Dino Grandoni writes in The Lightbulb (Washington Post) April 17 at 7:59 AM
Former interior secretary Ryan Zinke. (Cliff Owen/AP)
Three months after leaving the top post of the department that oversees mining on public lands, Ryan Zinke is taking a position at a gold mining firm.
U.S. Gold announced Tuesday that it has appointed the former interior secretary to its board of directors.
The path from a president’s Cabinet to the corporate boardroom is a common one. President Barack Obama’s two interior secretaries, Sally Jewell and Ken Salazar, serve on the board of directors for, respectively, the insurance company Symetra and the big-box retailer Target.
Still, by appointing Zinke, this small Nevada-based gold mining firm is trying to give itself a leg up in dealing with the federal government as it explores for gold and other precious metals out West.
U.S. Gold’s chief executive, Edward Karr, acknowledged as much when announcing the appointment, citing in a statement Zinke’s “in-depth knowledge of the governmental regulatory and permitting process for mining and exploration companies.”
In tandem with his position on the board of directors, Zinke was retained by U.S. Gold as a government relations consultant, for which the company will pay him $90,000 per year.
But for now, Zinke’s work for U.S. Gold is constained by “revolving door” law. He is prohibited from communicating with his old colleagues to influence policy during a two-year “cooling off” period.
“I don’t lobby,” Zinke told the Associated Press. “I just follow the law, so I don’t talk to anybody on the executive side.”
Zinke channeled his old boss’s campaign slogan in his own statement: “I am excited to work closely with management and the Board to help make mining great again in America.”
Among mining companies, U.S. Gold is small, with a $20 million valuation and two plays in north-central Nevada and southeast Wyoming. As of January of this year, none of the company’s properties contain proven and probable reserves of gold and other precious metals it is seeking to extract, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This is the second post-administration job for Zinke, who just two weeks after resigning from office in January became a managing director of the technology and energy investment firm Artillery One.
Zinke left the Interior Department amid numerous investigations into potential conflicts of interest.
Past DEC Smart Growth funds helped Mountain Top Arboretum in the Catskills complete a new education center in order to accommodate larger groups and expand educational programming.
DEC, in partnership with the Department of State and the Adirondack Park Agency, is soliciting applications for projects that will link environmental protection, economic development, and community livability within the special conditions of the Parks. The focus for this round of applications is age-friendly communities.
Funding for this round of Community Smart Growth Grants is provided by the Environmental Protection Fund and includes $1,050,000 for Adirondack Park projects and $400,000 for projects in the Catskill Park. The Request for Applications is available through the NYS Grants Gateway and the deadline to apply is 3 p.m. June 7, 2019. For more information on the grant, visit DEC’s website.
The Ocean County attorney and Republican political boss charged with more than $1 million in tax evasion was found guilty of three of six counts by federal jury and not guilty on two others.
George Gilmore, 69, of Toms River, was found guilty of two counts of failing to file payroll taxes for employees and one count of making a false statement on a loan application, the U.S Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said. He was found not guilty of two counts of filing a a false tax return.
A jury sitting in federal court in Trenton could’t reach a verdict on a charge of tax evasion against Gilmore and declared a hung jury following a trial that lasted more than two weeks.
His attorney Kevin Marino said Gilmore “has no intention of resigning” as head of Ocean County Republican Party, after the verdict was announced. “The jury has flatly rejected the centerpiece of the government’s case.”
Gilmore will be sentenced July 23. Each count of failing to file payroll taxes comes with a maximum five year sentence. The maximum penalty for lying on a loan application.
Authorities charged Gilmore with concealing money and dodging tax payments to fund lavish vacations, home renovations and a collection of rare items that ranged from model trains and animal tusks.
Gilmore was charged in January and faced six counts, the most serious of which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.
His defense argued the whole case is a misunderstanding. Gilmore, a partner and shareholder in the Toms River firm Gilmore & Monahan, had a pattern of paying his taxes late along with interest and penalty, but never meant to conceal his earnings.
State lawmakers are considering giving out roughly half-a-billion dollars a year in subsidies Pennsylvania’s nuclear power industry. How much would it cost you?
Marie Cusick reports for StateImpact APRIL 16, 2019 | 08:00 AM
Two bills under consideration, HB 11 and SB 510, differ in some respects. However, both are aimed at preventing the premature closure of Exelon’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor, which is scheduled to close this fall, and FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley plant, set to close in 2021.
Here’s how much the House bill would add to Pennsylvania electric customers’ bills each year:
HB 11 sponsor Rep. Thomas Mehaffie (R- Dauphin) put out his own (lower) cost estimate, but these numbers come from the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate an agency tasked with representing the interests of Pennsylvania utility customers before state and federal utility regulators and in court. The amounts shown represent the annual impact of HB 11 during reporting year 2019.
The Office of Consumer Advocate has not yet completed an analysis of the Senate bill. You can read more of their review of the financial impacts of HB 11 here, here, and here.
The constant flow of contaminated liquid, known as leachate, simmers at the heart of a long-running legal battle between local officials and Waste Industries, a North Carolina corporation that agreed in 1999 to take over day-to-day operations of the Decatur County Landfill.
When the county operated the landfill, it served as the local dump for small towns and rural communities in Decatur County.
But under new management, Waste Industries’ subsidiary Waste Services of Decatur, the landfill began accepting “special wastes” – defined as “difficult or dangerous” to manage.
The industrial waste comes with higher “tipping fees” for the landfill company than household trash, making the landfill more profitable.
That special waste, accumulated over the years, created a costly toxic challenge: Mixed with rainfall, hundreds of gallons of harmful leachate must be hauled from the site for treatment.
Waste Industries claims it costs them $1 million each year to treat the leachate.
‘A lot of the damage has already been done’
For the past two years, the company has tried to walk away from the landfill, claiming it is no longer their responsibility. In a lawsuit against the county, they sought about $8 million. The county’s annual budget is $12 million.
A federal judge ruled against them. And, in March, the judge ruled the county can go forward with a lawsuit against the company that claims it violated federal environmental rules.
The dispute could prove a harbinger for other communities that have, on their own or through outsourced landfill operators, accepted special waste.
Altogether, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has approved 3,885 permits for special waste to be deposited in 85 Tennessee landfills in the past three years.
They include contaminated soils from acid leaks, nuclear plant auxiliary building basement sump water, asbestos floor tiles and coal ash that combine with garbage hauled from local households.
In Decatur County, Waste Industries accepted approximately 640,000 tons of smelting waste from aluminum companies seeking to dispose of industrial byproducts, according to legal filings.
Mike Lisiewski, the owner of Brighton Beach Surf Shop in Long Beach. (AARON HOUSTON)
One year ago a statewide ban on plastic bags seemed all but certain. A Democrat — Gov. Phil Murphy — took the helm of New Jersey for the first time in eight years. And with Democrats also holding solid majorities in both the Assembly and state Senate, the sky was the limit for environmental activists.
But 15 months later momentum on those efforts has flagged, with the proposed plastic bag ban — Senate Bill 2776 — stalling in the state Legislature. New York beat New Jersey to the punch as the first East Coast state to enact a ban on plastic bags; California and Hawaii are the only other states with prohibitions in place.
“To some degree, the New York ban was a thunder clap from above. New York’s ban is clearly a shot in the arm for the New Jersey legislature’s effort to ban single-use plastics,” said Doug O’Malley, executive director of Environment New Jersey. “Suddenly New Jersey won’t be the guinea pig on the East Coast for banning single-use plastics.”
Lawmakers originally sent Murphy a bill enacting a five cent fee on plastic bags, which the governor vetoed in August. Environmentalists praised the move, worried that if the bill was enacted the state would end up counting on the revenue from the fees, and the bill would fail to reduce plastics-usage.
“Instituting a five-cent fee on single-use bags that only applies to certain retailers does not go far enough to address the problems created by overreliance on plastic bags and other single-use carryout bags,” Murphy said in a veto statement.
But Murphy agreed that the state was not leading the way on the issue. “We are lagging behind, and I hope we can get something together,” Murphy said at an unrelated event in Neptune City on April 8. “I wouldn’t comment specifically on what we should be doing, but we’ve got to do something.”
Opponents of the ban, mainly business groups and chemical manufacturers, cite increased costs along with the threat of job losses and are seeking exceptions for specific uses. Supporters cite the benefits of reducing litter on the state’s streets and beaches — something they say is already evident in towns that have enacted their own bans. In fact, while the legislature debates the parameters of a statewide prohibition, municipalities — especially along the shore — have taken the lead, creating a patchwork of ordinances around New Jersey.
Exemptions and exceptions
S2776 calls for a ban on any plastic bags and straws, as well as polystyrene or Styrofoam containers. The bill would also impose a 10-cent fee on paper bags, half of which goes back to the business and the rest toward a newly created Plastic Pollution Prevention Fund, run by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The Senate Energy and Environment Committee approved the measure in a 4-1 vote at a Sept. 27 hearing, following several hours of testimony by business groups and environmental activists.
“It’s a huge environmental problem,” Senate Environment Chair Bob Smith, D-17th District and the bill’s sponsor, said of plastics pollution as he opened the hearing.
“It may be as big as a problem as the global warming problem on the planet. Serious stuff,” Smith added. “It requires New Jersey citizens to change their lifestyle … When you go get your groceries, you’re going to be bringing your reusable bags.”
Certain businesses could be exempt from the Styrofoam ban if they generate less than $500,000 in gross income annually and lack a “commercially available” alternative, or if “there is no feasible and commercial alternative” for any polystyrene food service product.
Business advocates such as Christine Buteas, chief government affairs officer at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, argued that shops handling meat, deli products, poultry and seafood should be eligible for a permanent exemption, rather than the year-long waivers called for in the legislation.
Reusable bags can be made of plastic and as such not subject to the ban, as long as they measure at least 10 millimeters in thickness.
“Everyone agrees that we have to do something with our plastic problem, and the question is what is the most effective way of doing it?” said Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin, D-18th District and the sponsor of the lower house version, Assembly Bill 4330. That measure was assigned to the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee, which she chairs.
“The senator is working with the senate president and the administration on the measure. We’re hoping to move the bill shortly,” Smith’s chief of staff, Cristine Mosier, told NJBIZ.
