Hearings begin on PSE&G power line plan

BPU Commissioner Joseph Fiordaliso said he would not penalize PSE&G for continuing to work with the parties throughout the process to try to minimize the impact of the project.

The hearings on the $750 million plan dubbed the Susquehanna-Roseland Project, pit opponents of the plan against supporters in what has become a  battle over health, cost and energy needs.

The BPU is expected to make a decision on the project sometime in December.

Attorneys for the objectors had also said Friday that PSE&G on Nov. 12 had submitted new information stating that it might decide to relocate its planned East Hanover switching station from the banks of the Passaic River in East Hanover to Roseland.

PSE&G spokeswoman Karen Johnson said a possible change in sites for the substation from East Hanover to Roseland, “will be fully explored during the hearings as well as though the briefing process afterward.”

 The company’s plan is to run the power lines from Susquehanna, Pa., to its existing Roseland station.

The new power lines, which would include both the new 500KV line and replacements for the current 250KV lines, would be placed on 180 foot high towers, not the current 120-foot towers, and would be designed to emit no more electric and magnetic fields (EMF) than the current lines, about 3 milli-Gaus (mG), according to PSE&G.

The Interveners Speak

Interveners sitting in on the hearings come from the municipal and environmental sectors plus the grassroots organization Stop the Lines.

A member of the municipal interveners, Byram Township Councilman Scott Olson, was joined by environmental intervener members Julia Somers, executive director of the Highlands Coalition, and Eliott Ruga, campaign and grassroots coordinator for the Highlands Coalition, at a meeting last Thursday with editors of this  company in the Stirling section of Long Hill Township to discuss their objections to the PSE&G proposal as it heads into the final stretch.

Also joining the discussion, via telephone, were East Hanover Mayor Joseph Pannullo and East Hanover Township Councilwoman Carolyn Jandoli.

“PSE&G is not forthcoming,” Olsen said. “I’ve stopped listening to them.”

As evidence of PSE&G’s refusal to be open, he noted PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization based in Pennsylvania responsible for controlling transmission lines in 13 Eastern states, had quietly approved in December 2008 a new 500KV power line plan that would stretch wires through Stirling onto Roseland.

From Roseland, power lines would be built to the Hudson substation in Hudson County.

Power Turned Off For Test

To make his case, Olsen also noted testimony given to the BPU by a member of Stop the Lines! claiming PSE&G had measured the electric and magnetic fields (EMF) ‑ a potential cancer source ‑ in power lines in Fredon Township on a day the utility had actually turned off the power to divert electricity while new wires were being strung around the Andover switching station.

PSE&G had measured the current EMF at the 250KV lines in Fredon at less than three mG. A month later PSE&G admitted it had shut off the power on the day it had tested, according to an affidavit filed with the BPU by David Slaperud of Fredon, a cofounder of Stop The Lines!

Many project opponents think EMF is a cancer source and note World Health Organization claims that safe levels are at three mG or less.

There are no standards in the United States, Olsen said.

Olsen said in a follow-up phone conversation he could not be sure PSE&G representatives were aware the power was down at the time they tested.

“It’s possible they weren’t,” he said.

In the meeting with this  newspaper group, Olsen said the Fredon Township Board of Education had been a participant with the interveners but dropped out after PSE&G agreed to move the power lines away from the Fredon Township School on Route 94. PSE&G has also agreed to relocate the playground, which is beneath current power lines, to the site of the current parking lot and move the parking lot to the playground site, which would place the new lines even farther away from where PSE&G is building the new towers.

Olsen said he understands why the school board had dropped out. “Their concern was to protect the kids,” he said.

But he also claimed the very fact that PSE&G agreed to move the towers is a tacit admission the lines are not safe, which PSE&G has never acknowledged.

Olsen noted he had conducted his own experiment by holding a florescent light tube beneath the power lines.  “It glowed in my hand,” he said.

East Hanover Problems

Pannullo and Jandoli focused on EMF, noting seven residents on Willow Place in East Hanover beneath the power lines have some form of cancer.

They blamed EMF for causing the disease, though all in attendance agreed conclusive studies determining the dangers of EMF have not been determined and what studies are available are conflicting.

Jandoli said she believes EMF caused the sickness. “I think it’s more than a coincidence,” she said, adding, “It’s a disgrace how PSE&G has treated people.”

Pannullo was even harsher. “PSE&G are pigs,” the mayor said. “They don’t care about people, just the almighty dollar.”

Pannullo said he would continue speaking out against PSE&G. “Rest assured I will continue to fight with every ounce of my being,” he said. “My constituents know my passion. This is not about moving electricity, this is about PSE&G making as much money as they can.”

Referring to the idea EMF causes cancer, Pannullo said, “the scientific community says it may not exist; we know it exists. I don’t want to be known as a mayor who rolled over and played dead.”

Asked for comment about Pannullo’s statement, PSE&G’s Johnson said, “All I will say is, I found it offensive.”

Johnson again reiterated there is no evidence EMF causes cancer.

Environmental Impact

Somers and Ruga focused on the environmental impact of the project.  Ruga read from the New Jersey Energy Master Plan that noted the state’s generating plants produce about 75 percent of the states electric consumption with the remaining 25 percent brought in from out of state. “Attempts to solve New Jersey’s reliability problems by importing more electricity are likely to increase greenhouse emissions and other pollution challenges,” Ruga read. “Imported electricity is more heavily coal based than electricity from New Jersey power plants and therefore, on average, has higher greenhouse gas emissions.”

Somers disagreed with PSE&G’s stated goal of providing more electricity now because demand will only increase in future years. “The trend is toward less and less use,” Somers said. “The effect is on PSE&G’s bottom line. Industrial and residential electricity sales are down.”

Ruga noted the trend toward energy efficient appliances, home florescent lighting and consumers simply cutting back on usage as helpful in lowering demand.

Somers, Ruga and Olson all commented on how new energy sources, such as wind and solar, are the waves of the future.  Olson noted M&M Mars in Hackettstown has committed itself to an 18-acre solar farm.

He also said that with usage down and newer forms of energy available, the Susquehanna-Roseland Project, “doesn’t need to be built at all.”

It is Olson’s theory the project has little to do with supplying needed power and is instead a cost cutting measure.

The new lines would mostly supply electricity to New York, he argued, which would enable PSE&G to shut down expensive power plants along the Hudson River and replace them with the less expensive power line plan.

Johnson, however, said opposition to the lines based on power consumption is misplaced.

She noted PJM would spend much of today, Thursday, and tomorrow, Friday, at the hearings discussing the need for new energy.

“Once we come out of the recession, energy use will increase,” Johnson said. “It always does.”

She added it is a mistake to judge need only by usage. She said doing so does not take into consideration of how PSE&G planners have to look at old lines and stations going off line to make way for new ones and other issues.

“There are a lot of factors involved, not just one,” she said.

‘Kill It Now’

The BPU is not the last stop for the power line plan. Somers noted the approval in June by the state Highlands Council of the Comprehensive Highlands Mitigation Plan and said the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would have its own say about it. “The DEP still has to decide whether the Highlands Council recommendation is valid,” she said.

“But the BPU can kill it now,” she added.

Somers would not offer a strong prediction on how the BPU would ultimately decide on the application. “(BPU Commissioner Joseph) Fiordaliso is going to take seriously the objections,” she said. “Alternative energy has promised so much so fast, much faster than anybody thought. PSE&G has a high hurdle to jump.”