The Pinelands Jetport: A crazy plan in the 1960’s narrowly averted by citizen action ~
“Bridges to nowhere” crop up again and again with bigger money and political clout behind them. The New Jersey Pine Barrens is facing a rash of gas pipeline proposals with a fake argument for why they are necessary.
~~The fight is on — to stop a 30 inch-diameter natural gas pipeline to be put through forest and preservation areas of the New Jersey Pinelands, in direct, legal violation of the Pinelands’ own Comprehensive Management Plan. The real reason? Not the dire need for energy, but a glut of natural gas in search of a market…
Read Becky Free’s great piece: http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/downloads/pinelandsalliance_1331.pdf
This effort, to stop the proposed pipeline, mirrors the fight 50 years ago to stop the building of a “New City” and jetport in the N. J. Pinelands. Public opposition and soon to be governor, William T. Cahill, fought and succeeded in stopping the proposal. It may sound like the good old days, but when citizens engage, it’s possible to avoid destructive and costly mistakes.
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