Environmental bills up for votes Monday in NJ

 
Offshore wind farm  
      A major alternative energy bill designed to spur the financing of  wind energy farms off New Jersey’s coast is one of several environmental bills scheduled for a vote Monday in the state Senate.  Co-sponsored by the Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders, Steve Sweeney and Tom Kean Jr.,  S-2036  would establish a program of Offshore Renewable Energy Certificates (ORECs) that wind energy developers say are necessary to attract financial investors to the expensive projects. The bill would allow developers to earn the credits for each megawatt of electricity the turbines produce over 20 years. It also authorizes the state’s Economic Development Authority to provide up to $100 million in tax credits to wind energy support businesses, like wind turbine manufacturers, that set up shop in New Jersey. The ORECs would be purchased by utilities who are required by state law to supply a certain percentage of their electricity from alternative energy sources like wind and solar.  The bill anticipates at least 1,100 megawatts of electricity generated by qualified offshore wind projects. An economist for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association estimates the cost of such an offshore wind farm at $7 billion. Other estimates run as high as $20 billion. It’s the size and unpredictability of project costs that has some business leaders questioning the wisdom of such legislation in a state where manufacturers and other heavy energy users already pay the highest energy bills in the nation. But advocates counter that offshore wind energy will offset its higher costs by generating new jobs in construction, turbine- manufacturing and supplies.  They also say it’s an opportunity that New Jersey can’t afford to lose to competing projects in Delaware and New York. 
 [UPDATE: A2873, the Assembly companion to the Senate offshore wind bill, S2036 (above), was added late Friday to the Assembly voting list for Monday. If the bills are merged and approved in both houses on Monday, the combined bill can be sent to Governor Chris Christie before the Legislature’s summer recess which begins after Monday’s sessions]

Other environmental legislation up for a Senate vote:

S1977 (Smith) Revises the “Electronic Waste Management Act” S2006 (Smith) Prohibits municipal zoning ordinances from regulating solar panels under certain circumstances; limits fees for certain renewable energy installations.   S2089 (Pennacchio) Abolishes the Department of the Public Advocate and transfers certain functions, powers and duties A2217/S1004 (McKeon/Oroho) Extends expiration date of special appraisal process for Green Acres and farmland preservation programs from 2009 to 2014 for lands in Highlands Region. A2927/S2002 (Moriarty/Gordon) Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects A2928/S2003 (Johnson/Bateman) Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects. A2929/S2004 (McKeon/Smith) Makes certain changes to the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust Financing Program ACR135/SCR106 (Wisniewski/Beach) Makes certain changes to the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust Financing Program
  In the Assembly on Monday  [Updated at 8:30 p.m.]  

A1683/S1181 (Burzichelli/Van Drew) Changes perimeter for bow and arrow hunting around occupied building. A-2873  (Chivukula) The "Offshore Wind Economic Development Act"; establishes offshore wind renewable energy certificate program, and authorizes EDA to provide tax credits for qualified wind energy facilities in wind energy zones. Related: S-2036 (See Senate list above) A-2939  (Wagner) "Meadowlands Regionalization, Efficiency and Property Tax Relief Act of 2010." A-3055  (Coutinho) Extends suspension of Statewide non-residential development fee to October 30, 2010.
Related:
The US, Saying YES to Offshore Wind farms
Our most recent posts:
Shale gas drilling controversy no longer local 
NJ Chamber of Commerce elects new directors 
What’s in fracking fluid? Wyoming wants to know 
SRPL nominees before NJ Judiciary panel today 
‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium 

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Shale gas drilling controversy no longer local

Fleet Street

Concerns about potential environmental and health impacts of the ‘fracking’ method of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale started out with a few reports in small Pennsylvania and New York newspapers about property owners near drilling sites who were complaining about polluted well water and sick pets.  

But now the story’s all grown up and gone international.
Rowena Mason, who writes about energy for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph in London, today filed this story:
Shale gas pollution fears leave Americans with another energy headache.
Mason leads the piece with this:

“Still politically scorched from BP’s giant Gulf of Mexico spill, it couldn’t be a worse time for America’s oil giants to find themselves roasting in another environmental firestorm. “But new flames of controversy are on the horizon – in fact, literally emanating from the drinking water of US citizens living near so-called “shale gas” fields.”

 
Mason notes that the independent documentary film, Gasland, which sounds a shrill alarm about  fracking, has been drawing attention to the fracking issue.  She reports that a new   gas and oil industry website, Energy in Depth, is attempting to stem any injury by offering a rebuttal to the film.
Why might this be of interest to international readers?
Because drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is no longer
a high-risk venture pursued by a score of small and moderate-sized, independent gas companies.  It’s now become big business—big international business.
Mason writes:

 
“We already know that energy companies, including BP, have been involved in lobbying against tighter shale gas regulation, asking that decisions are taken at state level, rather than being left to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“After all, they have a huge amount to lose if the US suddenly loses its fervour for shale. “The London-listed companies are exposed to the tune of billions: Shell bought up $4.7bn of assets in Marcellus last month, BG Group has a $2bn joint venture with Exco and BP has a $2.5bn partnership with Chesapeke. “They have all piled into shale drilling over the last couple of years, touting the technology as the answer to America’s energy thirst.”

To reinforce the point, Mason notes that BP’s  Tony Hayward  has hailed shale gas as a “complete game changer.”

 BRITAIN BP RESULTS
Yes, that BP and that Tony Hayward—the company and CEO that have dominated the 24-hour news cycle for weeks since one of their drilling rigs ruptured, trigging an oil spill that is devastating the Gulf of Mexico. 
We suspect that a lot more stories—local and international—will be written on the subject in the weeks ahead.  Should be plenty enough to keep the folks over at Energy in Depth quite busy.   Our most recent posts:
NJ Chamber of Commerce elects new directors 
What’s in fracking fluid? Wyoming wants to know 
SRPL nominees before NJ Judiciary panel today 
‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium 

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NJ Chamber of Commerce elects new directors

The members of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, headquartered in Trenton, have elected 12 business leaders to join its Board of Directors.  They are: • Walter Brasch, regional managing partner-NJ, ParenteBeard, was formerly managing partner with Deloitte & Touche and has been a partner at New Jersey-based CPA firms for the past 20 years.

• W. Raymond Felton focuses in the areas of corporate, LLC and securities law at Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis. His emphasis is on mergers & acquisitions and financing transactions through both the public and private equity and debt markets.

• Steven L. Grossberg is responsible for the oversight and development of the Northeast Region of The NIA Group, a Marsh &McLennan Agency LLC company, which ranks as the 12th largest insurance and financial services organization in the country.

• Jack Hoffman has worked for ACS (formerly Lockheed Martin IMS) since 1995. The company operates the E-Pass back-office operations for the toll authorities in the New York-New Jersey region.

• Paul Kalamaras became executive vice president/director of retail banking of Investors Savings Bank on Jan. 1, 2010. Prior to this appointment, he served as senior vice president and director of retail banking.

• Gary Lesneski is the president of Archer & Greiner and chair of both its Labor & Employment Law Department and its Health Care Group. His experience includes counseling and litigation with emphasis on employment at will, contracts, restrictive covenants, regulatory compliance, discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful discharge.

• Scott McLester, executive vice president and general counsel for Wyndham Worldwide, oversees all of the company’s legal activities. As chief compliance officer, he is responsible for overseeing and ensuring the effectiveness of the company’s compliance and ethics programs. As corporate secretary, he is responsible for coordinating activities and communications with the Board of Directors.

• Vito Nardelli, COO at OceanFirst Bank since 2005, has spent 30 years in the financial industry in diverse capacities including management, business development, sales and operations.

• William F. Owen took over as president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on July 1, 2007. He was previously chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis and vice president for health affairs. His academic career includes 25 years of experience with Harvard Medical School and Duke University, and his clinical experience includes 12 years as a clinical and academic staff physician with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

• Ted Zangari is a member of Executive and Management committees at Sills Cummis & Gross. As Chair of the law firm’s Redevelopment Law Practice Group, he oversees billion-dollar redevelopment projects and dozens of smaller ones in both prime and challenging locales.

• B.J. Agugliaro, managing partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ New Jersey Practice, has broad-based accounting, auditing, and business advisory experience with some of the firm’s premier clients, including Corning, Honeywell, IBM, Kodak, L-3 Communications and Xerox.

• Brenda Ross-Dulan is the regional president for Wells Fargo’s Southern New Jersey Region, and is responsible for 150 banking stores with $12 billion deposits. Ross-Dulan also serves as national spokesperson for Wells Fargo’s African American Business Services program.

Our most recent posts:
What’s in fracking fluid? Wyoming wants to know 
SRPL nominees before NJ Judiciary panel today 
‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium 

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What’s in fracking fluid? Wyoming wants to know

fracking fluid - Colorado Independent Colorado Independent

For years, the secret ingredients in fracking fluid have been  better protected than the location of Dick Cheney’s bunker. It seems that Mr. Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, which makes fracking fluid, knows a thing or two about keeping the lid on secrets that might not play well in public.  Especially when the  secret sauce in Halliburton fracking fluid is suspected to contain ingredients that could pose a serious threat to underground aquifers that supply drinking water for millions of residents in Pennsylvania and New York. But that may be changing due to the action of regulators in the state of  Wyoming. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that, on June 8, member’s of Wyoming’s Oil and Gas Commission voted unanimously to adopt new rules requiring oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the process involving the high-pressure injection of water and chemicals into shale rock to release natural gas. 

“Industry organizations and individual companies argued against the new rules, claiming the industry has a proven track record. That point is often countered by others who say lax reporting requirements prevent the public from knowing whether fracking has ever contaminated drinking water sources.”

In the May-June issue of Audubon Magazine, Ted Williams investigates the potential environmental costs of fracking in the Marcellus shale which cuts a wide swath through portions of New York and Pennsylvania.  In his article, Gas Pains, Williams writes:

“A single frack job can require five million gallons of water. Aquatic life is at risk when gas companies dewater streams for fracking and when they store or dispose of used frack water. Not only is the industry allowed to protect the chemical composition of frack water as a trade secret, but under what’s called the “Halliburton Loophole,” fracking is exempt from Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. This was a 2005 gift from then vice president Dick Cheney to the company he used to run. “Something like three-quarters of the frack water stays in the earth, but that which flows back has acquired additional toxins such as salts, xylene, benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, heavy metals, and naturally occurring radioactive material usually consisting of radium isotopes—bone-seeking carcinogens. “Because fracking takes place far below aquifers, groundwater contamination can be prevented by sealing drilling shafts, but the shafts aren’t always properly sealed. For example, in Dimock Township, Pennsylvania, 63 wells drilled by Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas in nine square miles have polluted groundwater and caused private wells to explode, 15 families allege in a lawsuit. Last November the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fined Cabot $120,000 and ordered it to provide permanent water supplies to affected families.”

It’s notable that Wyoming, a state that has had a long and friendly relationship with the drilling industry, is the first to require that the contents of fracking fluid be disclosed.

It could be a harbinger of things to come.
New York State is working on new regulations to govern natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.  Pennsylvania’s government has lagged but is now showing signs of stirring from its regulatory slumber.  Meanwhile, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has launched a full-scale study of fracking and its environmental consequences.

Time will tell how far any of these new initiatives will go, but as long as the BP debacle in the Gulf drags on and fracking wells keep leaking and exploding in the Marcellus Shale, the change could be significant.  
Related:
‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium  Fracking the Marcellus Shale: Disaster ahead?  
Out-of-control well spews–in Pennsylvania 
Don’t worry, shale gas will rock your world 

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SRPL nominees before NJ Judiciary panel today

Site Remediation Professional program logo
The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee today will consider the following nominations, submitted by Governor Chris Christie, for positions on the Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board: Jorge H. Berkowitz  of Rosemont,
Philip I. Brilliant of Beachwood
Lawra Dodge of North Brunswick
Constantine Costas Tsentas of Flemington
Ira L. Whitman of East Brunswick

The Committee will meet at 10 a.m. in Committee Room 6 on the first floor  of the State House Annex building in Trenton. Our most recent posts:
‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium 
More rulemaking changes weighed in New Jersey 
Chamber exec gets new green jobs post at NJDEP 

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‘Gasland’ – Do the pictures tell the fracking story?

The natural gas industry’s efforts to assure the public of the safety of  pumping millions of gallons of  water and chemicals into the ground beneath homes and farms is getting more difficult thanks to an independent film called Gasland.

Filmmaker Josh Fox tells us that the idea for the documentary started when a gas drilling company offered his family $4700 an acre for some ‘non-invasive’ drilling below his Pennsylvania property. 

Fox wanted to know more hydrofracturing (fracking, for short), the process used to blast the gas out of  subsurface shale rock. But he couldn’t find much written about it. So he went online and followed the headlines. His research took him to the town of Dimock, Pa where bad things started happening to property owners after Cabot Oil began drilling and fracking.    
Fox taped an interview with a homeowner whose water turned color, then started smelling bad. Then her cat started projectile vomiting and her horse started losing hair.  She contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection. They told her she was cleaning with too much Lysol.  She must have wondered if this wasn’t just something happening to her.  Then neighbors returned home on New Year’s Day, 2009 and found their water well had exploded.
Shaken by what he found, Fox went on the road to learn more about natural gas fracking. He wanted to find out if Dimock was the exception rater than the rule.  He discovered that fracking was being used in 34 states.  Water and health problems were turning up in many places where it was being used.
In Colorado, he visited a man who turned on his kitchen faucet, put a cigarette lighter alongside the water stream and , in seconds, the water ignited.  Yes, the water ignited.

Interview with  NOW on PBS’s David Brancaccio
Fox says that half of the fracking water injected into the ground is not pulled back to the surface.  What happens to it?  What’s its effect on water supplies?  Will the short-term benefits of a home-grown energy supply balance out potential long-term damages if the drinking water sources for millions of residents in New York City and Philadelphia are compromised ?
The film raises these questions.  And others. Like why is natural gas drilling exempt from federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act?   
Gasland has won several notable film awards and its backers are setting up screenings in numerous towns where fracking is either in use or planned.  They’re spreading the word on blog sites and through the news media. 

What must be most upsetting for the natural gas industry and its lobbyists is the fact that HBO will broadcast Gasland nationally on Monday, June 21 at 9 p.m. (EDT).  
The film’s supporters are encouraging people to invite their friends for screening parties.
The gas industry says the film is biased and inaccurate.   They say it is unfair to landowners who, in difficult economic times, may be deprived of an opportunity to make money from property leases.  They point to natural gas as a way to lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign energy supplies.  They call it a ‘bridge fuel’ that will keep America’s economy running until the day that the great promise of solar and wind energy can be realized.
Joint Landowners Coalition of New York ‘debunks’ Gasland  
What do you think?  We recommend that you watch Gasland on Tuesday night.   Then read the industry’s side of the story.  Then make up your own mind.  We also hope that you’ll share your opinions here, using the box below.  
Related:
Film challenges safety of U.S. shale gas drilling 
Documentary should be required viewing for Pa. legislators 
Gasland premier in Binghamton, NY 
Drilling Poses Risk To Pennsylvania Water Supplies

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