NJ Gov. Murphy: Lawmakers ‘protected’ opioid manufacturers by not taxing them in state budget

Daniel J. Munoz reports for NJBIZ
June 25, 2019 3:14 pm

Gov. Phil Murphy doubled down on his push for lawmakers to include $21.5 million from opioid manufacturer fees in his budget, suggesting the Legislature has sided with those manufacturers for nixing the proposed fees.

Gov. Phil Murphy makes the case for opioid manufacturer fees to be put back into the state’s 2020 budget in Ewing on June 25, 2019. – DANIEL J. MUNOZ

“The Legislature’s budget gives them a pass. The Legislature has protected the opioid industry’s interests and profits,” Murphy said at a press conference in Ewing on Tuesday, where he was flanked by Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson and outgoing Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

The Murphy administration said revenue from the fees would help bolster the state’s existing $100 million anti-opioid programs.

Murphy’s proposal would levy a $250,000 fee against manufacturers and wholesalers who “sell, deliver or distributed” up to one million units of opioids, $1 million for those who produce between one million and two million units of opioids, and $5 million for anyone who deals with over five million units of opioids.

“This omission leads one to ask the very simple question… whose side are you on?” Murphy added.

The offices of Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Critics of the opioid manufacturers’ fee opined that the costs would ultimately be passed down to the patients, but Johnson and Elnahol disagreed, arguing that programs such as the state’s medical marijuana system would wean patients off opioids to the point that opioids are not prescribed to patients in the first place.

The state Legislature’s $38.7 billion budget includes the majority of what Murphy wanted – “90-something percent,” the governor said at a press conference Monday in Newark.

But it cuts out roughly a half billion dollars of revenue from a so-called “millionaire’s tax” – $30 million from a $125 corporate responsibility fee” on certain employers whose workers enroll in Medicaid, $1.4 million from the proposed firearms fee and $3.2 million from the proposed ammunition fee.

At a June 21 press conference, the governor flexed his constitutional gubernatorial authority: the ability to line-item veto specific spending priorities in the $38.7 billion budget the Legislature sent him if lawmakers do not approve a millionaire’s tax.

With a June 30 deadline, Murphy has the option to line-item veto spending proposals in the budget and then approve the spending plan—an alternative to an outright refusal to sign the state budget which would prompt a government shutdown.

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After eight years in the wings, offshore wind energy is moving to center stage in New Jersey

Offshore wind
Credit: Zoltan Tasi/Unsplash

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

With Friday’s largest ever award for offshore-wind capacity to Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project, New Jersey signaled it will be a major, if not dominant, player in the sector rapidly developing along the Eastern Seaboard.

The selection of the $1.6 billion, 1,100-megawatt project about 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City is significant in not only being the largest single offshore-wind project ever awarded in this country, but also its cost came in lower than many expected.

Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project established a first-year price of $98.10 per megawatt hour for the subsidy provided by ratepayers, dubbed an OREC (offshore renewable energy certificate). That compares with an OREC offered in Maryland, priced at $170 for a wind project there, and less expensive than a project in Massachusetts.

For New Jersey ratepayers, however, the actual cost paid will be far less — $46.46 MWh — when the energy and capacity revenue produced by the wind farm is refunded to utility customers. It means the estimated monthly impact will be an increase of $1.46 for residential, $13.05 for commercial, and $110.10 for industrial customers, according to the state Board of Public Utilities, which approved the project on Friday.

Cost is less than anticipated

“That is very low; I am surprised,’’ said Lyle Rawlings, founder of Advanced Solar Products, a firm that has been involved in setting New Jersey’s agenda to have 100 percent clean energy by 2050. “It’s excellent for ratepayers in moving toward a renewable energy future.

It also could be important in moving forward on other solicitations for offshore wind in New Jersey with the next one involving 1,200 MW scheduled for next year, and then another 1,200 MW in 2022. Gov. Phil Murphy has set a goal of 3,500 MW of offshore-wind capacity by 2030.

“Today’s historic announcement will revolutionize the offshore wind industry here in New Jersey and along the entire East Coast,’’ said Murphy in an announcement from his press office. “This award is a monumental step in making New Jersey a global leader in offshore wind development and deployment.’’

Liz Burdock, CEO and president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said the action by New Jersey will accelerate the development of the supply chain and begin the process of bringing offshore-wind manufacturing to New Jersey and the rest of the country.

Thomas Brostrom

Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind

Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind, agreed. “Wind will ensure that the state and its residents not only benefit from clean renewable power, but that they reap the rewards of being an early mover at scale in the offshore wind industry as it grows in the U.S.,’’ he said.

The Ocean Wind project, being developed with support from PSEG, the owner of the state’s largest utility, is projected to create 15,000 jobs and generate $1.17 billion in economic development for New Jersey, according to BPU president Joseph Fiordaliso. “I think New Jersey wound up in a very good place as far as price is concerned,’’ he said, following the unanimous vote.

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Sanders to propose canceling entire $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loan debt

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the crowd during the 2019 South Carolina Democratic Party State Convention on June 22. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

 Jeff Stein reports for the Washington Post – June 23, 11:07 PM

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will propose on Monday eliminating all $1.6 trillion of student debt held in the United States, a significant escalation of the policy fight in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary two days before the candidates’ first debate in Miami.

Sanders is proposing the federal government pay to wipe clean the student debt held by 45 million Americans — including all private and graduate school debt — as part of a package that also would make public universities, community colleges and trade schools tuition-free.

Sanders is proposing to pay for these plans with a tax on Wall Street his campaign says will raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years, though some tax experts give lower revenue estimates.

Sanders will be joined Monday by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who will introduce legislation in the House to eliminate all student debt in the United States, as well as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has championed legislation to make public universities tuition-free.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) will introduce student debt legislation in the House.
(Susan Walsh/AP)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has promoted legislation to make public universities tuition-free. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Sanders helped popularize demands for tuition-free college during his 2016 presidential campaign run but did less to emphasize solutions for those who had already left school saddled with debt. Since then, liberal Democratic lawmakers have called for increasingly aggressive government solutions for erasing existing student debt, with 2020 candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) proposing $640 billion in student debt forgiveness and former housing secretary Julián Castro introducing a more modest debt forgiveness plan.

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Supreme Court rules landowner can skip state court and file federal suit in property-rights case

In this Sept. 21, 2018 file photo, Pennsylvania resident Rose Mary Knick stands next to a private property sign on her farmland in Lackawanna County. The Supreme Court is siding with Knick in a case that gives citizens another avenue to pursue claims when they believe states and local governments have harmed their property rights. (Jessica Gresko/AP)

By Jessica Gresko | AP – June 21

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday to allow people to sue in federal court when they believe states and local governments have harmed their property rights, handing a victory to a Pennsylvania woman fighting her town over a cemetery ordinance.

The high court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines in favor of Rose Mary Knick. She tried to bring a lawsuit in federal court after her town passed an ordinance that requires anyone with a cemetery on their land to open it to the public during the day.

A town official found several grave markers on Knick’s farmland in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County, but she disputes whether there’s actually a small, family cemetery on her 90-acre property .

Regardless, Knick argued that in adopting the ordinance in 2012 and applying it to her, local officials were, in essence, taking her property and opening it to the public without paying her for it.

A federal court threw out Knick’s case, ruling she had to go to state court first. But after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Knick will be able to pursue her case in federal court.

Property owners with complaints like Knick’s would often prefer to pursue their cases in federal court, Knick’s lawyers have said, because they may view them as more neutral or objective than state courts, which are sometimes seen as being influenced by local politics.

Local governments previously had the power to take a case like Knick’s that was filed in state court and move it to federal court, but citizens didn’t have the option to begin their cases in federal court.

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Pennsylvania Senators Casey and Toomey back PFAS bills in Congress

Pennsylvania Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey

Kyle Bagenstose  reports for the Bucks County Courier-Times

U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey have thrown their weight behind a package of policies aimed at addressing nationwide contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, their offices said Thursday.

The policies, if ultimately passed, would have significant implications for one of the country’s preeminent environmental issues. The unregulated chemicals have been found in the drinking water of tens of millions of Americans, including at nationally high levels in several Bucks and Montgomery County water supplies. The policies now being pushed by Casey, Toomey and colleagues would require the Environmental Protection Agency to set a federal drinking water standard for two of the most hazardous PFAS substances within two years, require that manufacturers report how much PFAS they release into the environment, and give financial and strategic aid to states and towns, among other measures.

The policies are a sign of crucial bipartisan appetite to act on PFAS in Congress. Earlier this year, the EPA released a “PFAS Action Plan” and administrator Andrew Wheeler announced his “intention” to regulate the chemicals in drinking water and the environment.

But residents of impacted communities and many environmental groups decried the plan as lacking firm commitments and deadlines. It appears those feelings have spilled over into Congress, which held numerous committee hearings on the chemicals this year.

In a prepared statement, Toomey particularly touted parts of the package that would add PFAS to a list of chemicals addressed by the Toxic Release Inventory, an EPA data program that publicly displays what chemicals are being released from industrial sites, as well as language that requires the EPA to develop guidance on how to dispose of PFAS.

“All Pennsylvanians — particularly the residents of Bucks and Montgomery counties — should be fully aware of any risks associated with PFAS in drinking water,” said Toomey, R-Allentown. “The EPA’s Action Plan announced earlier this year is a step in the right direction, but this bipartisan measure will do more to inform impacted communities through increased accountability and transparency.”

Casey also touted the measures.

“Listing PFAS on the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory will help us better understand how PFAS enters our environment and will further our remediation efforts,” Casey, D-Scranton, said in a prepared statement. “I support efforts to get to the root sources of PFAS contamination and chart a path forward to getting PFAS below toxic levels in our environment and ensuring Pennsylvanians have clean water.”

The proposed policies are following the same path that PFAS advocates in Congress used in prior years to make headway on addressing the chemicals. On Thursday, the policies were packaged together and approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, one of two must-pass military spending bills.

There’s still a long road ahead: The amendments must survive deal-making and a final vote in the full Senate and House, and then the process must be repeated again in a separate appropriations bill. But the strategy wound up a winner in years past when Casey, Toomey, and colleagues such as U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-2, of Philadelphia, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1, of Middletown, helped push through tens of millions of dollars in funding for PFAS cleanup and a nationwide health study by tagging them on the appropriations bills.

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House passes bill to prevent oil drilling in the Everglades

But not a single Republican voted for the larger spending bill of which the initiative was a part, making its passage in the Republican-controlled Senate uncertain.

House passes bill to prevent oil drilling in the Everglades
An airboat travels through the Everglades. (Susan Stocker / South Florida Sun-Sentinel )

By DAVID FLESHLER | SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL 

An initiative to thwart an oil drilling plan in the Everglades passed the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday, putting a potential hurdle in front of a controversial project proposed for western Broward County.

But not a single Republican voted for the larger spending bill of which the initiative was a part, making its passage in the Republican-controlled Senate appear uncertain.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat whose district covers parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, proposed the initiative as an amendment to a spending bill for federal agencies involved in energy and water.

“We must do all we possibly can to protect our sensitive River of Grass,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Wednesday. “Drilling within the Everglades Protection Area is reckless, rapacious and symbolizes just how much those who advocate for the senseless pursuit of fossil fuels will risk, even if it destroys our most treasured ecosystems. It’s absurd it even has to be said, but we must fight any drilling in the Everglades.”

John Kanter, president of the company, declined comment.

The amendment would impose a one-year moratorium on the issuance of wetlands permits by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Broward portion of the Everglades. The moratorium would last from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020.

Kanter Real Estate LLC, which has won a series of court fights over its proposal for an exploratory well in western Broward County, needs a Corps permit to destroy wetlands on the site.

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