Possible Legal Battle On Horizon Against JCP&L Project

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By Jay Cook
The Mayors of five municipalities directly affected by a powerline upgrade by Jersey Central Power and Light in Monmouth County are in the early stages of weighing legal action to halt the project.
On Aug. 9, JCP&L filed a 671-page petition for the Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP) to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
The MCRP is a 10-mile long, 230-kV transmission line running from Aberdeen to Red Bank, through Hazlet, Holmdel and Middletown, along the NJ Transit North Jersey Coast Line commuter line right-of-way. It is estimated to cost $111 million.
JCP&L says the project will enhance service by updating its system with modern technology and delivering the additional power its customers need.
“We’re still trying to decide exactly what’s the best way to proceed to oppose it,” said Middletown Township Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger by phone Tuesday afternoon. “You don’t want to stand on something that would get thrown out of court or would have no bearing.”
While the finer points to the plan have not yet been decided on, Hazlet Mayor Scott Aagre says there are some key matters worth noting, such as “the health issues, the market values and the big points, trying to focus in on something that would be possibly able to stop them.”
Scharfenberger said that there is little time to waste in ensuring the project is stopped.
“This (taking legal action) certainly is in the next couple of months,” he said. “In fact, we do have a draft agreement between the towns that everybody is reviewing now. We want to get that signed, so we can work as one entity.”
He followed up by saying the agreement is “really the next immediate step, and then once we do that, then we can create a timeline with whatever professionals we bring on.”
Currently, the professionals being vetted for legal action range from engineers knowledgeable about the field to attorneys who have previously fought utilities in court.
Middletown Township Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore says the five towns are allowed to challenge JCP&L.
“Based on the filing, there’s a procedural process where every town the line runs through, those towns have a right to intervene,” he said in a phone call to The Two River Times on Tuesday morning.
Fiore also mentioned that there is one other case in the state that the five municipalities have looked at as a guide for their fight, yet he could not say which.
In terms of previous fights against JCP&L, Middletown holds a special significance. As deputy mayor in 1989, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin was instrumental in fighting the utility and stopping a similar project.
Aagre, who has brought Handlin in to host numerous town hall meetings in the past two months, says that the Bayshore mayors will use her experiences as a guide going forward.
“We’ve been in contact with Amy on this throughout the process; she hosted three of our town hall meetings, and we’re working very closely with her,” he said on Friday evening.
Although the basic parameters to the project 27 years ago remain the same, such as the length and voltage of the transmission line, along with the corridor itself, much has changed on the business end for the utility.
In that nearly three-decade span, JCP&L went from being a New Jersey-based company to a subsidiary of the FirstEnergy Corp., with headquarters in Akron, Ohio.
“We’re trying to use whatever information existed back then, but certainly rely more heavily on what’s most up to date,” Scharfenberger said. “That’s where bringing in engineers or attorneys who are up to date on this is key.”
As Aagre and Scharfenberger both noted, this is a true collective push from the five municipalities to halt the project before it ever comes to fruition.
“We’re really trying to do everything efficiently and as fiscally responsible as possible, and it’s really good to see that all of the towns are so willing to work with each other,” Scharfenberger said.
He followed up by mentioning “this is a good first step and naturally we’re optimistic, we’re hoping for the best and we’re going to do everything we can do to present the best case possible.”