For Immediate Release:
December 9, 2020

Delaware River Basin Commission Votes to Approve Gibbstown Fracking Terminal

Shameful move comes after tens of thousands speak up in opposition

The Delaware River Basin Commission voted to approve a permit for a highly controversial fracked gas terminal to be built in South Jersey, despite a flood of public comments opposing the dangerous project.

“This is an outrage. There are communities--including environmental justice communities--all along the fracked LNG transport path that will be harmed as a result of today's vote,” said Wes Gillingham, Associate Director at Catskill Mountainkeeper. “Fracking and shipping liquified natural gas around the world contributes to a climate travesty at the exact moment when these states and our nation should be doing all they can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Delaware River Basin Commissioners have failed the people they represent. They are ignoring climate science, public health experts, and the basic facts of this project. Governor Murphy, Governor Carney, Governor Wolf, as a result of today's vote, you now fit into the category of CLIMATE CHANGE DENIER.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 

Network of Historic Quarries and Wagon Roads in the Bluestone Wild Forest Spans Over 1,000 Acres--Proposed Steel-and-Concrete Project Would Destroy Key Features

Proposed concrete and steel fabrication plant at the eastern gateway to the Catskill Park puts 150+ year-old cultural and historic artifacts in the unique historic district at risk

Town of Kingston, NY—Today Catskill Mountainkeeper (Mountainkeeper) and Woodstock Land Conservancy (WLC) submitted new evidence about the historical significance of over a thousand acres of interconnected quarries and over 18 miles of interconnected wagon roads in the Bluestone Wild Forest to the Town of Kingston Town Board and Planning Board. This discovery confirms the need for a comprehensive environmental review of the proposed industrial steel-and-concrete fabrication plant at 850 Route 28.

Kathy Nolan, Senior Research Director for Mountainkeeper, called the new findings “dramatic and inspiring.”  “These historic resources must be fully investigated and protected during and following that investigation,” she said. “We can see in this work an emerging picture, not of one isolated quarry, but of a thriving and vitally important industry, written into the landscape and now being carefully reconstructed to bring history alive.”

The 46-page report, Geoarchaeology of the Stony Hollow Wagon Road and Quarry Network (circa 1830 – 1905); Ulster County, New York, prepared by geologist Paul Rubin of HydroQuest, details artifacts such as building foundations, laid stone pillars, cut dimension stones, parts of wagon wheels, and a historic 46-inch long, flat-bladed pry bar used to split bluestone along bedding plane partings.

December 1, 2020--Today’s action to stop the dangerous fracked LNG proposal at Gibbstown, NJ, is to create a Twitter Storm--a flurry of tweets--so that the DRBC governors and their Twitter followers will see opposition to this project all day long. There's more info about this project at the bottom of this email if you're looking for some background.

You can help make our Twitter storm a success in the following 4 ways:

• Write your own tweets using the handles and hashtags in this post once you click "Read More".
• Use our “click to tweet” links or copy and paste the sample tweets in "Read More"! (You can also add photos we’ve provided below to your tweets.)
• Search on #DRBCNoLNG in Twitter and retweet the tweets in the search results. (Click on the “Latest” tab to see the most tweets.)
• Check out the sample tweets below for tweets that you can copy and paste. Though they have times with them--we're working to get out as many of the same tweet at the same time--feel free to use any of them if you're seeing this another time.

Click "Read more" to check out twitter handles, hastags, and sample tweets and join the storm!