The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is supporting a major project in South Jersey that will provide the B.L. England electric generation plant in Beesley's Point with the natural gas supply it needs to stop burning coal, and pave the way for it to become one of the cleanest power plants in New Jersey. The project also will provide a critical back-up route for natural gas to more than 142,000 customers in Cape May and Atlantic counties who now depend on a single pipeline.
We implore the Pinelands Commission to approve this project.
The plan, by RC Cape May Holdings, which owns the B.L. England electric generation plant, calls for building a 22-mile, 24-inch high pressure natural gas pipeline from just outside Millville in Maurice River Township, Cumberland County, to Beesley's Point in Upper Township, Cape May County.
Once constructed, the new pipeline will provide the area with safe and reliable energy, make homeowners in the area less vulnerable to a service outage and reduce air pollution as designed in the state's 2011 Energy Master Plan, and as required in air pollution regulations.
This is important because B.L. England is the only significant electricity generator in southeastern New Jersey, making it crucial in providing electric reliability for citizens and business owners. This area's already high demand for electricity will be exacerbated by the 2019 retirement of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station.
Under the plan, the plant will no longer operate on coal and oil. Instead, the project calls for repowering one of the plant's units with a state-of-the-art combined-cycle natural gas turbine, and repowering another unit with natural gas. This will place it among the cleanest power plants in New Jersey.
The emission rate of carbon dioxide will be reduced by 60 percent, and the use of water from Great Egg Harbor Bay would be reduced by 43 percent, according to the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection. This conversion will nearly eliminate emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxides as well as sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain and haze.
Converting this power plant to a clean-burning natural gas facility creates a win on many fronts. It will improve air quality and public health, it will reduce costs for the overburdened taxpayer, it will ensure energy reliability for the southern region of New Jersey, and it will provide a boost to the economy and job creation, all the while avoiding damage to our environment.
I serve on the New Jersey Clean Air Council. I was appointed by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and was reappointed by Govs. Donald DiFrancesco, Richard J. Codey, Jon Corzine and most recently Gov. Chris Christie. I have sat in as the Clean Air Council has discussed this project and its environmental benefits for three years. Further, the Department of Environmental Protection supported it at a recent Pinelands Commission meeting.
We approve it. And so should the Pinelands Commission.
Michael Egenton is senior vice president of government relations at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.