New Fortress Energy wants to build a deep water port in Gibbstown, NJ
NewFortress Energy wants to build a deep water port in Gibbstown, NJ, to export liquefied natural gas (fracked gas from PA) overseas. Given the state of our climate, any proposal that promotes increasing the extraction and use of fossil fuels at a time when we need to switch to renewable energy is problematic. However an additional urgent concern for this project is that it requires transporting the LNG (basically highly explosive and toxic methane) by train and truck through numerous NJ communities.
More than 50 of the communities on the proposed routes are already overburdened Environmental Justice communities including Trenton, Camden, Lawnside and Gloucester City. These are communities with a high percentage of low-income and minority residents. The proposed routes also go through densely populated areas.
150 environmental groups as well as 15 attorneys general, 14 municipalities and many faith based and civic groups have already come out in opposition to this project. Last year Medford Monthly Meeting passed a resolution in opposition to this project and sent it to President Biden, Governor Murphy and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Members of several Friends meetings in New Jersey met on November 15 for a Zoom presentation by representatives from Food and Water Watch and the Delaware Riverkeepers Network to learn more about the project. As a result of what we have learned, members of the Haddonfield, Moorestown, Trenton, Princeton Monthly Meetings, and many others faith communities are now returning to their congregation in hopes of passing similar resolutions and bringing them to their local legislator and beyond.
This interactive map shows the proposed road and rail routes and also the population impacts:
https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/taxonomy/term/1174
You can take action in your town by sending a message action to your council people and asking them to pass a resolution calling on Gov. Murphy to stop the Gibbstown LNG terminal:
https://secure.foodandwateraction.org/act/urge-your-town-oppose-fracked-gas-exports-through-nj
Or
Start a conversation: Find some great talking points here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rynNuGuTfrWvWvKm6GOgBquVYQKvDFryCJpo7qwImvU/edit
For more information on what the project involves check out this fact sheet:
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/FS_2108_GibbstownNewFortress-WEB.pdf
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