Natural Gas Leakage to existing power plants
Dear New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Any documentation regarding quantifying natural gas leakage to existing gas power plants operating in New Jersey including any plans to collect the information or any data already collected. This can be limited to currently existing plans and any data collected over the past 10 years.
Yours faithfully,
R Banerjee
Good Morning,
We have manually entered your request into our database. You should use the tracking number 311469 when checking on the status of your request. You should receive a response within 7 business days.
Keith Harley
Agency Services Representative
Office of Records Access
401 E. State Street
P.O. Box 420
Mail Code 401-06Q
Trenton, NJ 08625-0420
Phone: 609-341-3121
NOTE: This E-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. This E-Mail and its contents, may be Privileged & Confidential due to the Attorney-Client Privilege, Attorney Work Product, and Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose, copy, retain or redistribute it.
Dear R. Banerjee,
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Record
Access received your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request on 03/28/22 to
which the above tracking number was assigned. As such, the seven (7)
business day deadline (due date) to respond to your request is 04/06/22.
Your request requires additional time beyond the due date because of the
time required to search for the responsive records. Your request requires
an extension of time until 04/13/22.
Please confirm your acceptance or denial of this request by replying to
this E-mail. Failure to respond will be considered an acceptance of the
revised due date. Please be advised that by agreeing to the new due date
you are not waiving any of your rights under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.
Thank you!
Griffith Shaw
Department of Environmental Protection
Office of Records Access
Tel: (609) 292-2174
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[2]NJDEP Facebook pages[3]NJDEP Twitter[4]NJDEP Instragram
pages[5]Discover DEP-YouTube Channel
NOTE: This E-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. This E-Mail and its contents, may be
Privileged & Confidential due to the Attorney-Client Privilege, Attorney
Work Product, and Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public
Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please
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References
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5. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C01lO...
Dear Griffith Shaw [DEP],
I accept a delay in response until 13Apr2022.
Yours sincerely,
R Banerjee
R Banerjee:
Attached is the NJDEP’s administrative response to the above referenced
OPRA request and the responsive record.
Records Custodian Mailbox
NJDEP - Office of Record Access
(609) 341-3121
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[1]NJDEP Facebook pages[2]NJDEP Twitter[3]NJDEP Instragram
pages[4]Discover DEP-YouTube Channel
NOTE: This E-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. This E-Mail and its contents, may be
Privileged & Confidential due to the Attorney-Client Privilege, Attorney
Work Product, and Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public
Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please
notify the sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose,
copy, retain or redistribute it.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.nj.gov/dep/facebook.html
2. https://twitter.com/NewJerseyDEP
3. https://www.nj.gov/dep/instagram.html
4. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C01lO...
Thank you for providing a response to my OPRA request. I was instigated to submit this request due to the proposed new gas-fired plant being proposed in Keasbey.
In my research of similar plants, I was informed that the greatest environmental impact from natural gas is not through emissions, but methane leakage. Methane is said to be ~80% more potent as a greenhouse gas compared to CO2. I was told that anywhere from 1% to 30% of methane harvested leaks into the environment. The estimates are wide because there are too many locations where natural gas is collected, transported, and consumed. Because this problem seems so large, it was asserted that local governments do not collect gas leakage information.
I appreciate that the request I made may seem over broad, but I am merely confirming if information regarding methane leaks in NJ’s power infrastructure are being captured at the terminal end of the supply chain. Without this information, an informed assessment on how much methane leakage occurs in the supply chain is not possible. I was told if anyone had this information, it would be NJ DEP.
Is the methane leakage information not provided for all gas-powered plants in NJ because this information is not regularly collected?
Will this information regarding methane leakage be complete for all NJ gas-powered plants at some later date?
Is this information only collected if there is an emissions violation detected, or is there regular review of methane leaks at the gas-powered plants in NJ?
Would it be possible to provide methane leakage information collected from specifically at CPV Woodbridge?
Yours sincerely,
R Banerjee
R Banerjee:
There is no natural gas "harvesting" taking place in NJ; with the understanding that the term "harvesting" refers to gas production and fracking. However, gas leaks from transmission and distribution does occur. Leakage emission from these sources is currently calculated using the State Inventory Tool, but is not directly reported to the NJDEP.
Records Custodian Mailbox
NJDEP - Office of Record Access
(609) 341-3121
NOTE: This E-mail is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521. This E-Mail and its contents, may be Privileged & Confidential due to the Attorney-Client Privilege, Attorney Work Product, and Deliberative Process or under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender, delete it and do not read, act upon, print, disclose, copy, retain or redistribute it.