Forbes Magazine has once again named Pittsburgh its "Most Livable City" in its annual report that looks at cost of living, unemployment rate, income growth and crime rates, among other factors.
"Indeed, Pittsburgh’s art scene, job prospects, safety and affordability make it the most livable city in the country, according to measures studied," according to the magazine.
The magazine cites Pittsburgh’s "strong university presence" as a major factor in its ranking, as well as its income growth potential and low cost of living.
Pittsburgh ranked No. 10 on Forbes’ 2009 Most Livable list. The magazine has been a big fan of the Steel City in recent years, naming Pittsburgh the Best Housing Market in February, and calling Pittsburgh one of its "Best Bang" metros in December 2009.

Pittsburgh’s ratings:
Low Unemployment Rank: 73
Low Crime Rank: 15
Income Growth Rank: 20
Low Cost of Living Rank: 52
Arts & Leisure Rank: 26

One segment of Pittsburgh’s population that must  find the city “most profitable” as well as “most livable” is its attorneys.

K&L Gates LLP, Pittsburgh’s largest law firm, ranked 12th among The American Lawyer’s annual list of the nation’s 100 largest firms as ranked by gross revenue.
K&L Gates, which had been 19th the previous year, had 2009 revenue of $1.03 billion, up 7.8 percent from 2008. It was the biggest percentage increase among the top 20 firms.  
Reed Smith LLP, also based in Downtown Pittsburgh, ranked 17th. Reed Smith, which had been 16th a year ago, had revenue of $942 million, down 3.8 percent from 2008.

Related:
America’s Most Livable Cities
Forbes once again names Pittsburgh ‘Most Livable City’
Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates jumps to 12th on AmLaw 100 list

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Our most recent posts:
NJ union pension fund sues to remove coal boss
NJDEP Commissioner Martin shuffles his deck
Feds give green light to first offshore wind farm
NRDC keeps chromium lawsuit alive in NJ

  The New Jersey Building Laborers Pension Fund, a shareholder of Massey Energy Co., has brought a civil suit against Massey Energy Co and its CEO Donald Blankenship following the deaths of 29 workers earlier this month at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.
Long before drilling crews began boring into the Upper Big Branch mine in a desperate effort to rescue miners from the nation’s worst mining disaster in four decades, Massey Energy Co. had not simply disregarded mine safety regulations – it treated them with contempt, according to the derivative complaint filed against Blackenship and Massey’s directors.

"Given Massey’s chronic unwillingness
and failure to adhere to mining safety regulations," the death of 29 workers on April 5 "did not come as a surprise to many," the complaint states.

Massey has racked up nearly $27 million in fines since June 2008, nearly $13 million of them in 2009, according to the Chancery Court complaint. 

Massey owes "$25.6 million of still unpaid fines since 2005;"
10 of its 23 coal mines "had injury rates that exceeded the national rate;" four of those had injury rates "more than double the national average, and the 10 mines together received 2,400 federal safety violation citations in 2009 alone," according to the complaint. 

The plaintiffs focused their harshest criticism on "Massey’s imperious CEO and Chairman, Donald Blankenship."

"The Board’s unwillingness or inability to prevent one man’s heedless and misguided views from determining company practice has resulted in needless, tragic destruction of human life, as well as severe damage to the Company’s reputation and finances," the complaint states. "It is not in the company’s interest to continue to accrue fines or penalties as a result of this pervasive, and apparently continuing, pattern of flagrant disregard for mine safety laws and regulations."
The union fund managers are seeking punitive damages for breach of fiduciary duties. They also want all the company’s mines inspected and Blankenship removed from office.
Related:
Mine Blast Was No Surprise, Shareholders Say 
Coal miners evacuated after surprise inspections 
Surprise inspections at 3 Massey-owned mines

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NJDEP Commissioner Martin shuffles his deck
Feds give green light to first offshore wind farm
NRDC keeps chromium lawsuit alive in NJ
In Today’s Environmental News – April 26 2010

Bob Martin, the former business executive who is determined
to make the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection more business friendly (or, at least, less business-hostile), has reorganized the department. 

He’s consolidated in some areas, created a few new offices to streamline permit reviews, and shuffled senior staffing positions.
He says it’s all in keeping with his vision of a DEP that “balances rigorous environmental protection with the need to play our part in restoring the broken economy of our state.”

Among the changes are his creation of an Office of Green Energy Development, an Office of Economic Growth Coordination  and an Office of  One Stop Permitting.

Martin is also moving the Division of Water Quality, the state Geological Survey, the Watershed Standard Setting; Water Supply, Water Monitoring and Standards to a new Water Resource Management Program. He also plans to consolidate the Office of Planning and Sustainable Communities with Land Use Management.
"We need to play a key in the economic growth of the state,” Martin said in a memo announcing the reorganization.  "We must make permitting and inspection of individuals, businesses, governmental bodies and other organizations both timely and predictable, basing decisions on science, data, facts and a cost/benefit analysis.
The Sierra Club does not approve

One perpetual environmental critic, Jeff  Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club sees nothing good in the changes.  He
asserts that the new offices will “act as lobbyist for polluters and developers.” 

What really gets under Tittel’s skin is Martin’s insistence that his staff  treat “all entities coming to the DEP for permits.. like customers.”

That, Tittel claims, is proof that Martin’s DEP  “works for the polluters not the public."

OK, we get it.  All permit applicants are polluters. Shoot first and ask questions later.
New Deputy Commissioner Elevated to the number two spot in the department under the reorganization is Irene Kropp, a 28-year DEP employee who, as  assistant commissioner for Site Remediation, has been DEP’s point person for the new Licensed Site Remediation Professional program. 
Martin’s new Chief of Staff is Magdalena Padilla, an attorney and former director of business and economic policies for the state Commerce and Economic Growth Commission.  She will replace the widely respected Gary Sondermeyer who is retiring effective July 1 after 30 years of service at DEP.
The balance of Martin’s leadership team
Ray Cantor, a lawyer with 20 years of experience in state government, is Martin’s chief counsel. Cantor previously served as Senior Counsel/Committee Aide to the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services in the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resource Section.
Amy Cradic will remain as an assistant commissioner and head the new Office of Ecological Restoration.
Marilyn Lennon becomes Assistant Commissioner of Land Use Management. Lennon previously was Vice President of Environmental Engineering and Operations for KeySpan Corp.; Senior Vice President with PS&S, a NJ-based environmental and engineering consulting firm; and most recently Director of Strategic Policy and Planning for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
Nancy Wittenberg, formerly the DEP’s director of Environmental quality and the Office of energy, is the new assistant commissioner for Environmental Regulation. In that position, she will lead Air Quality, Environmental Safety and Health and Solid and Hazardous Waste Programs and will manage the Office of Climate Change and Energy.
  John Plonski, who served as CEO of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from 1995 to 2004, is the new assistant commissioner for Water Resources Management.
Wolf Skacel, will continue as assistant commissioner of Compliance & Enforcement.
Cathy Tormey will continue as deputy counselor to Martin.
Dave Glass, former head of Republican Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande’s staff, and most recently Director of Community Relations for Rep. Leonard Lance in the 7th Congressional District, is the new deputy chief of staff and legislative liaison.
Larry Ragonese, a former assistant chief of The Star-Ledger’s Morris County bureau, is the new communications director.
Richard Boornazian, who has 28 years of experience in real estate, finance and information technology, is the new Green Acres Program administrator.  He is former Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. and Vice President of Industry Relations for FIRETRAP Communications, Inc.
Scott Brubaker is the new director of the One-Stop Office.  Previously, he was Chief of the Bureau of Inspections and Investigations of Division of Solid Waste Management and Chief of the Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement. Most recently has been Acting Assistant Commissioner for Land Use Management.
Cindy Randazzo, who has 28 years of experience in business and finance, is the new director of the Office of Local Government Assistance.
Benjamin Witherell, formerly with the Delaware River Basin Commission, is the new director of Economic Analysis. Most recently he was a Catherine McMullen-Blake Fellow at Montclair State University where he conducted research on socio-economic drivers of land use change and resulting impact on watershed characteristics.

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Feds give green light to first offshore wind farm 

NRDC keeps chromium lawsuit alive in NJ
In Today’s Environmental News – April 26 2010
NJ Economic czar leaving for law firm

After nine years of regulatory review, the Obama Administration today gave the green light to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a sprawling project off the coast of Cape Cod that has split both the environmental and political communities in the region. The New York Times reports today that the approval “ gives a significant boost to the nascent offshore wind industry in the United States, which has lagged far behind Europe and China in harnessing the strong and steady power of ocean breezes to provide electricity to homes and businesses. “ The news will be welcomed in he states of New Jersey and Delaware. Both also hope to build wind farms off their coasts Related:
Cape Cod Project Is Crucial Step for U.S. Wind Industry
Pressure Is Building on Disputed Wind Farm 
Delaware breezes ahead of wind-energy pack 
Offshore wind energy faces stiff challenges 
How offshore wind won in Delaware 
Delaware: First to sign and the first to spin?

The NRDC takes a bow for a recent court victory that keeps alive its chances of forcing Pittsburgh-based PPG to meet hexavalent chromium cleanup standards at a site in Jersey City that exceed what the New Jersey DEP is requiring.

In the NRDC online publication, Switchboard, Senior Attorney Mark Izeman, yesterday writes:

“Last year, NRDC, together with two community groups, Interfaith Community Organization and GRACO, filed a federal lawsuit in New Jersey to compel PPG Industries Inc. – a Pittsburgh-based corporation responsible for toxic hexavalent chromium contamination of a densely populated area of Jersey City – to clean up the hazardous waste it created decades ago.  “Massive quantities of hexavalent chromium, a potent carcinogen and the villain in the film Erin Brokovich, continue to contaminate the former production site, groundwater beneath the site, and surrounding neighborhoods.  These dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium are a real threat to the health of community residents – and the toxin has been found in their homes, on their lawns, and in their basements.”

Izeman says that the state of New Jersey, for more than 35 years, failed to force PPG to clean up the site.

“But shortly after NRDC filed its lawsuit, the State, the City of Jersey City, and PPG announced that they had settled all outstanding claims in state court.  They then filed a motion in our federal case claiming on several legal grounds that our lawsuit should be dismissed because their agreement was sufficient.”

How do you read that?  To me it sounds like the state was doing nothing until the NRDC embarrassed it into action by virtue of
its lawsuit. That, however, overlooks the fact that, back in June, 2005,
New Jersey’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against PPG and
two other companies whose predecessors processed chromium—Honeywell and Occidental Chemical Corp. That legal action eventually resulted in the settlement that the NRDC does not
want to let stand. It may be legitimate to ask why it took five years for the state to reach its settlement. But disputes over who did what when have more political and public relations value than the questions that likely will be addressed in the NRDC’s continuing federal lawsuit. Apparently at the crux of the continuing legal dispute is the familiar environmental question: How clean is clean?  As in, what cleanup standard for hexavalent chromium needs to be reached for a cleanup to be declared complete?  And, perhaps, the equally important question of who gets to decide what standards must be met.  Is that the state’s DEP’s call? The EPA’s?  The court’s?   Use the  comment box below to share your thoughts on the issue. 
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Our most recent posts:
In Today’s Environmental News – April 26 2010
NJ Economic czar leaving for law firm 
Delaware breezes ahead of wind-energy pack 

Timing is everything department – When New Jersey’s new Republican Governor Chris Christie joined the state’s mostly Democratic Congressional delegation and environmental organizations in voicing strong opposition to President Obama’s decision to open up sections of the Atlantic coast to exploratory oil drilling, the decision may have appeared puzzling to some in Congress’s ‘drill baby drill’ population. Today, it looks absolutely prescient as 42,000 gallons of oil leak daily
into the Gulf of Mexico from a collapsed drilling rig.    Oh great, another study of flooding in northern New Jersey
No, wait, this one’s different, proponents promise
Delaware River dredging opponents suffer another dunking Federal judge rejects implied "judge shopping" attempt by foes of Delaware River deepening project
Editorial: New York’s natural-gas drilling decision “King Solomon-like”

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