EnviroPolitics Blog

Energy, environment bills on Harrisburg voting list today

The Pennsylvania State House and Senate return for a busy month of work starting June 11.

The following energy and environment bills are scheduled for today’s voting sessions:

In the House
Senate Bill 367 (D.White-R-Indiana) Provides for mineral resource development on state lands and for the allocation of resulting revenue.

House Resolution 438 (Cruz-D-Philadelphia) Urges Philadelphia to establish a waste tire removal and disposal program

House Resolution 505 (Preston-D-Allegheny) Disapproves the PUC regulation on natural gas competition.

In the Senate:
Senate Bill 1346 (Kasunic-D-Somerset) encouraging the use of mine drainage water for fracking and other purposes.

House Bill 3 (Geist-R-Blair) authorizing public-private transportation projects.

House Bill 807
(Sonney-R-Erie) Amends definitions, content,
and registration and enforcement sections of the Biofuel Development and In-State
Production Incentive Act.

House Bill 1682 (Taylor-R-Philadelphia) Provides for the creation of land banks.

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Our most recent posts:
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Energy, environment bills on Harrisburg voting list today Read More »

Shale gas supporter wants to punish Philly transit agency

A powerful Republican state representative who is a strong supporter of
Marcellus Shale gas development in Pennsylvania is threatening to punish
the Philadelphia-based transportation authority, SEPTA, for buying
buses that are fueled with diesel rather than natural gas.

Is House majority whip Stan Saylor on the right track with his criticism?

Check out this Philadelphia Inquirer story and let us know what you think in the comment box below. If one is not visible, activate it by clicking on the tiny ‘comments’ line.

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Our most recent posts:
Changes ahead for land-use planning in New Jersey

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NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers
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Shale gas supporter wants to punish Philly transit agency Read More »

Changes ahead for land-use planning in New Jersey

Land-use planning in a complicated business in New Jersey–a highly urbanized state with overlapping governmental units, big-league politics, and perpetual development vs. environmental tensions.

The planning process involves municipalities, counties, sewerage authorities, professional planners, consultants, attorneys and environmental organizations.

Representatives from all of those sectors filed into an auditorium yesterday morning at the College of New Jersey to learn, from a panel of experts assembled by PlanSmart NJ, about significant changes coming soon for Water Quality Management Planning.

Michele Siekerka, Esq., Assistant Commissioner, Economic Growth and Green Energy at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection provided a detailed but quick-paced summary of how the state’s almost-completed Strategic Plan will seek to balance new development with environmental protection.

The plan, she said, will employ an updated mapping of existing development and infrastructure to identify regional clusters to which future growth will be directed. Governor Christie, she noted, has directed all affected state agencies to eliminate conflicting regulations that block such growth.

Siekerka acknowledged that, even within a single agency like the NJDEP, conflicting rules can be encountered. She said her agency is working to ‘de-conflict’ department ‘silos.’

As the state develops its plan to guide overall development in New Jersey, each of its 21 counties also are working to meet a July 15 deadline to submit Water Quality Management Plans to the NJDEP that include maps of future sewer service areas.

Raymond Ferrara, PhD., a principal at of Omni Environmental, led the audience through a history of water quality management in New Jersey stretching back to 1977. He said that the
cost and complexity of developing the plans were responsible for numerous
missed deadlines in the past.

After the administration of Gov. Chris
Christie arrived on the scene in January of 2010, DEP Commissioner Bob
Martin granted a deadline extension to April 7, 2011. The state
Legislature subsequently gave the counties additional time, extending the cutoff to July 15, 2012. Roughly half of all counties now have submitted their plans and the DEP expects all counties to meet next month’s deadline.

Tim Dillingham, Executive Director of the American Littoral Society, raised concerns of the environmental community as the state begins to place a heavier emphasis on economic growth.

David Fisher, PP/AICP, Vice President of Governmental Affairs at K. Hovnanian Homes, discussed problems that home builders can encounter with county water quality management plans.

Neil Yoskin, Esq.a partner at Sokol Behot and Fiorenzo, added the perspective of environmental attorneys who represent business owners seeking to develop property in the state.

Following the discussion, EnviroPolitics caught up with PlanSmart NJ’s Executive Director, Lucy Vandenberg and her panelists for the video interviews above. Neil Yoskin managed to escape the premises before we could snare him. Sorry, Neil.

Note: PlanSmart NJ will post speaker slides from the event on its website next week.

Have an opinion on the State Strategic Plan or NJDEP’s Water Quality Management Plan? Use the box below. Signed submissions appreciated. Anonymous comments also accepted.

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Our most recent posts:

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NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers
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Changes ahead for land-use planning in New Jersey Read More »

What lies ahead for EPA’s resourceful Lisa Jackson?

Lisa P. Jackson – T. J. Kirkpatrick photo for the Star-Ledger

Like an NFL coach with a sub-par running/passing attack, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has been winning games for the environment by combining a tenacious defense with a crafty exploitation of the regulatory rulebook.

Her agency wears an enormous bulls eye on its back. Powerful industrial interests want to eviscerate it. The GOP right has blocked legislation that would allow it to regulate additional dangerous chemicals. Even her boss in the White House has not always had her back.

And yet, under Jackson’s leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency has forced the the coal energy industry to clean up its act and drove automakers to almost double the efficiency of their cars and trucks.

Will she be around for a second Obama term (if there is one)? If not, will we see her challenge New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as he preps for another four years in office?

The (Newark ) Star-Ledger‘s Tom Moran takes a break from editorial writing to produces a noteworthy profile in the Trials, triumphs and intriguing future of EPA head Lisa Jackson.

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Our most recent posts:
No Senate vote on NJ waiver and permit extension bills
NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers
Bill to squash NJDEP ‘waiver’ rule set for Senate vote
After 25 years, how’s recycling doing in NJ? – Part 2

Ex-Saul Ewing chair named Pa Governor’s chief of staff

What lies ahead for EPA’s resourceful Lisa Jackson? Read More »

No Senate vote on NJ waiver and permit extension bills

NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney pulled from yesterday’s voting agenda bills that would:

1. Extend expired development permits, and
2. Stop the NJDEP’s proposed waiver rule.
(See yesterday’s post on both)

Sources say that the sponsor of the permit-extension bill asked for a delay to consider changes sought by environmental groups. They want to limit the bill’s application in certain environmentally sensitive areas of the Highlands and Pinelands region.

To be sure, environmentalists will not support any bill extending building permits. They’re still pissed at God for granting the permit for the apple stand in the Garden of Eden. But they’ll be less opposed if the bill extends only permit dates and not geography.

[Related News: Attorney Michael Pisauro explains the environmental community’s position yesterday in his Green Pages NJ blog, while NJ Littoral Society exec Tim Dillingham ripped the legislation via an op-ed in yesterday’s Trenton Times.]

Why was the waiver bill (which the environmentalists support) also yanked?

You can expect to see it back on the Senate board when the latest version of the permit extension bill is ready for a vote. This way the Democratic majority can offer at least half-victories both to the greens and to the developers.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment box below. If one is not visible, activate it by clicking on the tiny ‘comments’ line.

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Our most recent posts:
NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers
Bill to squash NJDEP ‘waiver’ rule set for Senate vote
After 25 years, how’s recycling doing in NJ? – Part 2
Ex-Saul Ewing chair named Pa Governor’s chief of staff
Envrios claim EPA is giving ‘dirty diesel’ a free pass
NJ Assembly voting on ‘waiver’ bill and a gas from past

No Senate vote on NJ waiver and permit extension bills Read More »

NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers

Vote yes–and no. That’s what environmental groups are urging New Jersey state senators to do today on bills to derail the DEP’s controversial ‘waiver’ regulation and to extend the lives of previously issued development permits.

We covered the first bill, SCR-59, on Tuesday in Bill to squash NJDEP ‘waiver’ rule set for Senate vote.

The second, S-743 (Sarlo/Oroho), would extend relief granted to the state’s development community in 2008 when the economic downturn dried up financing for construction projects.

At that point, the Legislature extended the expiration date of some previously issued local and state permits to Dec. 31, 2012, hoping the economy would recover by then. With little improvement since, lawmakers now are being asked to extend the life of those permits to Dec. 31, 2014.

Environmentalists claim the legislation not only extends the expiration dates but also slips in areas of the state’s environmentally sensitive Highlands and Pinelands regions that were off limits to permit extensions under the 2008 legislation. New Jersey Highlands Coalition Executive Director Julia Somers calls it a “free pass for developers.”

Related News:
Protect the Highlands planning area from developer freebies

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Our most recent posts:
Bill to squash NJDEP ‘waiver’ rule set for Senate vote
After 25 years, how’s recycling doing in NJ? – Part 2
Ex-Saul Ewing chair named Pa Governor’s chief of staff
Envrios claim EPA is giving ‘dirty diesel’ a free pass
NJ Assembly voting on ‘waiver’ bill and a gas from past
After 25 years, how’s recycling doing in NJ? – Part 1
In Pa, a supreme court justice is hit with felony charges

NJ Senate voting today on permit extensions and waivers Read More »