Martens outlines five budget priorities for NYDEC

NYDEC chief Joseph Martens testifies at Jan 28 budget hearing .
Priorities announced by NY Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens, at a Jan. 28 legislative hearing on the upcoming budget year, are:
1. Increasing resiliency regarding extreme weather events
2. Improving access to DEC managed lands
3. Preventing the introduction of invasive species
4. Promoting economic development by remediating brownfields
5. Streamlining and prioritizing DEC’s permitting and approval processes.

The Legislative Gazette‘s Danyal Mohammadzadeh reports:

"DEC’s budget for the coming year recommends state operations appropriations of $469.9 million and a capital budget totaling $566.9 million," Martens said. "This includes $40 million in New York Works to continue the critical capital programs. The budget proposes increasing DEC’s budgeted fill level to 2,946. This fiscal year, DEC also plans to hold a training academy to maintain the ranks of our public protection program."

Through the governor’s New York Works program, the department invested $180 million in environmental capital projects such as restoring aging dams and flood control structures, rehabilitating fish hatcheries, plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, completing municipal brown field projects, funding water quality improvement program projects and implementing an eBusiness plan, according to Martens.

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Windfall settlement won’t help to offset Tappan-Zee tolls

The New York Thruway Authority does not plan to use its share of the $5 billion bank settlement windfall to offset a Thruway toll increase, says the authority’s new acting commissioner who suggested there may be small hikes for motorist using the statewide road system in the future.


In The Legislative Gazette today, Roger Hannigan Gilson reports:


The $1.3 billion the Authority will receive from bank settlements, which were paid to the state by multiple financial institutions as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, will instead go to funding the completion of the new Tappan Zee Bridge and for one-time improvements in the Thruway system.

Robert Megna, who was tapped to be acting executive director of the Authority earlier this month after the resignation of Thomas Madison, said the settlement money would not go to subsidizing tolls because a one-time windfall could not be used to fund recurring expenses.

The majority of the $1.3 billion will go to completing the new Tappan Zee Bridge, Megna said, which has faced a shortfall in funding after $500 Million expected from the Clean Water Fund was yanked by the EPA after environmental groups protested.


Read the full story here 

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Inspiring Penn State player is now a NJ Assemblyman


Adam Taliaferro, who gained national attention with a remarkable recovery from a spinal injury sustained during his freshman year as a star football player for Penn State 15 years ago, is the newest New Jersey legislator , Michelle Caffrey reports today in the  South Jersey Times.

Taliaferro, of Woolwich Township, was selected by Democratic leaders in Gloucester , Salem and Cumberland counties to fill the Third District Assembly seat vacated by Celeste Riley who in November was elected as county clerk in Cumberland County.   

Taliaferro was a star football player for Penn State when he sustained a devastating spinal injury during a game in 2000 that left him paralyzed. While doctors gave him a 3 percent chance of regaining the ability to walk, he managed to beat those odds, earn a law degree and start a career working for global biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb as a patient advocate and lobbyist.

"Anybody who knows Adam knows what a special person he is," said State Senator and Gloucester County Democratic Chairman Fred Madden (D-4 of Washington Township) in a release on the endorsement. "I continue to be impressed by the strength of his character and integrity. He has withstood some amazing challenges in his life, yet he has maintained a positive outlook and turned those challenges into opportunities to help others."

Taliaferro also serves on the Penn Sate Board of Trustees, but told OnwardState.com on Tuesday that he would not be running for re-election, citing his "additional responsibilities."

Related news stories:
Adam Taliaferro sworn in to Assembly seat, will not seek re-election to PSU Trustees Board
Adam Taliaferro is his inspiration, Patriots’ Logan Ryan says
Adam Taliaferro joins Eric LeGrand at midfield for Penn State, Rutgers
Adam Taliaferro who overcame injury heads to New Jersey …

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NJ energy and environment bills up for votes today


Posted for votes this afternoon in the New Jersey Assembly are the following bills:

A-1305  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Wilson, G.L. (D-5); Riley, C.M. (D-3)
Establishes certain requirements for a State entity planting vegetation in certain circumstances; provides for NJ businesses providing such vegetation.

A-2405  Cryan, J. (D-20); Eustace, T.J. (D-38); Benson, D.R. (D-14)
Concerns low emission and gas emission vehicles; establishes Clean Vehicle Task Force. Related Bill: S-1414
     
 A-2514  McKeon, J.F. (D-27)
Allows installation of solar arrays by municipalities on preserved open space in certain circumstances.  Related Bill: S-1138
     
 **Click on any highlighted bill number to read the full content of the legislation** 

A-2579  Mukherji, R. (D-33); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29); Eustace, T.J. (D-38)
Authorizes municipalities to facilitate private financing of water conservation, storm shelter construction, and flood and hurricane resistance projects through use of voluntary special assessments.   Related Bill: S-1510
     
 A-2903  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); DiMaio, J. (R-23)
Establishes licensing program in Department of Agriculture for farmed deer and other cervids. Related Bill: S-1842
      
 A-2961  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Gusciora, R. (D-15); Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Establishes penalty for failure to include bittering agent in antifreeze.
Related Bill: S-1341
      
 A-3125  Caride, M. (D-36); Eustace, T.J. (D-38); Kean, S.T. (R-30); Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Prohibits sale or planting of certain invasive plant species.
     
 A-3397  Giblin, T.P. (D-34)
Abolishes Landscape Irrigation Contractors Examining Board in the Department of Environmental Protection and transfers regulation of landscape irrigation contractors to Department of Community Affairs.  Related Bill: S-2234
    
 S-1138  Codey, R.J. (D-27)
Allows installation of solar arrays by municipalities on preserved open space in certain circumstances.  Related Bill: A-2514
    
 S-1341  Van Drew, J. (D-1); Madden, F.H. (D-4)
Establishes penalty for failure to include bittering agent in antifreeze.
Related Bill: A-2961
   
 S-1414  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Concerns low emission and zero emission vehicles; establishes Clean Vehicle Task Force.
Related Bill: A-2405
     
 S-2234  Thompson, S.D. (R-12); Van Drew, J. (D-1)
Abolishes Landscape Irrigation Contractors Examining Board in the Department of Environmental Protection and transfers regulation of landscape irrigation contractors to Department of Community Affairs.  Related Bill: A-3397
  

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A new way to follow Christie's run for the Oval Office

As supporters of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie formally launched a presidential campaign funding vehicle this week, reporters from three NJ-PA-NY news sources joined forces in
The Christie Tracker Podcast. It will follow the governor, step by step, on his run for the White House.

The show’s host David Furst (WNYC and NJ Public Radio) is joined by Matt Katz who covers Chris Christie for the same two news outlets and Tom Moran, editorial page editor for The Star-Ledger. Matt Rooney, who runs the conservative Save Jersey blog, is the fourth wheel who’s saddled with providing balance to the liberal trio who set the show’s pace.

Following Chris Christie is a reporter’s dream. He’s a print quote machine who’s even better in audio (booming volume, dripping sarcasm) and best in video (finger-pointing and winsome smiles). In this case, we’ll have to settle for audio but, like Christie himself, it should be fun.

Catch the blog’s first episode below or here

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Court ties cleanup liability to "intent to dispose"


David J. Freeman of the Gibbons law firm reports:

“On January 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the sale of a useful chemical did not make the seller an “arranger for disposal” under Superfund, even where seller knew that some of that chemical would be spilled during its use.
“Vine Street LLC v. Borg Warner Corp., 2015 BL 8885, involved the sale of dry cleaning machines and PCE, a dry cleaning fluid, by Norge, a predecessor of Borg Warner. Norge equipped the machines with water separators, which it knew were not 100% effective. It continued to work with the dry cleaner to reduce spillage by modifying the separators’ design. Nonetheless, contamination resulted, and Vine Street, a successor landowner, sued Borg Warner for contribution to the cost of cleanup. The District Court held Borg Warner liable for 75% of the cost of cleanup based on its knowledge that some contamination resulted from these sales.
“After the District Court’s ruling, the Supreme Court decided Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v United States, 566 U.S. 599 (2009). Burlington Northern held, inter alia, that the touchstone of arranger liability is an “intent to dispose”. Knowledge of incidental spillage of a useful product after its sale was not enough to make the seller in Burlington Northern an “arranger for disposal”, especially since there were facts negating any intent to dispose.
“The 5th Circuit found that Norge’s position was very much like that of the seller in Burlington Northern. As in Burlington Northern, the seller of an unused, useful product was aware of the possibility of spills but took steps to help its customers prevent them. As in Burlington Northern, any spills were the peripheral result of the sale rather than part of the intended outcome. As in Burlington Northern, the prophylactic steps taken by Norge did not cut in favor of liability (on the basis that it showed knowledge of spills) but instead cut against such a finding because those steps indicated an intent to avoid disposal.

“This decision is part of a continuing evolution of the courts away from formulaic application of Superfund liability rules and towards the kind of fact-based inquiry mandated by Burlington Northern. This ruling should ease the concerns of manufacturers that they may have Superfund liability for their products’ subsequent disposal, at least where they take steps to prevent or limit such disposal. It should also be instructive in other cases―e.g., sales of scrap metal, reconditioning of transformers ―where contamination has occurred but an intent to avoid disposal can be shown.”

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