Menu:

 
The National Park Service has announced that the public will be able to further comment on PSE&G and PPL's $30M land-bribe once the plan is revealed.  However, it sounds more like you'll just be flapping your gums after the decision has been made, so don't wait -- go ahead and comment NOW before January 31.

The National Park Service and the public need more time to evaluate two utilities' proposed trade to add park land in exchange for allowing a massive power line to cross Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, federal officials said Monday.

"Acquiring conservation lands to enhance national park resources and to create or connect regional wildlife corridors could be a means of mitigating and compensating for impacts from construction, operation, and maintenance of a transmission line upgrade," the park service said in its first public comment on the proposal. "However, the NPS will not be able to determine whether the lost use and resource impacts are offset until the agency has fully evaluated the mitigation proposal and the public has had a chance to review it."

Following this week's hearings, the park service will take written comments until Jan. 31. But the utilities aren't expected to make details of their proposed land purchases public until officials file their own written comments.

This leaves unanswered how public comment will be considered if the public doesn't get land purchase details until after the comment period closes. National Park Service spokeswoman Deb Nordeen said she is unsure how the process will work, but the public will be able to comment on the agency's final impact statement late this year.

The NPS seems to be a little worried that they will be correctly painted as accepting a bribe from a for-profit corporation in exchange for looking the other way while a national park is destroyed.  And, of course, they will be!

The Susquehanna Roseland project is not needed any more than PATH ever was.  This $1.2B project has now increased its cost by another $30M to pay for the NPS land-bribe, and you are the one who's going to be stuck paying for it all, along with a sweet 12.9% yearly profit for PSE&G and PPL, including that purchase of the land-bribe.

The NPS-hosted public hearings began last night.  The power companies bussed in union members to speak in favor of their project, purporting that the transmission line would provide jobs. 

Hey, remember when PATH bussed in a gaggle of union stooges to speak in favor of their project during PSC hearings in Shepherdstown back in 2009?

My favorite part of that episode was the stragglers who drove themselves and ended up asking us where the "union rally" was being held.  Uh-huh... these guys showed up at their own volition to support PATH ;-)  Or, maybe it was what happened at the next public hearing in the series when the PSC refused to let more union guys testify because the union was an intervenor and thereby prevented from testifying at the public hearings.  That was fun :-)

The power companies seriously need to come up with some new plays -- the game is up!
 


Comments

scott olson

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 5:36:16 pm

Keryn - thanks so much for keeping your readers apprised of the situation that is impacting us here in NJ! Fight the Power!

 

Keryn

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 8:04:53 am

Due to PJM's socialization of costs, what happens in NJ impacts every one of PJM's 60 million electric consumers in 13 states and D.C. in the form of higher electric bills.

(and besides, I've been to the Delaware Water Gap and I would hate to see it ruined)

Chu and Salazar and the Obama administration that made this deal for the land-bribe need to realize that the National Parks belong to US, not them or the corporate money that feeds their campaign coffers. I smell an election year PR disaster if this bribe is accepted........

And, the insult of being forced to pay for a bribe that wrecks a park that "we the people" own irritates me to no end.

Kick some butt at the public hearings!

 

Patience

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 8:23:57 am

Scott, we understand very well Ben Franklin's saying, "We better hang together, or we'll all hang separately."

We understand very well that what happens in New Jersey has an impact on all the states, including West Virginia - and we hope that by standing with you, when the day comes that we need reinforcements you'll remember and lend us a hand!

 

scott olson

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 2:58:47 pm

Keryn & Patience:

Thanks again - I learned alot from reading web & blog posts of folks like you & PECVA & CalhounPowerLine when we began to get wind of Susquehanna-Roseland, since MAPP & PATH were far ahead of us in procedures w/ state & federal agencies. I also watched jealously as your lines were dying under their own weight & falling demand, while SR marched forward. With SR now at the unfortunate point of greater regional prominence, I am forever thankful for all the help we're receiving. "Shout-outs" on blogs like yours that I can pass along to our resident activists to show them how important our fight has become help keep folks motivated, as does knowing so many others share our concern and outrage.

I love the Water Gap, and am so fortunate that it is a short drive from my home. The staff there are doing a superb job protecting the resources of "we the people" and I have immense gratitude for their efforts as well.

I'm all for hanging together, and will be there for anyone when the time comes! Thanks again for your support. We're gonna win this, I can feel it.

 

Keryn

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 8:22:17 am

It's never over until it's over... and the final act is just beginning with S-R.

Did you see that PPL has also now verified that ratepayers will pick up the tab for their $30M bribe? They tried to spin it, saying we ultimately "benefit" from it. Huh??? They use OUR money to bribe a federal agency, who holds assets that belong to the citizens in trust, ruin OUR park, then walk away with millions of dollars in their pockets. The power companies get all the benefits, the citizens and the ratepayers get the bill (and the shaft), and the NPS gets a legacy similar to the indian chief who sold Manhattan for $24 and a handful of colorful beads. Who makes out in this deal? The corporations, of course.

I agree that the NPS staff that has been performing the EIS have been exemplary, however their good work is being overshadowed by stooges like Donahue, Jarvis and Salazar. It's a good thing it's winter and the park is 4 hours away, otherwise I'd be standing outside Donahue's office with a sign chanting, "Hey Hey Ho Ho, Donahue has got to go."

Winning is THE ONLY option!

 

Patience

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 9:24:59 am

Scott - Keryn and I LOVE to take road trips! If there's some event or hearing or demonstration or meeting that you think we could/should attend (whether your group, NPS, the BPU - whoever), give us a shout. We always have fun stirring the soup wherever we go!

 

Keryn

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 9:48:28 am

Somehow, I knew you'd like that idea, P. ;-)

It's not going to end until I'm holding my "Greed, not Need" sign in front of some NPS pay off palace and screaming myself hoarse, is it?

What Patience and I love even more than girls' weekend road trips is getting in the faces of the holier than thou bigwigs and attempting to sell them a slice of reason. I knew we were meant for each other 4 years ago when I watched her pounce on Manchin while he was trying to escape from a gubernatorial debate... and the rest is history...

 



Leave a Reply