Holland Township, New Jersey proves there is no free lunch when it comes to energy. Attempting to address energy needs with anything but reason never works.

Our friend and guest blogger, Jim Willis, over at Marcellus Drilling News, has his ear closer to the ground than anyone I know and regularly picks up stories outside the mainstream of gas industry news. One of those, from Monday of this week, was about a potential new natural gas fueled power plant in Holland Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, of all places. He related the details from a NJ Spotlight article focusing on the appearance of Phoenix Energy Center, LLC before the Township Planning Board to discuss the possibility of a new 600 MW power plant at an old industrial site along the Musconetcong River. Could it be? Yes, indeed, because this municipality is slowly learning energy choices aren’t as simple as fractivists have been asserting.

NJ Spotlight, of course, is financially supported by the William Penn Foundation, so news from this source, like that from StateImpactPA, is fractivist-leaning (using the same reporters in some instances). It channels Sierra Club bully Jeff Tittel’s message in this instance and suggests PennEast Pipeline opposition by Holland Township could somehow present an obstacle:

Probably one of the biggest hurdles facing the project is the Musconetcong’s designation as a C1 stream, a classification that includes an anti-degradation policy to protect the water from any deterioration in quality, according to Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

Typically, power plants require huge amounts of water, which is then discharged at higher temperatures into a nearby waterway. “It’s a C1 stream,’’ Tittel said. “There can’t be any measurable change in water quality.’’

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/holland-township-illustrates-renewables-no-easy-substitute-gas/