Coming: The pensions, The Rock, The Christie Rescue

 
NJ Gov. Chris Christie, whose pre-Bridgegate fame was in no small measure due to skillful use of entertainment media, was forced to scale back his big PR machine when the traffic cone scandal was daily, front page and TV news.

Now that the issue has waned, he’s back on the tube, call-in radio, Twitter and today offered up a slick YouTube parody on action-packed Hollywood disaster movies. The point of it (besides portraying the governor as New Jersey’s bulwark against impending chaos (unsustainable public employee pensions and benefits) is to lay the emotional groundwork for his yet-to-be disclosed solution.

 

All we know for sure from the faux trailer is that the Christie solution is going to involve a heck of a lot of ‘pain.’

Could the design of the video be to instill such anticipatory anxiety in the average taxpayer that his or her support for the solution will immediately follow (after an enormous sigh of relief) when it finally is revealed that public workers will be the primary recipients of that pain?

 
Check out the YouTube teaser and let us know what you think. Is this a winner? Or something that could backfire as badly as a cone-handler joke?
 

Coming: The pensions, The Rock, The Christie Rescue Read More »

Does PJM need to run new line through wildlife refuge?

Section of letter from the NJBPU to PMJ questioning route of proposed new power line

NJ Spotlight today reports on a letter from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to the regional electricity grid operator, PJM Interconnection, questioning why PJM staff is recommending a preferred route for a proposed new transmission line that would cut through a national wildlife refuge and state-run wildlife management areas. NJ Spotlight’s Tom Johnson writes: “The 18-mile high-voltage line will run from the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in Salem County to neighboring Delaware, a project designed to address potential reliability problems in the region. The current transmission lines are pushed to the limits of how much power they can deliver from the facility, according to the PJM. Like what you’re reading? Click here to get free updates

“The proposed route, one of nine projects under consideration, may affect the Supawana Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Pennsville, the Alloway Creek Watershed Wetland Restoration site, the Abbots Meadow Wildlife Management Area in Elsinboro, and the Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area in Salem, according to the BPU letter mailed in early June. “In expressing concerns over the preferred route, the BPU compared the proposal with the highly contentious Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line now under construction, which also crosses federally protected land.” Read the full story here Recent posts: 
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Raritan Bay Superfund site lawsuit allowed to proceed 
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Does PJM need to run new line through wildlife refuge? Read More »

No, they won't tell you where the ginseng is growing

In Pennsylvania a few plant species – valuable and, in some cases, at risk of extinction –
are in a sort of plant "witness protection program," their identities and precise locations
kept secret as poachers hunt them for sale on the black market.

The Associated Press reports that, across the state, the plants are stolen for foreign markets, high-end restaurants or backyard gardens.

Harvested ginseng in Germany (Wikipedia photo)
"When there’s something rare or special in a place, someone, unfortunately, is going to try and take it," said Donald Schwartz, Bedford County’s planning director.
In Bedford’s current Natural Heritage Inventory, which land developers follow for permitting, at least eight locations feature secret species. The county isn’t alone: Across the state, government agencies avoid publishing the locations of sought-after plants like ginseng and rare orchids.

No, they won't tell you where the ginseng is growing Read More »

Raritan Bay Superfund site lawsuit allowed to proceed

A lawsuit filed against a New Jersey town and county and the Army Corps of Engineers over the nearly $80 million cleanup of a Raritan Bay Superfund site can proceed, a federal judge ruled this week.

The Associated Press reports:
“U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp’s ruling means that NL Industries can continue its attempt to divide the costs of the cleanup of the site in the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge Township. The defendants include Old Bridge, Middlesex County, the Army Corps and more than two dozen individual companies that NL Industries claims are responsible for the contamination.

“The federal Environmental Protection Agency last year announced NL Industries was responsible for lead pollution at the site dating back decades and was liable for a cleanup estimated at $78.7 million, according to court filings. The company had operated a smelting plant in nearby Perth Amboy.
“NL Industries sued, claiming it never dumped any material at the site and that the state, county and township allowed a developer to build a seawall with soil contaminated by used batteries, scrap metals and other waste trucked from its plant by a third party.

“NL Industries is suing the state in a separate action in state Superior Court, said Christopher Gardner, an attorney representing the company.”

Raritan Bay Superfund site lawsuit allowed to proceed Read More »

Fracking waste water ban heads to NJ Gov Christie

For the second time in two years, the New Jersey Legislature has passed legislation that would prohibit the importation, processing or disposal of waste water generated during the natural-gas drilling process called fracking.

The state Assembly on Thursday voted its approval of S-1041 on a 62-16 vote. That follows
a 32-5 vote in the Senate.

In 2002, similar legislation was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie who more often than not sides with business interests, like the State Chamber of Commerce, Business and Industry Association, Chemistry Council and Petroleum Council–who all oppose the anti-fracking measure.

In passing the bill, New Jersey legislators joined lawmakers in several other northeast states that also seek to block fracking water produced by drilling companies in Pennsylvania’s natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale.

 Like what you’re reading? Click here to get free updates

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy last week signed into law a moratorium that outlaws the collection, storage, treatment, transfer or disposal of waste from hydraulic fracturing for at least three years. The law goes beyond a temporary ban to also require the state’s Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection to issue new regulations that mandate the “disclosure of the composition of the waste from hydraulic fracturing.”

Vermont led the pack in 2012, when it passed a law banning both fracking and the receipt of fracking wastewater.

Earlier this week, the New York Assembly passed a bill extending the state’s current moratorium on fracking for three-years. No action on the bill is expected in the state Senate before the fall.

Listen to our interviews with an advocate and an opponent
On Thursday, we spoke with an advocate of the frack water ban, and with a business opponent. Click on their names to hear the interviews. Doug O’Malley and Michael Egenton.

Related environment and energy news stories:
Northeastern States Push to Keep PA Fracking Waste Out
Will NJ Gov Christie Veto Frack Wastewater Ban a 2nd Time?
Fracking Debate Rages On – New Providence 
Pennsylvania Health Department employees instructed to hide

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Fracking waste water ban heads to NJ Gov Christie Read More »