HOBOKEN AND BEYOND – Although the natural gas pipeline proposed by Texas company Spectra Energy to run through Bayonne and Jersey City would skirt the southern border of the Mile Square City, opposition to the plan is growing here, according to a NJ.com report.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has joined mayors in Bayonne and Jersey City in formally opposing the plan, sending a letter Oct. 1 to Kimberly Bose, Secretary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The pipeline, Zimmer wrote, “contains great risks for Hoboken and the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area,” according to the report.
The line would cut through 18th Street on the Hoboken/Newport border before moving under the Hudson River to New York City.
In the event of a pipeline disaster, like the one that killed eight people in San Bruno, Calif. last month, Zimmer argued that Hoboken would not be able to sustain the inevitable shutdown of the PATH system under which the line would run.
The Jersey City group No Gas Pipeline (http://nogaspipeline.org) met with Hoboken residents Thursday night at the campaign headquarters of 4th Ward council candidate Tim Occhipinti to gather additional opposition to the gas line intended to pump 800 million cubic feet of natural gas daily to Con Edison customers in New York City. The candidate, claiming the pipeline issue has been ignored, promised to legislate against the pipeline if elected, the report said.
Meanwhile, Occhipinti’s opponent, incumbent 4th Ward Councilman Michael Lenz, charged that Occhipinti was “grandstanding” on the issue.