Pa charities spending millions to keep an eye on fracking

“Citizens groups and nonprofits around the nation are asking questions about environmental and health impacts of natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and Pennsylvania charities are funding much of the debate, here and in other states.
“Foundations from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh have provided more than $19 million for gas-drilling-related grants since 2009, according to an Associated Press review of charity data. The money has paid for scientific studies, films, radio programs, websites and even trout fishing groups that monitor water quality.
“That’s led to expressions of gratitude from those who say state and federal governments aren’t doing enough on the issue, but also protests from some in the gas drilling industry, who claim there’s bias in the campaigns.
Read the full Associated Press story here.

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Related: 
CA vineyard owners unsure of fracking effects on land
Editorial: A Check Up for natural Gas

Our most recent posts: 

How you can track FOIA requests pending at the EPA
Hess wins key air permit for gas power plant in Newark
Judge tosses NY Delaware River Basin fracking suit  
Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases 
NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills 

Pa charities spending millions to keep an eye on fracking Read More »

How you can track FOIA requests pending at the EPA

Starting today, anyone filing requests with the Environmental Protection Agency under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) should find it easier to track the status of requests and receive agency correspondence and documents.

The new system, called FOIA Online, allows anyone to search pending FOIA requests and documents already released as the result of previous FOIA requests, submit a new FOIA request to an agency, track requests, see the status of any request and receive agency correspondence and documents all within the new system.

The Sunshine in Government Blog calls it a:

"watershed moment in FOIA processing because it is a serious effort by the federal government to create a friendlier way for the public to exercise our right to information held by the government – and it’s a more efficient way for agencies to respond to FOIA requests."
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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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Related:
FOIA Online goes live; new tool to track FOIA requests, responses 

Our most recent posts:
Hess wins key air permit for gas power plant in Newark
Judge tosses NY Delaware River Basin fracking suit 
Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases
NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills
NJ lawmakers take alternative-fuel vehicles for a test run
RGGI sees fewer bidders but still raising tens of millions 

How you can track FOIA requests pending at the EPA Read More »

Hess wins key air permit for gas power plant in Newark

Hess Corp logo 

New Jersey environmental regulators have approved a key air pollution control permit
that will enable the Hess Corp. to build a 655-megawatt, natural gas-fired power plant
in Newark, NJ’s Ironbound section.

Construction is targeted to begin before the end of the year, following a 45-day EPA
air operating permit review.

Opposed by environmental groups

In May, the city’s planning board voted 7-1 to approve construction of the facility over
the objections of some neighbors and environmental groups like the Sierra Club who
argued  that the Ironbound already had more than its share of industrial facilities.

"You’re taking a community that has had more impact of pollution than almost any
other place in the United States and now you’re going to put up a power plant," Sierra
Club director Jeff Tittel said. "Instead of helping a community overcome its industrial
past and move forward, you’re throwing it backward."  

But Adam Zipkin, Newark’s deputy mayor of economic development, said that the city’s independent experts had "scrutinized the potential impact of this proposed plant on
Newark’s air quality"  and found the project “ is likely to result in a net improvement to air quality by allowing the more polluting generators in our area — the coal and peaker plants — to run less often." 

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Questions about impact on taxpayers

NJBIZ reports that “Under New Jersey’s Long-Term Capacity Agreement pilot program, or LCAPP, the Hess plant is one of three natural gas-fueled projects eligible for payments from the state to make up the difference between price guarantees offered by the Board of Public Utilities and what utilities will pay the firms for electricity generation.

The price guarantees are meant to be incentives for the companies that build new power plants in the state, helping to lower electricity rates for residents. But critics of LCAPP are taking aim at the newly released Board of Public Utility contracts.

"It skews the marketplace significantly and will have lasting implications for decades," said Glen Thomas, president of PJM Power Providers Group. The organization aims to promote competitive wholesale electricity markets in the served PJM Interconnection Inc.‘s 13-state regional power grid.

In 2015, when a 15-year contract with CPV would begin, the state would pay the company nearly $30 million as a result of the subsidy program. That could potentially pave the way for more payments in subsequent years, as long as the market price for capacity stays below the state’s price guarantees.

For Hess, which has a contract starting in 2016, the first payout could be around $12 million, according to calculations based on data provided by the BPU. In the cases of both generators, Thomas said, "New Jersey ratepayers are now on the hook for the next 15 years to be paying what’s likely to be a very substantial premium." 

Job creation and economic benefits to Newark

The plant is expected to bring 400 new jobs during the three years of construction and 26 when it becomes operative, according to John Schultz, vice president of Energy Operations for Hess.

Hess promises to pay the city about $100 million over the next 30 years.

The Star-Ledger reports that the first $25 million will come right away in easements, environmental programs, a boiler replacement program and rehabilitation of the Ironbound Stadium.  The rest will come in payments in lieu of taxes — $2.6 million a year over the course of 30 years.

The $750 million plant would be erected near Newark Bay on a site, near a police firing range and the Essex County Correctional Facility, where Hess currently has maintains storage tanks. The property is a mile from the nearest private residence. 

Related stories:
Newark power plant secures environmental approval
If Newark gets new power plant, do residents get shaft?

Our most recent posts: 
Judge tosses NY Delaware River Basin fracking suit 
Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases  
NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills  
NJ lawmakers take alternative-fuel vehicles for a test run 
RGGI sees fewer bidders but still raising tens of millions 

Hess wins key air permit for gas power plant in Newark Read More »

Judge tosses NY Delaware River Basin fracking suit

 

** Updated at 7 p.m. to add related stories and reaction from enviro groups** A federal judge has rejected New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit seeking to force a full environmental review before the Delaware River Basin Commission allows natural gas drilling in a watershed that provides drinking water for millions of New Yorkers (and millions more in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware). The Associated Press reported this afternoon that:. "U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled Monday in favor of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies. He said the lawsuit filed last year by Schneiderman was speculative, because the commission hasn’t adopted final regulations yet.  Garaufis noted that there will be plenty of time to file lawsuits after the regulations are adopted. See the full AP story here.  Environmental organizations react to the ruling “The judge’s decision recognized and validated the tremendous concerns over threatened gas drilling for the Delaware River, our organizations and communities — that he found he could not render a final judicial opinion at this time does not diminish his acknowledgement that gas drilling is a major threat to this region, and that the actions of the agencies involved should be the subject of judicial review,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. ”Of great importance, the judge did not side with agency efforts to simply and cavalierly set aside the role of the courts or the public in reviewing what the agencies are up to on this precedent setting matter.

“Riverkeeper is disappointed that the court concluded it was premature to decide whether DRBC and the Army Corps are required to conduct an environmental review of its proposed gas drilling regulations before finalizing them,” said Kate Hudson, Hudson Riverkeeper Watershed Program Director. “However, we are pleased that the court’s decision allows Riverkeeper to challenge these regulations if and when DRBC ends the moratorium and votes to put the regulations in place. The court emphasized that it is available and more than capable of stopping well development before any fracking wastewater is created if DRBC proceeds in a manner contrary to the law. Riverkeeper fully intends to sue again and ask the court to take such action if DRBC puts at risk the drinking water for millions of New Yorkers by opening the Delaware River Basin to drilling without completing a full environmental review.” Related news stories:
Fracking Lawsuit In New York Dismissed By US Judge
Federal judge throws out NY AG’s lawsuit against DRBC

Our most recent posts:

Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases
NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills 
NJ lawmakers take alternative-fuel vehicles for a test run
RGGI sees fewer bidders but still raising tens of millions
Gov. Cuomo: No pressure to speed NY fracking decision 

Judge tosses NY Delaware River Basin fracking suit Read More »

Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases

Intensified storm and sea-surge damage is steadily eroding the Alaskan fishing village
of Kivalina, threatening its very existence. The villagers blame climate change and sued ExxonMobil and more than 20 other oil companies and utilities whose production of greenhouse gases, they contend, is responsible.

But it’s not only Mother Nature that’s giving the villagers a pounding.

Their lawsuit, based on the common law theory of nuisance, was dismissed by a federal district court in 2009 on the grounds that regulating greenhouse emissions was a political rather than a legal issue and one that needed to be resolved by Congress and the Administration rather than by courts.

On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the earlier ruling.

Foley Hoag attorney attorney Seth Jaffe writes today in Law & The Environment that the decision “may have sounded the death knell for public nuisance litigation concerning the impacts of climate change.”

Read Mr. Jaffe’s piece here and the full decision: Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil 


Recent posts: 
NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills 
NJ lawmakers take alternative-fuel vehicles for a test run
RGGI sees fewer bidders but still raising tens of millions
Gov. Cuomo: No pressure to speed NY fracking decision
Some big corporations cut emissions as Congress fiddles 


Decision signals death of ‘public nuisance’ climate cases Read More »

NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills

New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie yesterday jabbed environmental groups by signing a permit-extension bill they opposed and then landed a haymaker with his veto of a bill banning wastewater and other fracking byproducts from being imported into New Jersey for treatment or disposal.

Environmental groups had lobbied vigorously for the governor to support their anti-fracking bill, A575, that had passed the Assembly (56-19-4) and then cruised through the Senate (30-5).     

In his veto message, Christie said that the legislation raised constitutional issues.

"The lack of frackable shale formations in New Jersey is directly relevant to Assembly Bill No. 575 and is why, based on advice from the Office of the Attorney General, I must return this bill without my signature due to its unconstitutional nature.  Because the nation is one common market in which state lines cannot be barriers to commerce, the Dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution limits a state’s ability to regulate interstate commerce.  Accordingly, the Dormant Commerce Clause precludes states from enacting parochial, isolationist, and discriminatory laws, such as Assembly Bill No. 575.

"Assembly Bill No. 575 seeks to prohibit wastewater, wastewater solids, sludge, drill cuttings, or other byproducts (collectively “Waste”) generated from Fracking “in any State” from being treated, discharged, disposed of, or stored in New Jersey.  Although the bill is, on its face, neutral in that it seemingly applies to Waste from “any State,” the undisputed fact, agreed to by the Legislature, that Fracking “is not occurring and is unlikely to occur in New Jersey,” demonstrates beyond a doubt that this ostensible evenhandedness is superficial.  Because no Fracking Waste is being produced in New Jersey, nor is it likely to be produced in New Jersey in the foreseeable future, any Waste subject to this bill must be generated out-of-state." 

The NJ Sierra Club, a frequent critic of the governor, charged in a news release following the veto that  Christie had "taken the side of the fossil fuel industry and polluters over New Jersey’s drinking water."

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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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Governor Christie signs permit-extension bill

The permit extension bill, A1338, which green groups opposed, will extend to the close of 2014 numerous local permits presently set to expire at the end of 2012. The development community argued that that change was necessary because the ongoing recession had prevented many projects from getting off the ground. Without the extension, they said, developers would be forced to start from scratch in seeking permits when the economy recovers, adding time and cost to projects that could benefit both the state and local economies.

The bill received impressive backing in both houses: Assembly (66-7-6); Senate (35-1)  

Our most recent posts:
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RGGI sees fewer bidders but is still raising
Gov. Cuomo: No pressure to speed NY fracking decision
Some big corporations cut emissions as Congress fiddles
DEP chief answers critics of NJ’s Barnegat Bay strategy

NJ Gov. Christie delivers one-two punch to enviro bills Read More »