The Jersey Shore Group of Sierra and the N.J. Friends of Clearwater are holding a unique joint public meeting to explore the impact that a proposed experimental coal-fired power plant in Linden will have on increasing air pollution in the metropolitan area and leaking carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the increasingly acidic Atlantic Ocean.
Two of the oldest environmental groups, supported by the NY-NJ Baykeepers, the American Littoral Society, Clean Ocean Action, and other environmental organizations, will hear a critique of the plan by Baykeeper's Deputy Executive Director, Greg Remaud, and the N.J. Sierra Chapter's Outreach Coordinator, Grace Sica at 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 24 at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 1475 West Front St., Lincroft, N.J.

The $5 billion, 750-megawatt power plant, to be located on the Arthur Kill, would burn 2.5 million tons of coal a year. About 60 percent of its electrical output would be sold to a power supplier for distribution. The remaining 40 percent would be used for two purposes: to generate 1.3 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer a year and to pump each year about 5 to 10 million tons of pressurized, liquid CO2  through a 100-mile pipe from the plant into the Atlantic Ocean, where the CO2 would -- presumably -- be stored forever about beneath the ocean floor.

Environmentalists claim everything about the plan will damage the environment. They fear the coal-burning plant would worsen the already polluted air quality in densely populated North Jersey and New York. They also oppose the idea of manufacturing reactive nitrogen fertilizer on the site, since scientists claim reactive fertilizers have been creating "dead zones" in the oceans.  By locating the plant in Linden, Union County, critics claim the plant would unfairly afflict the many minority residents in the highly populated area with even more environmental hazards.
In addition to burning dirty coal in a state where the air in all 21 counties fails to meet minimum health standards, the sequestration plan to pump and store the CO2 about 6,600 feet below the Atlantic seafloor is being criticized by environmentalists, who argue that the process is an unproven technology. So far, only Norway has tested the sequestration technology with a commercial plant one-tenth the size of PurGen – and critics claim the CO2 has been leaking!

"This sounds like just another attempt to convince us that coal isn't dirty and that technology will save us," said Ed Dlugosz, President of Clearwater. "Because New Jersey is one of the most polluted states in the nation, we should be pursuing cleaner sources of energy," he said, a view also held by many of the plan's critics.

"I hope that all the members of Clearwater come out to this meeting because this plant could adversely affect an area that has faced environmental injustice caused by fossil fuel for almost a century. Grass-roots activists like Beatrice Bernzott and Rebecca Kerins-Tattolli have been fighting PurGen and other injustices for years. It's not just local, the health and safety of several million people and the ecology in the metropolitan area and at the Jersey Shore are at enormous risk, " Dlugosz said. "And I'm very suspicious about that fertilizer plant."