EnviroPolitics Blog

Fishermen’s Energy gets $4M fed grant for offshore wind

An offshore wind project planned for off the coast of Atlantic City is one of seven nationwide to receive a federal grant to help with engineering, with the goal for the project be in operation in five years, the Press of Atlantic City reports today

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the Fishermen’s Energy project will receive an initial amount of $4 million to assist with design, engineering and permitting. Three projects will then be selected for grants of as much as $47 million to help with construction and installation. Those projects selected should be operating by 2017

See the full story here

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Our most recent posts:

Nominations to environmental boards advance in NJ

Not planning for 100-year storm now haunting JCP&L

Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack?
Newspaper offers Superstorm Sandy photos in new book
Prescribed burning bill clears NJ Assembly committee
Rutgers gets a not so five-and-ten-cent climate grant

Fishermen’s Energy gets $4M fed grant for offshore wind Read More »

Nominations to environmental boards advance in NJ

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday advanced the list of nominees below.
A final vote of approval is expected in the Senate on Thursday, December 20.

Boat Regulation Commission
Roland Gehweiler of Lincroft
Leonard Mangiaracina of Mount Laurel

Fish and Game Council
Cathy Blumig of Somerset
Joseph Demartino of Lanoka Harbor

Hopatcong Commission
M. Gantert of Mount Arlington

Landscape Irrigation Contractors Examining Board
George McCarthy of Highland Park
Ken Scherer of Hillsborough

Tidelands Resource Council
Stuart Challoner of Island Heights
Philip Diberardino of Margate
Joseph Grabas of Freehold
Robert Kiejdan of Northfield
Martha Maxwell-Doyle of Little Egg Harbor
Robert Neff of Little Silver
Mary Robbie of Marlton
C. Brad Schoening of Little Silver
Lloyd Tubman of Flemington
Thomas Voltaggio of Cherry Hill

Wetlands Mitigation Council
Patricia Burns of West Deptford
Yang Deng of West Caldwell
David Roth of Little Egg Harbor Township

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Our most recent posts:

Not planning for 100-year storm now haunting JCP&L

Nominations to environmental boards advance in NJ Read More »

Not planning for 100-year storm now haunting JCP&L

Sandy-downed power line in Bernardsville, NJ – nj.com photo

Eight months before Hurricane Sandy left more than 1 million customers of Jersey Central Power & Light without power, a top executive of its parent company told analysts during an earnings call, “there are literally events that I don’t think we should plan for.’’

NJ Spotlight reports today that:

The pronouncement by Chuck Jones, president of FirstEnergy Utilities, is explosive because JCP&L is under increasing fire from local officials and state regulators over its response to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy. More than one hundred thousand of its customers lost power twice during the more than 11 days it took the utility to restore electricity.

The comments also might prove troublesome to the state’s second-largest utility because it already is facing a proceeding spurred by the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel over allegations that JCP&L was earning above the amount granted by state regulators, bringing in more than $90 million in profits.

Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, the parent company of JCP&L, disputed any assertion that the company had not planned for Hurricane Sandy, a storm that utility officials noted was twice as big as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

“We did more for this storm than we did ever before planning for such an event,’’ Schneider said. “We threw every possible resource at Hurricane Sandy.’’

Read the full story here.

Related:
JCP&L blasted by crowd in Bernards Township
What’s your view? Does a utility company have a responsibility to invest for 100-year storms? Use the comment box below to respond. If one is not visible, activate it by clicking on the tiny ‘comment’ line.

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For thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment
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Not planning for 100-year storm now haunting JCP&L Read More »

Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack?

With all the downed tree limbs and branches that are being chewed up an spit out (mechanically, of course) following Superstorm Sandy, the Garden State is looking
more like the Wood Chip State.

How much you ask? So darn much that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (even under the regulation-adverse administration of Republican Gov. Chris Christie) has found it necessary to promulgate a Wood Chip Management Guidance document.

Fortunately, the Department’s three-page Compliance Advisory appears to rely heavily on common sense (the Republican influence?) It tells you what you can use wood chips for
(lots of things) and what you can’t (just a few–like clean fill).

Spreading 4-6 inches of the stuff under play equipment is permitted. Piling it up around
your tomato plants at four-foot depths is not encouraged.

Wood chips can be used as part of an approved soil-erosion plan. You also can add them
to your favorite sewage-composting recipe. The suggestion we like best is that you can
use them to create a garden path. We’ve always wanted a garden path. Maybe Sandy has forced our hand.

In fact, the advisory details quite a few permitted uses–a good thing, post-Sandy. And the DEP isn’t getting heavy handed on the thou-shalt-not side, either. (Sorry, Sierra Club).

“If no other viable means of recycling/reuse is available,” you can burn them in a resource recover plant, send them to a Class B wood recycler, or to an approved compost facility. If all else fails, you can even cart them off to a sanitary landfill (DEP cautions: ‘as a last resort’).

We note with interest that wood chip piles should not exceed 20 feet in height nor remain stockpiled for more than a year. In fact, piles that sit static for 6 months or more may be viewed as “abandoned.”

If only that would apply to the piles your son left behind when he moved in with his girlfriend.

You can read the full doc here. Still have questions? DEP’s taking calls at: (609) 292-6305.

Our most recent posts:

Newspaper offers Superstorm Sandy photos in new book
Prescribed burning bill clears NJ Assembly committee
Rutgers gets a not so five-and-ten-cent climate grant
‘Radio Times’ examines NJ chemical train derailment
New Jersey Assembly energy, environment bills – Dec 10

Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack? Read More »

Newspaper offers Superstorm Sandy photos in new book

Newspapers don’t usually publish books, but the Asbury Park Press is capitalizing on its daily coverage of Superstorm Sandy by publishing a soft-cover book containing 150 photos
of the punishment that the historic storm inflicted on the New Jersey Shore.

Sales have been overwhelming and the newspaper is donating all profits from the book to
the American Red Cross Jersey Coast Chapter and Jersey Shore Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Copies can be ordered online at Sandy.TheStormBook.com at $14.95 (a $5 savings off the retail price which expires on Dec.13) or by calling 732-643-3154.

The newspaper plans a second book in early 2013 that will tell the further story of Sandy and efforts to rebuild the Jersey Shore.

Our most recent posts:

Prescribed burning bill clears NJ Assembly committee
Rutgers gets a not so five-and-ten-cent climate grant
‘Radio Times’ examines NJ chemical train derailment
New Jersey Assembly energy, environment bills – Dec 10

Action on energy and environment legislation in NJ

Newspaper offers Superstorm Sandy photos in new book Read More »

Prescribed burning bill clears NJ Assembly committee

Prescribed Burn at Schiff Nature Preserve Feb 27 2012

Sometimes the best way to fight fire is with fire.

That’s the proven thinking behind prescribed burning or controlled burning. It’s the tool
used by the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service to burn, in advance, sections of forest undergrowth to remove the fuel that would allow a wildfire to build power and spread.

Yesterday, both environmentalists and farmers testified in support of A-329 (Dancer), legislation that would encourage the use of the practice by giving landowners, prescribed burn managers and state employees protection against liability for damages or injury possibly resulting from a prescribed burn.

The bill does so by declaring that properly conducted prescribed burns are deemed to be
in the public interest and thus would not constitute arson, trespass, or a public or private nuisance nor would they be considered to be air-pollution violations.

To learn more about the subject, view our interview below with Jaclyn Rhoads, Director for Conservation Policy at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and Bill Cutts, a New Jersey cranberry grower.

Here’s a copy of A-329 before amendments were added yesterday in committee.
The amendments were not available at the time that this story was posted.

Disclosure: Our government relations firm, Brill Public Affairs, represents
the New Jersey Farm Bureau which supports A-329.