Well, folks, you can call it a vote. You can call it a license. But what happened in that virtual room this week looks an awful lot like a giveaway. And the people of New Jersey just got handed the bill.
The Tidelands Resource Council, twelve people appointed by the governor, met online the other day. Forty-three citizens got up – figuratively, anyway – and told them straight: don’t do this.
Don’t take 93,000 square feet of public tidelands, the very mud and marsh we all own, and hand it over to a pipeline company from out of state. Don’t carve up Raritan Bay and Cheesequake Creek for a load of fracked methane gas headed to New York. They talked about public health. About marine life. About the coastal economy. About locking the region into fossil fuels for decades while the planet’s on fire.
And then two people spoke in favor. Two.
The vote was unanimous. For the pipeline.
That’s right. Unanimous.
Twelve to nothing. The kind of math that makes you wonder if the council members were in the same meeting as the rest of us.
They approved the utility license for the Northeast Supply Enhancement project – the NESE pipeline, 23.4 miles of offshore steel that will carry gas from Pennsylvania all the way up to New York, with New Jersey playing the part of the doormat.
The final barrier before construction, they say. Only thing left is Governor Mikie Sherrill’s review. And then they can start digging in the third quarter of this year.
Now, you might ask what New Jersey gets out of this deal.
The answer, according to every environmental group with a lawyer and a conscience, is exactly nothing.
No benefit. No reduced energy bills. No help for struggling families. Just risk.
Risk to the air. Risk to the water. Risk to the multi-billion dollar natural asset that is our coastline and our public trust tidelands – lands the state holds in trust for you, by the way, not for Williams/Transco.
What does Williams/Transco pay for the privilege of punching a pipeline through those public tidelands?
Fourteen thousand eighty-four dollars a year. Per year. Let that sink in.
A company that expects to move gas through this pipe for decades will pay less for a license than a mid-level accountant makes in three months.
In exchange, New Jersey gets to be the host with the most – most pollution, most habitat destruction, most risk of a methane leak or a construction accident that nobody will remember to insure against.
The meeting was held on Microsoft Teams. That’s where public decision-making happens now. Forty-three people said no. Two said yes. Government officials handed it unanimous approval.
Cindy Zipf of Clean Ocean Action called it devastating. Said the council voted for corporate interest over public interest. She’s right.
Blair Nelsen of Waterspirit said it’s a deep wound to our shared watersheds, and that greenlighting this project is tantamount to sacrificing our children’s future on the altar of greed. That’s strong language. But when you look at the vote, it’s hard to argue she’s exaggerating.
Matt Smith at Food and Water Watch put it plainly: Governor Sherrill holds the cards now. She’s the one who will be held accountable. He said it would be absurd for her to allow a harmful project that has zero benefit for New Jerseyans. And he’s not wrong.
Patty Cronheim from ReThink Energy NJ noted that this pipeline would raise utility bills. Not lower them. Raise them. While data centers and big industrial customers get the real benefit. Homeowners get the pipe and the risk.
Kin Gee from CHARGE said he was very disappointed. The Eastern Environmental Law Center wondered aloud how the TRC could possibly find that the public interest is served by a fossil fuel expansion that does nothing for energy affordability and makes the climate crisis worse.
Jesse Burns from the League of Women Voters said it puts politics and polluters’ profits ahead of life, health, and property.
And here’s the kicker: environmental organizations have already filed two lawsuits. One against the state DEP. One against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The coalition includes NY/NJ Baykeeper, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and others. They’re not waiting around. They’re evaluating next steps. They’re urging residents to stay engaged. Because this isn’t over until Governor Sherrill signs off – or doesn’t.
So that’s where we stand.
A unanimous vote for a pipeline nobody wanted. A license fee that wouldn’t cover a decent used car. A public trust sold for less than the price of a monthly rent in Hoboken.
The governor now has to decide whether she’s going to defy President Trump and the fossil fuel machine, or let this thing move forward.
Call her to demand environmental protection at 609-292-6000.
You can call it a done deal. But it’s not done yet. Not while the people of New Jersey still have a voice and a governor who can still say no. The question is whether anyone in Trenton is still listening. Or whether they’ve already logged off the Teams meeting and moved on to the next giveaway.
The tidelands belong to you. That’s the law. The question now is whether your government remembers it.
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