A dozen power plant and pipeline projects could derail Phil Murphy's clean energy goals

Editor's note, Coming Friday: A look at at how much greenhouse gas would be emitted by the proposed North Bergen Liberty Generating station in the Meadowlands, and where it would rank among power plants in New Jersey.

Gov. Phil Murphy will not be able to make his ambitious clean energy goals if he fails to stop 12 fossil fuel projects from moving forward, according to a report issued Wednesday by a coalition of environmental groups.

Advocates say four proposed power plants along with eight pipelines and other natural gas infrastructure would increase New Jersey's greenhouse gas output by 30 percent and would derail Murphy's efforts to power the state by renewable energy by mid-century. 

"You can't get to 100 percent renewable by 2050 by building more power plants and pipelines," said Amy Goldsmith, state director of Clean Water Action. "You can't build a single one of these projects and hope to achieve these goals."

Among the projects are a power plant in the Meadowlands to produce electricity to New York, two pipelines through the protected Pinelands, a pipeline under Raritan Bay and New York Harbor to Queens and a pipeline from Pennsylvania through Central Jersey. 

A full list and descriptions are below.

Those projects continue a decades-long trend in New Jersey, which saw pipelines and other infrastructure built to move an abundant supply of gas fracked in northern Pennsylvania to a large swath of customers in the Northeast. 

Murphy inherited almost all of these projects from the pro-fossil-fuel Christie administration. But Murphy came into office last year championing an environmental agenda to transition New Jersey's energy production to wind and solar power.

Alexandra Altman, a Murphy spokeswoman, said the governor "has directed his team to take a hard look at energy infrastructure projects as part of an updated Energy Master Plan, which will focus on renewable energy and shift away from outdated energy sources." 

Over the past year, Murphy has made moves to reduce the state's contribution to global warming by rejoining a regional cap and trade system and laying the groundwork to build one of the nation's largest offshore wind farms - a project that has been stalled for at least a decade.

His aggressive clean energy mandate requires 50 percent of all electricity sold in the state to come from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. 

But advocates say his efforts will be in vain unless he takes a strong stand against the natural gas industry, which generated 58 percent of electricity in New Jersey as of October. Only 3.5 percent came from renewable sources. 

The four power plants plus a recently completed PSEG plant in Woodbridge would spike carbon dioxide and methane emissions from New Jersey's power plants by 76 percent, according to the report. 

“It’s kind of scary that no one until now has done the basic math around these cumulative impacts or shared it,” said Ken Dolsky of the Don’t Gas the Meadowlands Coalition and a primary author of the report. “Our research shows building these gas projects would make it impossible to achieve Governor Murphy’s objectives."

Dolsky and other members of a coalition called Empower New Jersey held a rally in Trenton on Wednesday calling for Murphy to pass a moratorium to halt progress on the dozen projects. 

Governors have issued moratoriums to stop environmental threats in the past such as Gov. Brendan Byrne stopping development in the Pinelands and Gov. Jim Florio barring the construction of trash incinerators.

Such action is needed if Murphy wants to jump-start New Jersey clean energy businesses, advocates said. 

"The lost opportunity for the investment in renewable clean energy during the 30, 40 year lifespan of these projects will never be regained when we need it most,"  said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

The story continues after the photo gallery:

Fossil fuel projects on the horizon

Here are a dozen new power plant, pipeline and other fossil fuel infrastructure projects either proposed or in various stages of permitting that are cited in the report.

POWER PLANTS

• North Bergen Liberty Generating Station (Meadowlands): A 1,200 megawatt gas-fired power plant proposed for North Bergen.
• Phoenix Energy Center (aka Highlands Power Plant - Hunterdon County): A 663 megawatt power plant on the site of a former paper mill on the Musconetcong River.
• BL England (Cape May County): A 447-megawatt natural-gas power plant that would replace an existing coal-fired unit. 
• Keasbey Energy Center (Middlesex County): Competitive Power Ventures is seeking approval to build another natural-gas plant next to its existing 725-megawatt Woodbridge Energy Center.

PIPELINES, COMPRESSOR STATIONS

• Rivervale South to Market (Meadowlands): A Williams project approved by federal officials to build a half-mile natural gas pipeline in the Meadowlands and upgrade existing pipes to carry more fuel. 
• Gateway Expansion Project (Essex County): Williams Transco would build a new 33,000 horsepower compressor station next to an existing one near the Passaic River.
• PennEast Pipeline (Mercer County): The proposed 118-mile pipeline would cross
  the Delaware River and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington.
• Williams' Northeast Supply Enhancement compressor stations (Somerset and Middlesex Counties and Raritan Bay): The project will add 37 miles of new pipeline and new compression to the existing Transco pipeline system from Middlesex County under Raritan Bay to Queens.
• Cape Atlantic Reliability Project (aka South Jersey Gas Pipeline) (Pinelands): The 22-mile pipeline would extend from Cumberland County to Cape May County. 
• Southern Reliability Link (Pinelands): A 28-mile natural gas pipeline through portions of Burlington and Ocean Counties. 
• Garden State Expansion Project (Burlington County): A new compressor station in Bordentown that has been built but won’t be in service until the Southern Reliability Link pipeline is constructed.
• Lambertville East Expansion (Mercer County): A plan to replace replace two existing compressor units and expand capacity.

The coalition includes environmental groups Clean Water Action, Blue Wave NJ, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Environment New Jersey, Food & Water Watch, NJ Sierra Club and Don’t Gas the Meadowlands Coalition.

Email: fallon@northjersey.com

More New Jersey news:

TAX:No, NJ residents won't pay a 'rain tax.' But there may be fees to solve runoff problems

PRIESTS:NJ's Catholic dioceses release names of 188 priests accused of sexual abuse