Six key energy-related provisions in the Federal Omnibus Budget Bill

By Arthur J. Harrington , Godfrey & Kahn S.C.

On Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed the Federal Omnibus Budget Bill. Several energy-related provisions are contained in this legislation. 

The following are highlights from the six most impactful energy-related provisions:

  1. Renewable energy: The legislation extends tax credits for solar with a two-year extension and extends the sunset provisions of onshore wind by one year, but failed to include tax incentives for stand-alone battery storage systems.

  2. Building efficiencies: The legislation encourages the use of energy and water efficiency measures in federal buildings, including the use of smart meters. The legislation also includes a directive to the Secretary of Energy to establish a rebate program to replace electric motors and transformers that are inefficient. Additionally, the legislation extends the Weatherization Assistance Program to 2025 for eligible low-income households.

  3. Research and development (R&D) provision for renewable energy: The legislation contains numerous provisions enhancing the research function for the Department of Energy (DOE) in the following areas: geothermal, wind and solar as well as grid integration for these technologies. 

  4. Hydroelectric incentives: The legislation extends the incentives for hydroelectric production and efficiency authorized originally in the Energy Act of 2005 and extends those incentives through 2036.

  5. Renewables in federal land: The legislation imposes a goal on the Secretary of the Interior to set national goals for renewable energy on federal land with a target of 25 gigawatts of energy generation from solar, wind and geothermal technologies on such lands by 2025.
  6. Grid modernization: There are numerous programs authorizing the Department of Energy (DOE) to undertake measures to improve smart and reliable grid innovation. The legislation establishes an Advisory Committee for DOE to make recommendations to identify R&D needs for grid modernization technologies. Further, the DOE is directed to establish programs to authorize micro-grid systems for use in isolated rural communities.

This legislation is massive in scope and size and represents the most significant energy legislation enacted by the federal government in more than a decade. 

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Unemployment benefits and one-time checks: What to know about the new stimulus in Pennsylvania

Outdoor dining at Parc on Rittenhouse Square
Outdoor dining at Parc on Rittenhouse Square. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

By Miles Bryan, WHYY

Most taxpayers are set to receive a one-time payment of $600 and several unemployment programs will be restarted now that President Donald Trump has signed the second coronavirus stimulus bill.

The $900 billion package provides a $300-a-week subsidy to all workers receiving unemployment, on top of their regular benefits. It also renews two programs created in March by the CARES Act: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for freelancers, the self-employed, and others who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment; and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which extends benefits to workers after state aid has run out. Over the weekend, more than half a million Pennsylvanians temporarily lost their unemployment benefits as those programs expired.

That wasn’t supposed to happen: Lawmakers in DC passed the stimulus bill with bipartisan support on Dec. 21. But Trump held up the bill over his demand that the one-time payments be increased from $600 to $2000. Sunday night, the incumbent relented and added his signature to the legislation as is. The House passed a bill Monday to authorize larger payments as President Trump requested. The move is likely to die in the senate.

If you’re wondering when your check will arrive, what’s up with your unemployment, or what else taxpayers should expect from the new program, here’s what you need to know.

Who’s getting the checks?

If you received a $1,200 stimulus check last spring, you should get the $600 one this time around.

The payments will go to every taxpaying adult earning up to $75,000. Those earning between $75,000 and $99,000 will get smaller checks. Most people who earn more than that are not eligible for the money.

Individuals with dependent children will get an additional $600 per child.

When will I get the money?

The timing is a little hazy.

After this second stimulus passed Congress, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said people could start to see the money hitting their bank accounts via direct deposit within a few days. 

After the CARES Act passed in March, however, it took about two weeks for people to start receiving funds via direct deposit.

And millions who don’t file taxes, mostly people with lower incomes, waited months for their checks to arrive.

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New rules to curb global warming pollution from power plants, smaller boilers, and vehicles are being drafted by New Jersey

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight

The proposals, expected to be published this spring by the Department of Environmental Protection, stem from a nearly year-old executive order by Gov. Phil Murphy aimed at helping achieve the goals of a new Energy Master Plan and the more than decade-old Global Warming Response Act (GWRA).

The Energy Master Plan provides a blueprint to transition New Jersey to a clean-energy economy and the GWRA directs the state to reduce carbon pollution by 80% below 2006 levels by 2050 as a way of fighting climate change. The emerging rules are part of a new effort by the DEP to achieve both goals in what has been dubbed Protecting Against Climate Threats (NJ PACT).

While short on specifics, DEP staffers gave a broad outline last week on how the state intends to crack down on both so-called stationary sources of global warming pollution — like power plants and commercial and industrial boilers — and mobile sources, such as medium- and heavy-duty trucks that primarily rely on fossil fuels to move goods around.

For instance, the department plans to establish new limits for carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas pollutant, for existing power plants, otherwise called electric generating units (EGUs) in agency jargon. The yet-to-be-set limits would ratchet down over time, according to Kenneth Ratman, assistant director of air quality planning and monitoring at the DEP.

Boilers, a heated issue

The agency also expects to propose a rule that would phase out older, smaller boilers (less than 5 million British Thermal Units) that use fossil fuels. The impact of such a rule would be significant, potentially affecting apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and other facilities, according to business lobbyists.

“It is going to affect an awful lot of people at a huge cost,’’ said Raymond Cantor, a vice president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. “I don’t think the boiler issue has been well-vetted.’’

Dennis Hart, executive director of the Chemistry Industry Council, agreed, saying it “costs a fortune for industry to replace those boilers.’’ Among other things, the rule would require owners of fleets of boilers to submit a boiler fleet report and replace smaller, older fossil fuel combustion boilers with non-fossil fuel boilers.

With the state transitioning from use of fossil fuels to cleaner but more costly alternatives, critics argued the department needs to begin prioritizing what new costs the public and businesses must absorb from these programs.

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Military, Delaware to pay $3.6M for cleanup of former landfill

EPA performed a cleanup of the former landfill to mitigate releases of lead-contaminated soils and sediment into the Delaware River.

Posted by Adam Redling, Recycling Today

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Dec. 16 that the U.S. Department of Defense and the state of Delaware have agreed to reimburse EPA $3,590,985 for its cleanup of a former landfill near the Governor Bacon Health Center and the Fort DuPont State Park in Delaware City.

The U.S. Army owned and operated the Fort DuPont military base from the 1860s to 1947. Fort DuPont served as a Civil War gun battery; a World War I era field training, proving ground and target practice site; and a World War II artillery base and prisoner of war camp. Operators began dumping waste at the site as early as 1937. The Army also operated an incinerator adjacent to the landfill.

In 1947, the site was transferred to the state, which opened the Governor Bacon Health Center in 1948. The state is the current owner of the 380-acre property.

EPA performed a cleanup of the former landfill from April 2014 to March 2015 to mitigate releases of lead-contaminated soils and sediment into the Delaware River.

The proposed consent decree filed in federal district court in Wilmington on Dec. 16 requires Delaware to pay $1,889,992 and the U.S. Department of Defense to pay $1,700,993 to reimburse EPA for its cleanup costs.

The agreement was reached under the federal Superfund law—formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)—which requires landowners, waste generators and waste transporters responsible for contaminating a Superfund site to clean up the site or to reimburse the government or other parties for cleanup activities.

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Frozen whale a challenge to remove from LBI beach

By Wayne Perry, Associated Press

NEW JERSEY – Authorities and marine mammal rescuers are trying to figure out how to get a 15-ton, frozen-solid dead whale off a New Jersey beach.

The 31-foot male humpback whale washed ashore near the inlet in Barnegat Light on Christmas day. 

Bon Schoelkopf, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, said its cause of death was unknown, but there were no obvious physical signs of injury on the parts of it that are visible.

Because the animal has been exposed to freezing temperatures for an extended period, it cannot be cut up and removed piecemeal, which is the usual way large whales are disposed of in similar situations. That was the way the stranding center removed a large whale that washed ashore in Toms River in April 2017 when temperatures were warmer.

“It’s frozen solid,” Schoelkopf said. “There’s not much we can do. Cutting into a frozen whale like that isn’t going to be easy.”

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Schoelkopf said his team is looking for an off-site location to move to whale, so that a necropsy can be done to determine its cause of death before the remains are buried somewhere.

There are two front-end loaders on the beach that will be used to try to remove the whale.

“It has to be moved whole,” he said.

The whale is located just off the rock jetty of the Barnegat Inlet at Barnegat Light State Park, where one of the Jersey Shore’s iconic lighthouses is located.

Whale watching boats had spotted the whale alive earlier this year in Sandy Hook Bay, where it had been photographed feeding, Schoelkopf said.

In September, a different humpback whale was found dead off the Jersey Shore after being entangled.

Another dead humpback whale was found floating off Cape May in November.

Anyone visiting the area should stay clear, Schoelkopf said, because of possibility for diseases to be in the carcass.

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