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Inside this issue:

SIX09 Fall Family Fun!

NOVEMBER 2021 FREE

COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG

Grassroots efforts key in halting PennEast pipeline Scuttled pipeline a major victory for NJ, local groups that worked to stop it By Joe Emanski

Employees of PTC Therapeutics at work in the biopharmaceutical company’s new Hopewell Township laboratories on the campus formerly occupied by Bristol Myers-Squibb.

Ex-BMS site coming alive with new tenants, new technologies PTC Therapeutics among several biotech and biologic companies setting up shop on pharmaready campus By Joe Emanski

Hopewell’s hopes that there is life after BMS were boosted on Oct. 14 when PTC Therapeutics held a grand opening ceremony for 220,000 square feet of laboratory, manufacturing and office space that it has leased on the former Bristol Myers-Squibb campus on

Pennington-Rocky Hill Road. PTC is a biopharmaceutical company that is working to discover, develop and produce gene therapies that can be used to treat rare genetic disorders. The company says it has spent $20 million on a new biologics facility, and expects to hire up to 250 employees by 2022 to work at its Gene Therapy Manufacturing Center of Excellence, located at what is now known as the Princeton West Innovation Campus. PTC’s headquarters are in South Plainfield. The publicly traded company employs a some 650 people at its locations in New Jersey, and 1,400

in 15 countries around the world. Employees of the company began working at the Hopewell location in July. Gene therapy is a relatively new field of medicine in which laboratory-developed, therapeutic genes are introduced into patients’ cells, with the goal of replacing or correcting defective genes. By replacing faulty genes with healthy ones, therapists can treat, cure or even prevent diseases and medical conditions. The first time this process was successfully carried out was in 1990. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first gave its first approval of a See PTC, Page 8

Five months ago, the energy consortium PennEast won what appeared to many to be a major victory in its long battle to build a natural gas pipeline in eastern Pennsylvania and central New Jersey, including Hopewell Valley. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that states could not stop private companies from acquiring land via eminent domain — even stateowned, conserved land — if the federal government had granted the companies that authority. The 5-4 decision reversed a 2019 ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that blocked PennEast from condemning state property for the purpose of acquiring it via eminent domain. But on Sept. 27, PennEast announced that it had given up on its 7-year quest to build the pipeline. This was thanks in no small part to the grassroots efforts of many residents and local organizations in the region — as well as local government officials and a huge helping hand from the State of New Jersey.

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The state had stood fast in saying that it would not issue to PennEast the environmental permits it needed, saying that the Clean Water Act protected the state’s wetlands and waterways from pipeline development. PennEast cited its failure to secure those permits when it announced the cancellation of the project. New Jersey communities that would potentially be affected by the pipeline have spent the past seven years voicing their opposition to the project. Hopewell’s Patty Cronheim is one citizen who has been vocal from the start. She got involved back in 2014 when she and several other Hopewell residents, including Sari DeCesare and Fairfax Hutter, formed Hopewell Township Citizens Against the PennEast Pipeline. HTCAPP has been crucial in keeping locals informed on the latest news on the pipeline. She became so passionate about the cause that she turned it into a new career. She co-founded Rethink Energy NJ, a nonprofit organization that advocates for a swift transition from fossil fuels like natural gas to renewable energy, and spent several years as its outreach coordinator. For the past year, she has worked as the campaigns director for the New Jersey See PIPELINE, Page 6

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