New Jersey Senate hopeful Tammy Murphy publicly disagreed with Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D-NJ) plan for a controversial gas-fired power plant in Newark on Tuesday.
Tammy Murphy, who is running for a Senate seat currently held by embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), said she has not spoken to her husband, the governor, about the project but that she personally did not approve of the plant’s location.
Murphy said the city already has three gas-fired power plants, so it does not need a fourth, and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s new plant should be built elsewhere. The city also has an incinerator and heavy diesel truck traffic.
“I oppose the PVSC plant,” Murphy said at a press conference where she also joined others against the project. “Families living in Newark are already disproportionately exposed to pollution and will experience further serious health risks as the result of this new gas-fired power plant. For all residents of Newark, this power plant is a step in the wrong direction, and for mothers and babies in particular, it is extremely and unacceptably dangerous.”
The neighborhood where the new plant is scheduled to be built is where the governor had signed a popular environmental justice law in 2020. The governor has faced heavy backlash over the project, which is intended to serve as a backup generator for Newark in the case of a major power outage like one that had occurred during Hurricane Sandy.
Murphy’s comments were the first she issued on the plant, despite making climate change and environmental issues a core part of her campaign. Murphy has been a champion of raising awareness of climate change in schools as New Jersey’s first lady, and as a founding board member for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Action Fund.
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), one of Tammy Murphy’s chief opponents in the Democratic primary, also opposes the sewer agency’s power plant.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“There is simply no need for yet another gas power plant in the city of Newark when renewable energy solutions are possible,” Kim said in a statement. “Especially at a time when so many residents in that community are already living with some of the worst air pollution in the country, and dealing with that impact every day.”
The commission overseeing the project said that despite the opposition, it has almost all of the approvals it needs. However, it’s still missing a review of technical specifications by the state Department of Environmental Protection.