NJ Spotlight published the following article on 5/21/2014. To read the full article, click here.

New Pipeline Proposal Draws Ire of Environmentalists in NJ and NY

Tom Johnson | May 21, 2014

 

Yet another pipeline proposal is mobilizing environmental organizations to oppose the measure — a project that would move crude oil and other refined products between Albany, NY, and Linden, NJ.

A coalition of more than three-dozen environmental groups said they are calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to block the undertaking, which would require a series of environmental permits from both states to move forward.

Pilgrim Pipeline Holding LLC — the developer of the 178-mile-project — argued that an underground pipeline largely located along existing rights-of-ways would be a vast safety improvement over shipping petroleum products down the Hudson River to refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as is done now.

Pilgrim has yet to file any plan with regulators, nor detail precisely what areas the pipeline would traverse.

The construction of new energy pipelines has emerged as an increasingly contentious issue in New Jersey, largely sparked by opposition to natural gas pipelines aimed at transporting the fuel to the metropolitan area from neighboring state such as Pennsylvania, where new deposits of gas have been found and are being exploited.

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