The best surprises sometimes come when we least expect them. After losing an important case at the U.S. Supreme Court, the State of new Jersey learned yesterday that PennEast was pulling the plug on its proposed pipeline. In a brief notice to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals last week, PennEAst stated that it would drop its claim for the use of eminent domain on New Jersey State–owned lands.
The pipeline would have carried natural gas from the Marcelus Shale fracking fields that are destroying the environment in Pennsylvania down to a terminal in Mercer County. We still need to be wary because the company’s withdrawal stated it was not “prudent at this time.”
PennEast complained that the regulatory framework worked against them because they would not be able to secure the DEP permits it needed. Here, we can thank God for regulations, especially those that protect our environment. We need renewable energy not more fossil fuels destroying the earth.
Prayer for the Day
The woodlands and the rivers shall be glad and the small pools rejoice,
For all the earth will see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of God;
Strengthen our weak hands, O Lord, and make firm our feeble knees,
So we can say to those of a fearful heart, “Be strong and have courage.”
For you make the waters break forth and the trees clap their hands
When we fulfill the promises we make to your creation.
In the name of the One who makes the wind sing with joy,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
Hermann Hesse, German poet (1877-1962)
Trees, for example, carry the memory of rainfall. In their rings we read ancient weather—storms, sunlight, and temperatures, the growing seasons of centuries. A forest shares a history, which each tree remembers even after it has been felled.
Anne Michaels, Canadian poet and novelist
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path or sinners,
But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in their season,
Psalm 1: 1-3a