WOODBRIDGE, NJ – Dozens of local residents and climate activists rallied this evening in front of Woodbridge Town Hall in opposition to a plan to build a second gas-fired power plant in Keasbey.

If the Murphy administration grants permits for the project, it would be one of the state’s largest climate polluters. The facility, proposed by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV), would be built next to an existing power plant constructed in 2016.  Pollution would harm residents in Woodbridge and the surrounding region while CPV sells the electricity for profit.

“Our children should be able to grow up in a community that’s just as safe and healthy as it was when I was growing up here,” said Jon Sidote, a Woodbridge resident and Food & Water Watch volunteer.  “Their playgrounds shouldn’t stand in the shadows of polluting gas plants.”

“Power concedes nothing without a demand, explained Frederick Douglass, and we are demanding that Governor Murphy and his Department of Environmental Protection reject the air pollution permits CPV needs to proceed with their disastrous project,” said Jimmy Dabrowski, Secretary of the NAACP Perth Amboy Area Branch.

According to the company’s air permit application, the second power plant would create hundreds of tons of toxic air pollutants  – including carbon monoxide, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfuric acid, and lead. Local residents who are already faced with the pollution burdens created by the existing plant are pressing the Murphy administration to explain how this scheme does not violate the spirit of the state’s new environmental justice law. The governor frequently cites the law to demonstrate his commitment to climate action.

Local opposition to the plant has been growing over the past year, with 10 nearby municipalities passing resolutions calling on Governor Murphy to reject the project.

“This CPV power plant would dump air pollution into some of our most overburdened communities, and take New Jersey even further away from Governor Murphy’s own climate goals,” said Food & Water Watch Central Jersey organizer Charlie Kratovil. “Governor Murphy talks a lot about the climate crisis, but his words mean nothing if his administration approves this fracked gas power plant.  This project would be yet another expensive, unnecessary, and dirty facility. Governor Murphy knows that residents are opposed to this project, and it’s up to him to do the right thing and stop this dirty power plant.”