Contact:  Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100

Today: Stop Pipelines and Dirty Infrastructure Lobby Day at the Statehouse

We are coming together to call on our legislators to help our fight against more than a dozen destructive pipelines proposed throughout the state. We need the legislature to help block pipelines and oil bomb trains that will threaten our drinking water, destroy open space and risk public safety. We are gathering to tell our legislators that they need to join us in the fight against PennEast, Transco, New Jersey Natural Gas, and Pilgrim Pipelines! Now with the Fossil Fool in the Whitehouse siding with Big Oil and Gas, it is even more important that New Jersey takes the lead against dirty fuels.

WHO: Assemblyman Gusciora, Senator Bateman, Assemblywoman Muoio, Assembly McKeon and more invited officials will join the New Jersey Sierra Club, Environment New Jersey, and Clean Water Action

WHAT:  We will be lobbying against dirty energy and fossil fuel infrastructure as well as specifically for the following:

·         A1701 (Dancer) requires BPU to allow public comment at public meetings; establishes requirements for public meetings concerning installation of natural gas conductors and related facilities.

·         SCR66 (Lesniak), which overturns new DEP flood hazard rules that make it easier to put new pipelines in environmentally sensitive areas (already passed Assembly).

·         S806 (Weinberg) that is currently on the Governor’s desk. This bill requires operators carrying Bakken crude shipments by rail to have discharge response and cleanup plans in case of a spill.

·        legislation that requires 80% percent renewable energy by 2050 (already passed Senate), eventually helping us achieve 100 percent renewable energy.

WHEN: Thursday, June 22^nd from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm 

WHERE: New Jersey Statehouse, 125 W State St, Trenton, NJ 08608

Press Conference: 12:45 pm in the second floor hallway, across from press row   

“New Jersey is at a crossroads and we must decide between being the Garden State or the Pipeline State. We need our Legislature to stand up against the push from Big Oil and Gas, developers and polluters to criss-cross our state with fossil fuel infrastructure. We need to protect our open space, drinking water, and communities from the threats of pipelines and oil bomb trains. We need to transition New Jersey to a cleaner, greener economy,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Tomorrow’s lobby day is about getting our officials to stand up for our safety and health by fighting the ongoing proliferation of pipelines and dirty fuels in New Jersey!”