Leaders from almost all the towns in the Meadowlands have called on Gov. Phil Murphy to block plans to build a large, gas-fired power plant in the district that would send power only to New York City.

Mayors of eight towns approved a motion this week opposing the controversial North Bergen Liberty Generating plant, which is still awaiting a decision on key air permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"I think everyone is realizing that this is bad for the entire region," said Mayor Anthony Suarez of Ridgefield, which borders the North Bergen property where the power plant would be built.

The mayors of Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, North Arlington, Ridgefield, South Hackensack and Teterboro approved a motion denouncing the project on Monday at the regular meeting of the Hackensack Meadowlands Municipal Committee, a division of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which controls most land-use issues in the 14-town wetlands district.

Seventeen Bergen County towns have already passed resolutions against the plant, including Rutherford and Little Ferry, both in the Meadowlands. That means 10 of the 14 Meadowlands towns have opposed the project.

Opponents say burning natural gas would harm air quality and increase New Jersey's contribution to global warming.

None of the Meadowlands towns in Hudson County — Kearny, Jersey City, Secaucus — has taken a public stance. North Bergen officials, led by Mayor Nick Sacco, enthusiastically support the project, which is expected to bring millions of dollars to the township through payments in lieu of taxes.

A North Bergen spokesman said the action by the mayors was nothing more than an "informal poll taken at a holiday party."

The vote "included only a portion of the Meadowlands region mayors and in no way constitutes formal opposition to the project," said the spokesman, Phil Swibinski. "If Mayor Suarez has his way, he would deny thousands of union workers much-needed jobs and stop millions of dollars in tax revenue from being generated for North Bergen and the region."

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Brian Hague, a spokesman for the North Bergen Liberty Generating plant, said the company was unaware that the mayors would be discussing the power plant, let alone voting to oppose it.

“We have been open, truthful and transparent with the public and elected officials throughout our siting process, and we gladly will answer any questions the committee members may have about our project,” he said.

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Bill Sheehan, who leads the Hackensack Riverkeeper advocacy group, praised the mayors, saying they represent "communities that would be impacted the most by this bad idea."

The plant, proposed by the Mitsubishi subsidiary Diamond Generating Corp., would be one of the largest electricity generators in the state, at 1,200 megawatts.

None of that power would go to New Jersey, however. It would be transported via a 6.5-mile underground cable to Con Edison's plant on Manhattan's west side, where it could power as many as 1.2 million households.

The story continues after this image of the letter sent to Gov. Phil Murphy:

The plant would rival PSEG's mammoth Bergen Generating Station in Ridgefield, which emitted more than 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2016. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming, which causes sea levels to rise and weather events to become more intense.

The North Bergen project is supported by labor unions because Diamond Generating Corp. would temporarily employ more than 2,100 construction workers to build the plant. It would employ about 30 permanent workers to run it.

The DEP issued six permits for the project in July, generating a storm of criticism against Murphy, who has said he wants the expansion of renewable energy to be the centerpiece of his environmental policy.

Meanwhile, dozens of environmentalists representing 50 groups demonstrated outside the Statehouse on Wednesday, calling on Murphy to stop all fossil fuel infrastructure projects in New Jersey, such as pipelines and power plants like Liberty Generating.

"The Meadowlands project is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with the current state of the fossil fuel industry in New Jersey," said Matt Smith, an organizer with Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group. "These towns are doing the right thing in fighting this."

Email: fallon@northjersey.com