EDITORIAL: Pilgrim Pipeline too much of a risk
“No one, it seems, wants the proposed Pilgrim Pipeline running through New Jersey.
Except, of course, for the businesses that stand to benefit from the pipeline. And they have every intention of ramming the project down our throats whether New Jerseyans like it or not.
The sad thing is that they might be able to do it. Residents can complain, municipal leaders can pass resolutions in opposition, even legislators can offer their own formal resistance. But in the end, such decisions are made by energy regulators and environmental officials, and — theoretically at least — public opinion should have no effect.
But the fight against the project should continue, on all available fronts, because the pipeline is undeniably an environmental threat that offers no meaningful public benefit.
The 178-mile pipeline would run from Albany, N.Y. to a refinery in Linden. Nearly every one of the nearly 30 communities in its path has already passed resolutions opposing the project, as has the state Assembly in an overwhelming and bipartisan vote. As yet there isn’t even an agreement with Linden’s Phillips 66 refinery to sign on to the project.
This is more than just a NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) issue, when the public wants or needs something but insists that someone else accommodate it. There’s just no need for this particular pipeline. It is intended to transport Bakken crude oil which — depending on whom you want to believe — either is or isn’t a particularly volatile form of oil that increases environmental risks.”
my Central Jersey 23 February 2015.