The presentation of an NJBIA/NJIT economic impact analysis on Friday acknowledged the substantial economic contributions by the Bayway Industrial Complex in Linden to New Jersey.
It was also a forum for heartfelt stories from employees and vendors whose livelihoods have been created and defined by the facility.
But perhaps most importantly, it was also a day for Bayway Industrial Complex to plant a flag of proven results to fly against future legislative challenges it may face.
“The economic significance of this complex isn't often enough a part of the discussion when policies are presented,” NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka told the crowd of nearly 100 people at the Phillips 66 Refinery. “The important research and data that resonates and generates from a project like this is not on the table.
“And that's the most important part of today -- to make sure that business is at the center of every discussion that takes place on policy and the impact that it has.
“We take this step today to realize the incredible asset that this facility is a job-creating, economic development juggernaut,” Siekerka said.
The top-line economic numbers found in the analysis, conducted by NJIT, were eye-opening for those who only know the Bayway complex from driving it past it on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The impacts reflecting the combined operations of five co-located firms—Phillips 66, Infineum, Nexpera, Linden Cogeneration, and Sunoco—included:
- $21.3 billion in total statewide output
- Nearly $7 billion to the Gross State Product.
- 12,091 jobs supported statewide
- $1.2 billion in labor income
- $1.15 billion in tax revenues
- $124 million in capital investment
And that just scratched the surface of the 28-page report, which can be found here.
But because the five businesses span areas like oil refining, chemical manufacturing, power generation and fuel logistics, they are hardly the de rigueur darlings of the more ideological members of the Statehouse set.
And that sometimes means very challenging policies to burden them, like the current so-called Climate Superfund Act, which seeks to retroactively penalize fossil fuel companies in New Jersey tens of billions of dollars for their relatively minimal role in global carbon emissions.
Even though they have been providing, and continue to provide, a legal product essential to our survival and prosperity.
Even though their very product is called upon in the state’s Energy Master Plan and is used by supporters of the bill.
Even though New Jersey is at an energy deficit.
And even though New Jersey actually contributes only an infinitesimal percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, himself a Democrat, spoke about how his grandfather worked within the Complex. Even he worked in a refinery at age 16 and explained eloquently what this industry had “done for me, my family and this town.”
“There's been a lot of concern about the oil industry going away,” Armstead said. “Well, that's not going to happen.
“If you shut down every combustible engine in the world, you're still going to need oil. because there's so many other byproducts that oil used for.”
Armsted also knew he was “preaching to choir” about the oil industry leveraging their finances into new, and emerging technologies.
“You guys have your hands in it and you’re investing in it,” he said.
While New Jersey’s energy transition occurs deliberately, Siekerka said the economic impact study will be utilized to counter policies that seek to penalize or burden those companies in the meantime.
“This report will be housed on our website,” she said. “It is there now, and for the future, so the press has a resource, so that the public has a resource, and most importantly, that our policymakers have a resource.
“You can rest assured that NJBIA, where we are in the halls of the Statehouse each and every day, will have a copy of that report to remind our policymakers every day of the impacts of what happens here in Linden.
“This information is critical to decision making at all levels of government, and we want to ensure that the message is just started today,” she said.
