Get the Frack Out: With Sweeney Gone, SJ Grassroots Hope for Environmental Action

The South Jersey Grassroots Continue to Fight for the Ground They Stand On

For over a year now, South Jersey grassroots advocates have been pressuring elected officials to take action against a fossil fuel project that could put the region at risk. South Jersey residents have been busy attending local government meetings, asking representatives to oppose the LNG Export Terminal in Gibbstown. Their message is this: transporting highly explosive fuel by untested means past neighborhoods and through densely populated areas is simply too dangerous for South Jersey. Now that Senator Steve Sweeney, originator of this dangerous plan, has lost re-election, the South Jersey grassroots hope for a future without fracked gas.

Real Risk for Multiple South Jersey Counties

If this plan comes to fruition, fracked gas (also known as liquefied natural gas or LNG) will be transported by truck or train from the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, a fracking hub where drilling has caused water contamination, to Gibbstown in Gloucester County. Over its nearly 200 mile journey, this fossil fuel product will travel past homes, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and sites of natural beauty and historical significance. The planned truck/rail routes for this proposed LNG terminal run adjacent to many SJ towns. Gloucester, Camden and Burlington Counties all stand to be impacted by this plan.

Potential Dangers to the Planet & Public Health

This fracked gas will be transported in regular rail cars over existing tracks or by truck over public roads. Transporting LNG by rail is virtually untested. Worse yet, the fracking company profiting from this project got a special permit exempting them from federal regulations requiring safer rail car design.

In addition to being harmful to the planet (bolstering the fracking industry), this plan endangers public health. An accident or leak on any of these paths could spell major disaster. If vaporized, LNG can flash-freeze human flesh and asphyxiate by displacing oxygen. If ignited, the fire burns so hot it is inextinguishable. Evacuation in a one mile radius is required. In China, the explosion of a LNG truck on a highway exit ramp resulted in the death of 19 people and injury to 172 others. Because the Delaware is a tidal river, any accidents at the terminal site in Gibbstown could have far ranging adverse impact.

Opposition Voiced Elsewhere

The NJ Attorney General has objected to the lack of public safety and environmental impact studies. NJ Senators and Assembly members from other parts of the state have voiced objections. In Pennsylvania, county commissioners and local officials have adopted resolutions opposing the LNG Terminal. The Inquirer Editorial Board has come out against this plan. To date though, the near silence from South Jersey electeds has been deafening.

Some Local Steps in the Right Direction

Only a handful of local South Jersey officials have taken a stand against this fracked gas plan. In November and December of 2020, advocates successfully lobbied council members in Runnemede, Haddon Township and Pennsauken to take a stand for their community’s well-being and pass a resolution opposing the LNG plan. Last month, residents of Merchantville successfully convinced their council to pass a resolution opposing the plan.

Jim Stewart of National Park and Jeanne Jordan of West Deptford have both logged months of advocacy work in their neighboring Gloucester County towns, endeavoring to educate both officials and the public about this project. In his outreach to his National Park neighbors, Stewart has asked them to “note that this project has NO benefit to New Jersey whatsoever. It only exposes residents to the dangers of its transport. So here we have a proposed project that will continue the pollution of our planet, endanger the lives of our citizens and contribute to the rise in gas prices by investing in polluting energy sources instead of clean energy.”

With Sweeney Gone, Dare We Hope?

This fracked gas project is the brainchild of Senate President Steve Sweeney who last week lost his bid for re-election along with his slatemates, John Burzichelli and Adam Taliaferro. Meeting records illustrate that the plan was conceived by Sweeney and other machine politicians behind closed doors, leaving residents voiceless and uninformed about the real dangers of this plan.

Though party boss George Norcross has already tried to publicly downplay Sweeney’s loss, the LNG Terminal illustrates how out of step Sweeney truly is with the working class. Who really benefits from this plan that puts the public at risk? Certainly the building trades unions that donate heavily to the Norcross machine would see a benefit. Sweeney himself would benefit from their continued donations should he still decide to run for Governor in 2025, as Norcross hopes. The plan would obviously benefit the fracking company, New Fortress Energy, currently valued at $5.2 billion.

Environmental Protection Needed for the Working Class

While the elite and politically connected gain, working class residents of Gloucester County continue to endure environmental catastrophes. This project is planned for a region that has already been subjected to environmental disasters such as the train derailment in Paulsboro that dumped vinyl chloride into a creek that feeds into the Delaware River and the water contamination by Solvay chemical company in West Deptford. The LNG terminal site in Gibbstown is literally next door to a daycare center.

Though the Norcross machine may continue to try and brand their candidates as working class heroes, that label seems increasingly absurd. Linda Rubiano of South Jersey Progressive Democrats notes: “the fact that Sweeney lost the election is more evidence that people are sick and tired of the status quo and want to see grassroots leadership. Our hope as progressives is that our elected officials will mitigate risk by ensuring a moratorium on these fossil fuel projects.”

New Action on the Issue From Murphy?

In December of 2020, South Jersey activists were stunned when Governor Murphy voted yes to the LNG Export Terminal plan at the meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission. This seemed like a shocking reversal of his earlier statement of intention to ban fracking throughout the Delaware River Basin. The very next week, Murphy and the state legislature fast tracked a tax incentive bill, a shocking reversal of his commitment in 2019 to a rigorous examination of the awarding of tax breaks. In both of these cases, Murphy’s dramatic change of heart seemed linked to his need to make nice with the Norcross machine while running for re-election.

But maybe now that Sweeney is gone and Murphy has won a second term there’s hope for positive action on the LNG terminal plan. Joe Bouvier, one of the South Jersey Progressive Democrats who scored an off the line Democratic committee victory in the June Primary, offered, “Perhaps with Senator Sweeney’s electoral defeat, Governor Murphy can feel more confident that he can take a tough stance against the LNG project, thereby living up to his own campaign promise to protect our environment and move toward renewable energy sources.” This is very much the hope of the South Jersey grassroots organizers hard at work on this issue.