Will new climate studies affect rate hike petition in NJ?

utilitypoles tilting during Mar 6 nor'easter in Cape May County - Ted Greenburg photo

"With hearings about to end on a petition by Public Service Electric & Gas to spend $2.6 billion to harden its power infrastructure, the utility could be encouraged by the release of independent reports saying climate change poses a serious strain on energy supplies,"
Tom Johnson writes today in NJ Spotlight.

"It is an argument the Newark company frequently has made during the hearings before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which are expected to end today. PSE&G noted that the three worst storms in its more than century-old history, which left millions of customers without power, all occurred in the past 18 months.

"The reports, prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy and by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, suggest that existing energy production and use are at risk of cascading failures."


The BPU faces a delicate political decision. One the one side is the need to give utilities rate increases high enough to fund the hardening of their facilities and equipment against future storms. On the other is the fact that New Jersey residential and business customers already pay among the highest electric bills in the nation.

Recent Posts:
Capitol Hill Enviro-Calendar: March 6, 2014
A Bridgegate enviro-conspiracy story that didn’t hold air  
Fracking waste battle under way in Connecticut 
The week’s legislative action on green bills in NJ and PA
Was air monitor disabled during Bridgegate traffic jam? 

 

Will new climate studies affect rate hike petition in NJ? Read More »

Capitol Hill Enviro-Calendar: March 6, 2014


Agriculture, Energy and Environment Policy and Legislation

THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014

 HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE
Subcommittee on Energy and Power
9:00 a.m. 2123 Rayburn
Hearing entitled "Benefits of and Challenges to Energy Access in the 21st Century: Fuel Supply and Infrastructure", 9 a.m.
 
HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES
Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation
10:00 a.m. 1324 Longworth
Hearing on the following legislation: H.R. 414, to provide for the continued lease or eventual conveyance of certain Federal land within the boundaries of Fort Wainwright Military Reservation in Fairbanks, Alaska; H.R. 1839, the "Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act of 2013"; H.R. 2430, the "Hinchliffe Stadium Heritage Act of 2013"; and H.R. 3606, the "Emigrant Wilderness Historical Use Preservation Act of 2013"

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SENATE AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY

10:00 a.m. SR-328A
To hold hearings to examine the nominations of Timothy G. Massad, of Connecticut, to be Chairman, Sharon Y. Bowen, of New York, and J. Christopher Giancarlo, of New Jersey, all to be a Commissioner, all of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,10 a.m., SR-328A.
 
 SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
11:00 a.m. SR-253 (202) 224-4852
To hold hearings to examine enhancing our rail safety, focusing on current challenges for passenger and freight rail, 11 a.m.
 
SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
10:00 a.m. SD-406
To hold hearings to examine preventing potential chemical threats and improving safety, focusing on oversight of the President’s executive order on improving chemical facility safety and security, 10 a.m., SD-406.

Recent posts: 
A Bridgegate enviro-conspiracy story that didn’t hold air 
Fracking waste battle under way in Connecticut
The week’s legislative action on green bills in NJ and PA
Was air monitor disabled during Bridgegate traffic jam? 
NJ opposition helps extinguish proposed Pa incinerator 
EPA finalizes cleanup plan for Superfund site in NJ  
 

Capitol Hill Enviro-Calendar: March 6, 2014 Read More »

Fracking waste battle under way in Connecticut

 “The legislative battle over banning or regulating “fracking waste” in Connecticut opened Friday with a barrage of testimony about the environmental dangers this industrial byproduct may bring, Gregory B. Hladky reports in the Hartford Courant.

“Connecticut’s new commissioner of energy and environmental protection, Robert Klee, urged lawmakers to give the state authority to regulate the wastes produced by natural gas drilling as a hazardous material.
“He said a bill proposed by his agency would give state regulators “cradle-to-grave oversight” for any fracking waste products that might enter Connecticut.
“Activists like Leah Lopez Schmalz, of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, insisted Klee’s plan would be “an incomplete solution” to the problem and that the best way to safeguard public health in this state would be to ban potentially toxic fracking waste completely.”



Recent posts:
The week’s legislative action on green bills in NJ and PA
Was air monitor disabled during Bridgegate traffic jam? 
NJ opposition helps extinguish proposed Pa incinerator 
EPA finalizes cleanup plan for Superfund site in NJ  
Capitol Hill Enviro-Calendar: February 26-28, 2014 
Langan adds four Senior Principals in NJ, PA and NY




Fracking waste battle under way in Connecticut Read More »

The week’s legislative action on green bills in NJ and PA





From Monday through Thursday, our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics, is crammed with energy, environment and political news stories from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.

On Fridays, the news is replaced by an easy-to-access summary of all environmental and energy bills that saw action that week in the New Jersey or Pennsylvania legislature.

Our report also gives you links you can click to read all newly introduced bills, as well as those scheduled for debate in the upcoming week. Click here for a free copy.




The week’s legislative action on green bills in NJ and PA Read More »

Was air monitor disabled during Bridgegate traffic jam?

[March 3 Editor’s Note: As it turns out, the story below had no legs. EPA regional administrator Judith Enck says that the air monitor in question was operated by the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection "in accordance with EPA’s rules"
and that air-quality concentration did not exceed health standards.
NJ.com’s Tony Dearing explains it all]  
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"Amid all the investigations into the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last fall, yet another inquiry has been launched by a federal agency into what happened and why," Tom Johnson reports today in NJ Spotlight.

"But this investigation has nothing to do with who ordered the shutdown. It focuses instead on why an air-quality monitor closest to the bridge was inoperative for a few days during the lane closures, when drivers were stuck in a massive traffic jam for hours on the busiest motor vehicle bridge in the world, spewing pollution into the air.

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“Why should people care? The monitor is used to measure the amount of fine particulates in the air, a dangerous pollutant from trucks, cars and buses. The state only recently achieved compliance with federal air quality standards that safeguard human health—decades after the Clean Air Act was enacted.”

Read the full story here

Was air monitor disabled during Bridgegate traffic jam? Read More »