The following elected representatives and political candidates have expressed their opposition to the PurGen proposal

• Congressman Michael E. McMahon (13th District of NY – Including Staten Island)
  “No plant like this has ever been built in the United States, and carbon capture technology is still in its infancy. Even if the plant works as the promoters say it will, 10% of carbon will still be released into the air, affecting Staten Island residents and businesses. Allowing this plant to be built in Linden, New Jersey would be an act of environmental injustice to the people of Staten Island and the greater New York region,” said Congressman Michael E. McMahon.
  Read his full statement here
• Governor Elect Chris Christie
  “Christie’s key environmental planks … Opposing the proposed Linden coal plant, recognizing the environmental injustice it places on a community already overburdened by pollution,” Chris Christie’s statement said.
  Read his full statement here
• Linden Council President Robert Bunk
  Council President Bunk gave the following statement at the 10/20/09 City Council Meeting:
  
  For the past 15 years, serving on Council, I have endeavored to serve the residents and taxpayers of the City of Linden in a fiscally responsible manner while watching out for their health, safety, and welfare. In these hard economic times it is not an easy task.

  To survive, Linden has to attract new ratables and jobs for those workers laid off when Dupont, GAF, American Cyanamid and General Motors closed while other companies downsized laying off thousands of more workers.

  Throughout my years of service on Council, there have been proposals that promise more than is actually delivered to the City. The City has ended up in court with some of these developers. Today I appear before you because a proposal to develop the Dupont property by Pur Gen by building a Coal Degasification Plant on the Dupont property is before the City Council. The process has a carbon dioxide end product and residents have expressed concerns over the possibility of emissions and even an explosion, along with the piping of the carbon dioxide under the Arthur Kill out to the Raritan Bay and into the bedrock to be stored and this brings up the possibility of a leak. Linden is all too familiar with what happens when a pipeline leaks.

  I have studied expert reports pro and con, Council has heard speakers in an open public meeting. Bradley Campbell presented the case for Pur Gen and residents and environmentalists opposing the Pur Gen Project.

  As for me there are too many unanswered questions about this experimental technology. I cannot in good faith support the Pur Gen coal degasification project. I must waiver on the side of the residents of Linden.

  I want to thank the Tremley Point Alliance and the Arthur Kill Watershed Alliance for their campaign to educate the Linden residents concerning the Pur Gen coal degasification project.