-------- Original Message -------- Subject: RELEASE: Delaware Water Gap NOT for $ale Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:16:54 -0500 From: Kate Millsaps <Kate.Millsaps_at_sierraclub.org> Reply-To: Kate.Millsaps_at_sierraclub.org To: Kate.Millsaps_at_sierraclub.org
/For Immediate Release/
January 19, 2012 Contact: Jeff Tittel, Director, 609-558-9100
*Delaware Water Gap NOT for $ale*
** Today the utilities behind the polluting Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line project announced they would be proposing a mitigation plan and major land acquisitions to convince the National Park Service to allow the project through three park units.PPL and PSEG plan to spend $30 million on mitigation if the coal-by-wire project is approved.You cannot mitigate for the destruction of a National Park.This project would ruin the scenic beauty, breathtaking vistas, and critical resources of our National Parks, diminishing the visitor experience.The project will allow for the production of more coal-fired energy, creatingmore coal pollution that will impact people's health while they are using the parks.This project violates the Haze Rule which calls for cleaning up the air in our National Parks for both environmental and scenic purposes.The utilitiesare using this money to buy silence from environmental groups and others that should be opposing this line.This is green pay-to-play.This money comes off the backs of the ratepayers anyway, not the corporations.The more PPL and PSEG spend on mitigation the more they make since they are guaranteed an over 13% profit on expenditures for the transmission line.They will spend $30 million in mitigation and make $4 million in additional profit.
"This is not a mitigation, this is a rationalization.The resources of the park will be impaired and damaged by this line, undermining the public trust in our National Parks. The Susquehanna-Roseland line will have permanent negative impact on our parks and the utilities cannot make up for this kind of destruction by buying lands in other places.This is nothing more than blood money, money coming from environmental destruction," *said Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club*. The Conservation Fund is expected to be the main group working with the utilities and coordinating the acquisition ofthe mitigation parcels.The Board Chairmen, J. Rutherford Seydel II, is a partner in an Atlanta-based law firm that represents developers and banks that do a lot of work in development.Other Board members include Kay Kelley Arnold of Entergy Corporation, a nuclear power company, and Stephen A. Elbert, of BP. The full mitigation plan is not available to the public at this time.The applicants are expected to submit the plan as part of their comments on the NPS draft Environmental Impact Statement on the transmission line.The NPS was required to prepare the environmental document under the National Environmental Policy Act and will be holding three public meetings next week on the document.The draft review found the "No Build" Alternative to be the "environmentally-preferred route" but NPS will not selected its preferred route until after the public comment period.
"The Susquehanna-Roseland line would devastate the critical resources and stunning vistas of the Delaware Water Gap and Appalachian Trail while undermining New Jersey's clean energy future.There is no way to mitigate for those impacts to these national treasures, held in the public trust," *said Jeff Tittel*. PPL Press Release: /http://www.marketwatch.com/story/utilities-will-offer-to-expand-enhance-national-parks-2012-01-19/
-- Kate Millsaps Program Assistant NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club 609-656-7612