We Need the Pipeline

To the Editor:
For much of 2013 and the early part of 2014, we were inundated with news on South Jersey Gas’ 22-mile proposed pipeline project to repower the B.L. England electric generating plant in Beesley’s Point with natural gas while providing a redundant supply of natural gas to the company’s customers in Atlantic and Cape May counties.
Here in Cape May County, 64,000 customers are all served by a single pipeline. This one pipeline has no back up. Should it fail, whether due to weather or a man-made construction mistake, we would literally have no supply of natural gas.
To say this leaves those working and living in Cape May in a vulnerable position is an understatement.
Natural gas consumers in Cape May County need this pipeline to ensure the reliability of their service. An outage, like that experienced further north in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, would leave Cape May County businesses, and ultimately employees and their families, shattered.
A prolonged service disruption or outage – like one that could occur without this secondary line – would be devastating to the local economy and the state’s tourism industry. Depending on the extent of the damage, it could take years to recover from, leaving businesses in dire straits.
In Cape May County, tourism is the driving force of our economy. Many of us rely on those warm, summer months. A rainy holiday weekend alone can be problematic. A few weeks or an entire season lost due to a lack of natural gas service would be ruinous. Yet nothing has happened. Approvals and permits have not yet been provided. Construction is not underway.
As general manager of a seasonal business in Cape May County, I know how devastating the loss of natural gas service would be – to my own family, my employees, to my fellow business owners and to my neighbors.
We needed this pipeline when this discussion started, and we need it now. Why has no progress been made, which allows this risk to continue?