On Tuesday, the Rahway City Council voted 7-0 in favor of a resolution opposing a plan to build another large gas-fired power plant in neighboring Woodbridge Township.

Rahway became the latest municipality to call on the Murphy administration to reject the Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) plan to build a new fracked gas power plant on the Raritan River waterfront.

There are now seven municipalities in four different counties that have come out against the dirty energy project.  Similar resolutions have passed in Edison, Highland Park, Hoboken, Perth Amboy, Franklin and Sayreville, with more local governments currently considering following suit.

“CPV already operates a gas-powered plant in Keasbey, and this new one would be built right next to the old one, and they would operate together.  In total, the facility would be one of the worst polluters in the state,” said Jeff Robinson, Chairman of the Rahway Environmental Commission.

“I want a future where I don’t have to worry about the air I breathe and the water I drink,” said Jose Quinones, a Rahway public school student who addressed the Council.  Quinones was one of ten community members who spoke against the proposed gas plant during a hearing on the resolution, which enjoyed unanimous support from the City Council.

“We are at an irretrievable moment in human history where every decision we make is of immense importance and will be remembered for generations to come… We must do all in our power to stop the expanded use of fossil fuel,” said Pranita Bijlani, a Rahway resident and Food & Water Watch volunteer who spearheaded the effort to get her home city on the record against the gas plant.

CPV has proposed building a 630-megawatt gas power plant in the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, a community already overburdened with pollution. If approved by the Murphy administration, this new facility – adjacent to an existing CPV plant – could emit nearly 2.3 million additional tons of greenhouse gasses each year, along with hundreds of tons of toxic air pollutants – including carbon monoxide, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfuric acid, and lead.

The proposed plant has become the focus of sustained community opposition over the past year, and has been highlighted by climate activists statewide as one of the most important new fossil fuel infrastructure projects that must be stopped by Governor Murphy.

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