well New Jersey transit's Board of Directors Monday night signed off on critical funding for the Gateway project approving a 19 million dollar annual payment to the agency in charge of building two New Hudson River tunnels between New York and New Jersey meanwhile outside the meeting last night a number of environmental groups rallied pushing back against the proposed Transit grid project that will use a gas burning power plant this time backing their argument with new data from a renewable energy company they say shows the state has cleaner options Melissa Rose Cooper reports renewable renewable portable Paul over golden joining other activists outside NJ transit's headquarters in Newark yesterday calling on the agency to scrap plans for a proposed natural gas plant in the Meadowlands they warn it will be another polluter worsening climate change and harming Public Health we know from the documentation by Health Care Professionals that there's for women there are stillbirth's miscarriages um and for children they're learning disabilities for the general Community there's there's lung and heart conditions there's Cancers and and so we have to stop it the plant is part of the agency's transit grid project to provide a reliable energy supply for its rail infrastructure the plan was proposed after superstorm Sandy knocked out power to parts of NJ Transit System but after heavy pressure from environmentalists Governor Murphy issued a directive to redevelop the project with renewable energy but you know that optimism was short-lived because Transit spent a whole year trying to redesign the Project based on that Governor's directive and it's clear that the redesign um still leaves the door wide open for a massive fossil fuel burning power plant now activists say a new study is proving how beneficial using renewable sources would be the reports commissioned by the Empower NJ Coalition and conducted by strategy and consultant finds the transit grid project can achieve its goal with a renewable energy-based hybrid microgrid instead of using a gas plant the study estimates the switch could generate more than 16 million dollars in additional revenue for NJ Transit which Matt Smith New Jersey director of food and water watch says the agency could use not 16 million doesn't even represent the avoided public health and environmental costs that would be associated with operating a full-time gas fire and power plant in one of the worst polluted areas in the country and when you factor in those public health and environmental costs it's actually a total of 350 million dollars the proposed power plants also causing concerns for this new jerseyan who says her family has already been suffering with health issues including cancer that are tied to poor air quality my babies were born with asthma I was born down the street at St James hospital and my kids were born down the street and they suffered from asthma debilitating asthma debilitating allergies all of their lives sort of talk about you the greenest governor and and his commitments to protect clean air and a healthy environment for all residents regardless of their race um or socioeconomic status really Rings Hollow for so many of us who are um organizing and supporting these communities who really just cannot live with any more major sources of pollution the governor's office declines a comments and NJ Transit did not immediately respond to our questions activists say they hope the findings will give the agency the push it needs to no longer pursue the gas plant for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper thank you