DRBC, Reject PennEast and Close the File

We've started this petition to gather individual signatures to accompany a letter that organizations opposing the PennEast pipeline have written and are preparing to submit. Here is the letter in full:

Dear DRBC Commissioners,

It is time for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to act on the PennEast pipeline!
It’s time to REJECT the project and CLOSE the file.

The actions you take and the decisions you make regarding the PennEast pipeline are setting precedent for every other pipeline to follow.

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware waterways, the natural landscapes that dictate the health of their water resources, and all of the communities that depend on healthy waters, healthy forests, and the healthy economies that healthy waterways and ecosystems provide -- are being hard hit by the onslaught of fracked gas pipelines emanating from the fracking shale fields.

It has been over 3 ½ years since the PennEast pipeline company filed its application with the DRBC. Since that time organizations, communities, along with their experts, have documented the false, misleading and missing information in the PennEast application materials; we have demonstrated the irreparable harm that PennEast would inflict if constructed; there have been significant route changes; and a federal court ruling has upheld the right of the state of New Jersey to deny PennEast the power of eminent domain to take and/or infringe on its property rights which will necessarily result in a new round of route changes.

All the while, the devastating impacts of climate change – a human-induced catastrophe in large part driven by fracking and their pipelines – including on communities, environments, and water resources are growing at an unprecedented and soon to be unstoppable rate.

It is time for the Delaware River Basin Commission to make clear it has jurisdiction over the entire pipeline right of way (every square inch and every impacted resource) and then to step up and deny a docket to the PennEast pipeline.

At this time when the federal government is working hard to reduce the authority that states have to protect their water resources, and given the massive explosion of gas drilling and associated infrastructure, the role of the Delaware River Basin Commission to protect the water resources of our region is more important than ever.

It is no longer legally appropriate, nor morally defensible, for you to continue to keep the application file open and leave communities and natural resources across the basin threatened with harm from the ever-present PennEast-axe hanging over our heads.