NEWTON -- Four months after a National Park Service study recommended that 500-kilovolt power lines not be built across the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, the park service has decided that two utility companies' plans for the Susquehanna-Roseland power line are the way to go.
Environmental groups and grassroots leaders immediately called the decision, announced in mid-afternoon Thursday, a political move dictated from Washington, and accused the park service of putting corporate interests before the public interest.
The project is backed by two large utility companies, Pennsylvania-based PPL, which would produce the electric power and send it along the new lines it will co-own with New Jersey's Public Service Electric & Gas, which is this state's largest utility and serves much of the state's population in a swath that stretches from northern Bergen County across the state to Mercer and on to Camden County.
In addition to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, two other units of the National Park Service are also involved. The section of the Delaware River within the recreation area has been declared the Middle Delaware National Scenic River, and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail follows the Kittatinny Ridge through much of the recreation area.
http://www.njherald.com/story/17291645/park-service-favors-power-line-plan
Environmental groups and grassroots leaders immediately called the decision, announced in mid-afternoon Thursday, a political move dictated from Washington, and accused the park service of putting corporate interests before the public interest.
The project is backed by two large utility companies, Pennsylvania-based PPL, which would produce the electric power and send it along the new lines it will co-own with New Jersey's Public Service Electric & Gas, which is this state's largest utility and serves much of the state's population in a swath that stretches from northern Bergen County across the state to Mercer and on to Camden County.
In addition to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, two other units of the National Park Service are also involved. The section of the Delaware River within the recreation area has been declared the Middle Delaware National Scenic River, and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail follows the Kittatinny Ridge through much of the recreation area.
http://www.njherald.com/story/17291645/park-service-favors-power-line-plan
