EnviroPolitics Blog

JCP&L gets green light to sell off its share in tainted plant, home to nation’s worst nuclear power disaster

NJ customers off the hook for cleanup at Three Mile Island reactor site

Credit: (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)File photo: Three Mile Island nuclear power plant

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

Forty-one years after Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 partially melted down, customers of Jersey Central Power & light are almost off the hook for any liability stemming from the decommissioning of that nuclear reactor.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday approved the sale of JCP&L’s 25% interest in the plant to Energy Solutions, a Utah-based company, for $10,000. As part of the deal, customers of New Jersey’s second-largest utility will be absolved of any liability in cleaning up from the accident in 1979, the nation’s worst accident at a nuclear power plant.

The board approved the purchase with scant discussion. Ratepayers already have paid $900 million — $239 million by JCP&L customers — to decommission the plant, although the current owner projected earlier this year it could cost $1.3 billion to dismantle the plant.

“This will end all liability from JCP&L ratepayers to TMI-2,’’ said Stacy Peterson, director of BPU’s Division of Energy. “All liabilities are done.’’

In the petition, JCP&L asserted the transfer of the TMI assets for the $10,000 purchase price is appropriate consideration based upon an assessment of the assumed liabilities and estimated cost of decommissioning.

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Amid political strife in Kashmir, fear of attacks from wild animals

Kashmiri girl Muskan, 14, displays outside her home an axe that the family carries with them when they go outdoors at night to protect themselves from wild animals, at Dardkhor village, outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals. According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

By MUKHTAR KHAN Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals.

According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. Above, Saleema Bano, 58, a Kashmiri woman who survived an attack by a wild bear, poses for a photograph inside her house at Ladhoo village, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug . 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

The Himalayan black bear is at the heart of this trouble. Experts say over 80% of the deaths and maulings are due to attacks by black bears.

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Solar systems, enviro-funding before NJ panel

The New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste committee will meet at 1 p.m. on Monday, December 7 to consider the following bills:

A4397 – Allows installation of residential solar energy systems prior to obtaining construction permit or interconnection approval during COVID-19 emergency.

S2606 – Allows installation of residential solar energy systems prior to obtaining construction permit or interconnection approval during COVID-19 emergency.

A5053 – Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding for FY2021 to include new projects and modify estimated loan amounts for certain projects; modifies terms and conditions for certain loans utilizing federal funds.

A5054 – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2021; modifies terms and conditions for certain loan utilizing federal funds.

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Catherine McCabe, NJDEP’s commissioner, retiring on Jan. 15

NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe will be retiring on Jan. 15, 2021.

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe plans to retire effective Jan. 15, ending a three-year stint during which she sought to spur more aggressive action by the agency in fighting climate change and tackling problems faced by environmental justice communities.

McCabe announced her departure Tuesday in an early morning e-mail, telling staff she had advised Gov. Phil Murphy of plans to retire early next year. “As with all personal milestones for me, this was a family decision,’’ the note said, while expressing an interest to spend more time with her children and grandchildren.

In a news release by the governor’s office, Murphy said he will announce a successor in the coming weeks. The odds-on favorite appears to be Shawn LaTourette, a deputy commissioner and chief of staff at DEP, who sources said has had a key role in running the agency over recent months.

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Other McCabe coverage:
DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe to Retire (NJ Business Magazine)
LaTourette may be early front runner for Environmental Protection cabinet post (NJ Globe)
Catherine McCabe, the state’s top environmental regulator, to retire (NorthJersey.com)

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Trump threatens to veto major defense bill unless Congress repeals a legal shield for tech giants like Facebook. Google and Twitter

By Tony Romm, Washington Post

President Trump on Tuesday threatened to veto an annual defense bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in military spending unless Congress opens the door for Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to be held legally liable for the way they police their platforms.

Trump delivered his ultimatum — calling for the repeal of a federal law known as Section 230 — in a pair of late-night tweets that transformed a critical national security debate into a political war over his unproved allegations that Silicon Valley’s technology giants exhibit systemic bias against conservatives.

“Section 230, which is a liability shielding gift from the U.S. to ‘Big Tech’ (the only companies in America that have it — corporate welfare!), is a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity,” Trump tweeted.

Unless the “very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),” Trump continued, “I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill when sent to the very beautiful Resolute desk.”

Section 230: The little law that defined how the Internet works

FCC push to rethink legal protections for tech giants marks major turn amid months of political pressure

Section 230 is a broad, decades-old federal law that spares a wide array of sites and services from being held liable for the content posted by their users — and, in the process, the decisions about the posts, photos and videos that tech companies take down or leave online. It is considered one of the Web’s foundational laws, crafted in large part to facilitate free expression digitally.

Many lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — increasingly have come to question whether the protections are outdated, conferring legal immunity on tech giants at a time when they have failed to crack down on hate speech, election disinformation and other harmful content online. But Trump and his Republican allies have seized on the debate to advance their arguments that Facebook, Google, Twitter and others should be penalized for exhibiting systemic political bias against conservatives — a charge for which they have provided scant evidence, and one that tech giants long have denied.

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Joe Biden taps adviser who ties gasoline price to emissions

President Obama high-fiving Jared Bernstein in 2010. President-elect Joe Biden named Bernstein to the Council of Economic Advisers. Pete Souza/White House/Flickr

By Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter

President-elect Joe Biden’s financial policy will be shaped — at least in part — by an economic adviser who believes fossil fuels are “severely underpriced” because they don’t consider the harm caused by climate change.

Biden announced yesterday that Jared Bernstein would be one of three members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Bernstein previously served as Biden’s economic adviser during his vice presidency, from 2009 to 2011, and was a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank in Washington.

If his past comments are any guide, Bernstein will be the leading climate voice in the group.

Bernstein has argued that there hasn’t been a proper accounting of the economic harm caused by climate change and that bold ideas — such as the Green New Deal — are necessary to address the real cost of human-caused global warming.

In a piece published last year by Vox, he wrote that a true accounting of climate change means making corporations responsible for “polluting the environment pay for the damage they’re doing to the rest of us.”

“If the price system isn’t picking up the true cost of the damage and short-sighted people — which is most of us — are okay with that, then there’s a role for government to realign the higher social cost of fossil fuels with its lower actual cost,” he wrote.

Bernstein will be part of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, which will be chaired by Cecilia Rouse. Rouse, who must be Senate-confirmed, is the dean of the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs and would be the first Black woman and the fourth woman overall to lead the CEA.

The third member will be Heather Boushey, president and co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. As the name suggests, the Council of Economic Advisers shapes the president’s financial policy.

Biden’s economic policy advisers are part of a “dream team,” Jason Furman, the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in a Twitter post.

Bernstein “is a keen analyst and passionate advocate for working people who is also trusted and respected across the political spectrum. He brings macro, trade, labor & more to the role,” Furman wrote.

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