In New Jersey, playing that ole RGGI song once more


James Marvin Phelps photo

“Once there was a silly old ram

Thought he’d punch a hole in a dam 

No one could make that ram, scram
He kept buttin that dam”

   – Frank Sinatra’s ‘High Hopes’ 
For what seems like the umpteenth time, Democratic legislators in New Jersey will try again on Thursday to butt a hole in Republican Governor Chris Christie’s veto of legislation requiring New Jersey to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

In May 2011, Christie unilaterally yanked the state from the 10-state compact that aims to reduce global warming greenhouse gases by placing a carbon tax on power plant emissions.

Christie declared the program to be ineffective and said it penalized businesses and other energy customers in New Jersey who already pay some of the highest energy rates in the country. 


Environmentalists kicked up their heels, claiming Christie was kowtowing to right-wing, fossil fuel interests that control which Republican candidate gets campaign funding support in future presidential campaigns.

But, as NJ Spotlight‘s Tom Johnson explains today, “legislative efforts to force New Jersey back into the program have proved fruitless, with Christie twice vetoing bills to that end.” 

Democrats hold a majority in both houses and could pass the legislation again.

Will a third time prove the charm?

Not unless you believe the one about the Ant and the Rubber Tree Plant.

The governor has never gone back on a veto and his Republican colleagues in the legislature are unlikely to offer their political opponents the necessary votes for an override.    


But you’ve got to give the enviros credit for trying.  Cue High Hopes, Mister DJ. 



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McGinty has the green credentials to be Pa governor

 Katie McGinty on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh. (Tribune Review) 
Now that Pennsylvania’s former Environmental
Protection Secretary John Hanger has quit the Democratic primary race to challenge Republican Gov. Tom
Corbett’s re-election, it looks
like the candidate with the strongest environmental credentials is Kathleen McGinty. 
The question is whether she can raise enough cash to get her message before state voters in hopes of beating out four other better-funded candidates on the May 20 primary ballot.

As Melissa Daniels reported yesterday in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
McGinty’s candidacy follow a decades-long
career in environmental and energy policy, including years as a senior adviser in the Clinton administration. 
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She preceded Hangar as Pennsylvania’s DEP
Secretary under former Gov. Ed Rendell who describes McGinty as  “a strict moderate,” socially
progressive and fiscally conservative. Under her direction, Rendell’s
administration worked to lure renewable energy companies, such as Gamesa and Iberdrola to Pennsylvania.  

To learn more about McGinty’s childhood (daughter
of a Philadelphia cop), campaign funds, and support for a severance
tax on natural gas drilling, read:
Gubernatorial
candidate McGinty builds name recognition, support.




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EPA chief paving a rocky road toward new climate rules

Gina McCarthy at a ‘listening session’ in Beulah, N.D.  (Associated Press photo)

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is on the road campaigning for a cutting-edge set of carbon-pollution rules that are a tough sell in large parts of the country.


Coral Davenport, writing in the New York Times, describes Ms McCarthy as “the chief architect and emissary of President Obama’s plan to fight climate change. “


“At its heart are a pair of divisive E.P.A. regulations that are to set new limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants — the chief source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States — and potentially establish Mr. Obama as the first American president to take aggressive action to stop global warming,” Davenport writes.
“But the rules could also be so stringent that they shut down large numbers of plants and imperil mining jobs. Republicans and the coal industry say the actions amount to a war on coal, and they are mounting a legal and legislative battle to fight them.“


To learn how many cities McCarty and other EPA officials are visiting, what states are not on their itinerary, and what strategy underlies the campaign, read: As Listener and Saleswoman, E.P.A. Chief Takes to the Road for Climate Rules

Recent posts:
NJ Highlands Council director is stepping down
NJ remedial investigation extension deadline ends today
Landowners screwed in $5B Chesapeake Energy shuffle  
Buchanan Ingersoll merging with Fowler White Boggs
Rosensweig now Of Counsel at Sokol Behot and Fiorenzo


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NJ Highlands Council director is stepping down

Gene Feyl in 2010 Star-Ledger photo2
Gene Feyl in 2010 Star-Ledger photo

The Star-Ledger reports that:

“Gene Feyl, whose appointment as executive director of the Highlands Council two years ago came under fire from environmentalists who argued he wasn’t qualified for the job, said today he is stepping down.

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Noting that he will turn 69 in August, Feyl said, “I have decided to retire from full-time employment. Two years is a pretty good run. I’ve been in public service most of my life.” 

The former Morris County freeholder and Denville councilman said he will formally announce his retirement from the state agency next week and will talk more about his record on the council at that time. He said he intends to step down next month.

Read full story at: NJ Highlands Council director to step down after less than 2 years 

Recent posts:
NJ remedial investigation extension deadline ends today
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Rosensweig now Of Counsel at Sokol Behot and Fiorenzo
Woodwell to lead Pennsylvania Environmental Council

NJ Highlands Council director is stepping down Read More »

NJ remedial investigation extension deadline ends today

The Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey posted the following alert today:

If you are one of 3,000 cases that have not completed a remedial investigation, today is the last day you can apply for a two year extension with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

Earlier this year, Governor Christie signed a law allowing for a two year extension to the May 7 deadline in the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) for completion of certain remedial investigations. Without this extension, Responsible Parties (RPs) would have relinquished control of their cleanup to the NJDEP.

The law called for a March 7 deadline to apply for the extension but because of inclement weather and difficulties in securing financial documents, only a few hundred applications were received.


More details in this article by attorney John M. Scagnelli of Scarinci | Hollenbeck



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Landowners screwed in $5B Chesapeake Energy shuffle

Published on March 13, 2014 in ProPublica: 

"At the end of 2011, Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation’s biggest oil and gas companies, was teetering on the brink of failure.


"Its legendary chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, was being pilloried for questionable deals, its stock price was getting hammered and the company needed to raise billions of dollars quickly.
"The money could be borrowed, but only on onerous terms. Chesapeake, which had burned money on a lavish steel-and-glass office complex in Oklahoma City even while the selling price for its gas plummeted, already had too much debt.

"In the months that followed, Chesapeake executed an adroit escape, raising nearly $5 billion with a previously undisclosed twist: By gouging many rural landowners out of royalty payments they were supposed to receive in exchange for allowing the company to drill for natural gas on their property.

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"In lawsuits in state after state, private landowners have won cases accusing the companies like Chesapeake of stiffing them on royalties they were due. Federal investigators have repeatedly identified underpayments of royalties for drilling on federal lands, including a case in which Chesapeake was fined $765,000 for “knowing or willful submission of inaccurate information” last year.


"Last month, Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett, who is seeking reelection, sent a letter to Chesapeake’s CEO saying the company’s expense billing “defies logic” and called for the state Attorney General to open an investigation.

"McClendon, a swashbuckling executive and fracking pioneer, was ultimately pushed out of his job. But the impact of the Financial Maneuvers that he made to save the company will reverberate for years. The winners, aside from Chesapeake, were a competing oil company and a New York private equity firm that fronted much of the money in exchange for promises of double-digit returns for the next two decades."

Read the entire story here   

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Capitol Hill Enviro-Calendar: March 13-14, 2014 


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