of the jobs generated in New Jersey?  Granted jobs are desperately needed, especially during these Covid-19 times. But did you take the time to think, what if we took the $900 million or so this port is going to cost and spent it on weatherization and retrofitting programs in Trenton or Newark or Philadelphia? Wouldn\u2019t we generate thousands not hundreds of jobs?<\/p>\n

Was it because you believed that Delaware River Partners, LLC was really interested in the well-being of the citizens of your state?  (The marketing team did well with that name.  How cozy, how environmentally-benign it sounds!)  Delaware River Partners, by the way, only has seven employees.  Wasn\u2019t that a tip-off that the company was a front?<\/p>\n

And what about the LLC part?  Limited Liability Company.<\/p>\n

What about an accident?  After all 100-tank-car trains making the 185-mile trip down from Wyalusung, PA to Philadelphia and then across the Delaware River via an ancient bridge trip is concerning.  That\u2019s twice<\/strong> a day on an old railroad bed and over the Delair bridge, built in 1896.  What if a bolt comes lose, a train-coupling breaks, a railroad engineer dozes off for one second?  What if there is an explosion?<\/p>\n

Who or what is liable? Is it Delaware River Partners, LLC? Is it the New Fortress Energy Project, which owns Delaware River Partners?  Is it the Fortress Investment Group that owns New Fortress Energy?  Is it the SoftBank Group?<\/p>\n

Surely, this is a question your staff looked into.  Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

By the way those sticks used in Zen meditation are called Kyosaku<\/em>.   I was once hit by one at a meditation center in Rochester, New York.  Apparently, the New York Governor visited the same center.  At least, he had the decency to abstain on this scurrilous project.<\/p>\n

Mina Hamilton served on the Board of Directors of Greenpeace, USA. She was a co-founder and co-director of the Sierra Club Radioactive Waste Campaign and President of the Delaware Valley Conservation Association. Her writing has appeared in Mother Jones magazine, the Progressive, the Nation and is a frequent contributor to dissidentvoice.org. She lives in New York City. Read other articles by Mina<\/a>.<\/div>\n

This article was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2020 at 1:27pm and is filed under Fracking<\/a>, Opinion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 9 a regional planning body, the Delaware River Basin Commission, gave a green light to a mammoth fracked-gas export terminal in Gibbstown, New Jersey.\u00a0 It would\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[820,4,33],"tags":[821,41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}