Mining operations near Douglas, Wyo. A judge on Friday delivered a setback to a Trump policy to encourage coal mining on federal land.CreditCreditRyan Dorgan/The Casper Star-Tribune, via Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Friday delivered a significant setback to the Trump administration’s policy of promoting coal, ruling that the Interior Department acted illegally when it sought to lift an Obama-era moratorium on coal mining on public lands.
The decision, by Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court of the District of Montana, does not reinstate President Barack Obama’s 2016 freeze on new coal mining leases on public lands. That policy was part of an effort by the Obama administration to curtail the burning of coal, a major producer of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.
But the court ruling does say that the 2017 Trump administration policy, enacted by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, to overturn Mr. Obama’s coal mining ban did not include adequate studies of the environmental effects of the mining, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, or NEPA, one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
“Federal Defendants’ decision not to initiate the NEPA process proves arbitrary and capricious,” Judge Morris wrote.
The decision means that “the Interior Department has to go back to the drawing board if they want to continue to sell coal mining leases on public lands — they have to do a better job of legally and scientifically justifying this,” said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, who took part in the oral arguments against the Trump administration.
The judge also told the plaintiffs and defendants that in the coming months he will put forth a second legal decision on whether the Obama-era mining ban should be reinstated.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, Faith Vander Voort, and Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which joined with the Trump administration on the case, said they are reviewing the decision.
Oregon might restrict use of aminocyclopyrachlor, or ACP, after the chemical was blamed for the slow death of almost 2,000 ponderosa pine trees that were more than a century old. Amanda Waldroupe/UPI
March 18 (UPI) — Oregon could become the first state to strictly limit the use of the herbicide aminocyclopyrachlor, or ACP, after the chemical was blamed for the slow death of almost 2,000 ponderosa pine trees that were more than a century old.
“It’s showing that this chemical is inherently dangerous and should not be on the market … if it is going to cause such damage to trees,” said Drew Toher, the policy director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental organization.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture has proposed a new rule, to take effect March 25, that would prohibit spraying ACP along rights of way and in natural and restoration areas, protected sage grouse habitat and wetlands.
Spraying areas where tree roots may be present also would be prohibited, along with aerial spraying.
In one exception, ACP could be sprayed once a year to control invasive weeds, and only in “spot treatments” no bigger than 9 square feet, or 5 percent of an acre.
Commonly sprayed alongside roads to control weeds and vegetation, ACP is found in several pesticides regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. It is not commercially available and applicators must have a state-issued license.
The EPA banned ACP use in residential areas after Imprelis, which contains the chemical, was shown to damage or kill shrubs and trees, including Norway Spruce, when it was used on golf courses, lawns and sod farms.
A court decision in Florida earlier this week illustrates the difficulties involved in drilling for oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas. The inevitable tensions between environmental conservation and the exercise of property rights can become especially challenging to resolve when they take place in a state where existing oilfield regulations are inadequate and outdated.
That is what is happening in Florida this week, where a three-judge panel of the state’s First District Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) acted improperly in denying a permit to drill the first exploratory oil well in the Everglades in half a century. The DEP had initially denied the permit when it was filed in 2016 by mineral owner Kanter Real Estate LLC, citing threats to surface and groundwater.
After an administrative law judge, E. Gary Early, issued a finding that the five-acre parcel of land on which Kanter wants to drill the well is in fact isolated from groundwater and the local public water supply, and published a “recommended order” for the project to move forward, DEP officials once again denied the permit. The Court of Appeal ruled, in a 14-page decision, that “DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein improperly rejected ‘factual findings’ by” Judge Early and that “state law requires agencies to accept administrative law judges’ findings of fact unless they are not supported by ‘competent, substantial evidence.'”
The Court of Appeals decision now sends the matter back to DEP, which is now ordered to issue the permit. Barring further appeals, court injunctions in lawsuits filed by activist groups or executive action by new Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who campaigned against hydraulic fracturing (aka, “Fracking”) during the election season last Fall – the permit will probably be issued in the coming weeks.
If drilled, the proposed well would be completed in the “Sunniland Shale” formation, a formation that to this point has not been extensively tested with fracking or horizontal drilling. [Note: While the lower Sunniland formation is referred to as a “shale” in industry trade journals and the broader news media, it is actually a more-porous “carbonate” formation.]
Three hives containing more than 180,000 bees in total were found intact on the cathedral’s roof despite the devastating blaze
Bees fly in 2017 next to beehives set up on the roof the Monnaie de Paris, with Notre Dame in the background. Photograph: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images
Following the tragedy of Monday’s fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, news came on Friday of a miracle as sweet as honey.
The hundreds of thousands of bees that lived in hives inside Notre Dame’s roof are alive and well, according to the beekeeper, or apiculteur, that oversees them.
“Thank goodness the flames didn’t touch them,” Nicolas Géant, the hives’ 51-year-old beekeeper, told CNN. “It’s a miracle.”
Three hives that are home to an estimated 60,000 bees each – 180,000 bees in total – are located on a lower roof atop the cathedral’s first floor.
The flames of Monday’s fire – which investigators say was probably causedby an electrical short circuit – took down the cathedral’s spire and a large portion of its roof.
For a few days after the fire, Géant was worried about his beloved bees, and the French police and firefighters wouldn’t let him go up on the roof to check on them. Hopes that the bees survived rested on aerial photos of the cathedral’s roof, which showed the hives still intact.
“You see that everything is burnt, there are holes in the roof, but you can still see the three beehives,” Géant told NBC News on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the French urban beekeeping company Beeopic Apiculture posted a picture on Instagram that confirmed the Notre Dame bees were OK
Editor’s Note: Yesterday, we provided newscoverage of the Board of Public Utilities’ vote that surrendered to New Jersey’s largest and politically most-powerful utility, PSEG, the enormous subsidy of $900 million over three years to ward off competition from the natural gas industry. Today, we tack on televised coverage by Brenda Flanagan of NJTV News and an informative second-day story from NJ Spotlight’s Tom Johnson who covers the BPU on a regular basis.
Huge Win for PSEG as Reluctant BPU Approves Nuclear Subsidies
‘The board is being directed to pay a ransom,’ said Commissioner Bob Gordon. Upendra Chivukula was the only commissioner to vote ‘no’
Salem nuclear power plant
A deeply conflicted Board of Public Utilities yesterday approved $300 million a year in subsidies to the owners of New Jersey’s three nuclear power plants, ignoring three separate analyses that found the units profitable and in no danger of closing.
The 4-1 decision by the five commissioners marks a huge victory for PSEG, which owns Hope Creek and runs it along with Salem I and Salem II, partially owned by Exelon. PSEG had threatened to close all of the units if each failed to receive the utility-customer funded subsidies, which are dubbed zero emission credits (ZECs).
The outcome once again demonstrates the enormous influence wielded by the state’s largest energy conglomerate, first by muscling a controversial nuclear-subsidy bill through the Legislature last year. It then convinced a clearly reluctant BPU to approve the subsidies — even though its own staff found the company had failed to meet the financial threshold to qualify for the incentives.
BPU Commissioner Bob Gordon
“In my view, the board is being directed to pay a ransom,’’ said BPU Commissioner Bob Gordon. “We’re here today because these plants are not losing money, but because they are not profitable enough,’’ said Gordon. He voted for the subsidies, which take effect immediately.
For the typical residential customer, the decision will increase their annual bill by $41. The cost will be much higher for businesses. Gordon mentioned being told by a paper company that it would cost it an additional $2 million a year, possibly forcing its closure.
Potential closure of plants weighed heavily
In the end, despite misgiving by other commissioners, the board apparently decided the potential closing of the plants outweighed concerns that legislators drafted the law to direct the agency to award the entire $300 million, effectively tying its hands and barring it from giving smaller subsidies, if a smaller amount would suffice.
PSEG issued a statement after the vote, saying it was pleased the state is backing the plants, which provide about 32 percent of the state’s electricity and 90 percent of its carbon-free power.
“The BPU just saved the people of the state hundreds of millions of dollars in what would have been higher energy costs, thousands of jobs lost and tons of environmentally damaging emissions,’’ the company said. It has argued that replacing the lost power from the nuclear units would have cost as much as $400 million.
Commissioner Upendra Chivukula, the only member to vote “no,” was unconvinced, describing PSEG’s tactics as holding a gun to their heads. “It is a sad day for the U.S.,’’ said Chivukula, who came to this country 45 years ago from India.
Others disagreed, saying the goal is to keep the plants open, an argument that suggests PSEG’s efforts to focus on their closing, rather than whether it had demonstrated the plants are not economical won the day. “Only our vote today can save our nuclear fleet,” said Commissioner Mary-Anna Holder.
Rate Counsel not surprised
Rate Counsel Stefanie Brand, one of the few intervenors who got to look at PSEG’s finances, said she was not surprised by the outcome. “I guess the tactic by the company worked. ‘We want more money.’ They got more money,’’ she said.
Rate Counsel Stefanie Brand
In her filings, the Rate Counsel contended the company had inflated the costs and lowered projected revenues, a finding essentially endorsed by BPU staff, the Independent Market Monitor for PJM, and a consultant retained by the board.
Brand deflected questions whether her office would challenge the awards, saying it has to review the board’s written order. Nevertheless, pointing to the commissioners’ own reluctance to approve the ZECs, she added, “they kind of made my case for me.’’ Her office argued the state had the right to approve less than the $300 million stipulated in the nuclear bill, saying its mandate to set reasonable and just rates trump the statute.
Yesterday, Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), who helped draft the law, told the Star-Ledger’s Tom Moran he decided to set the incentive at $300 million because PSEG CEO Ralph Izzo told him it was the right number.
The issue attracted hundreds of pro- and anti-subsidy advocates to the State House for the BPU’s monthly meeting, normally a very dry regulatory meeting attended by a couple score of lawyers and lobbyists.
‘Power politics’
Some left unhappy. “Today, the BPU lost most of its credibility when they pushed through the biggest corporate subsidy in state history,’’ said Jeff Tittel, in a bit of hyperbole. The initial subsidy is for three years and could amount to $1 billion. But the company can return in succeeding years and seek additional ZECs, although the BPU will have more flexibility in deciding how much, if any, to award. (The legislation only directs the BPU to award the entire amount in the first go-round; otherwise, it has flexibility.)
“This vote wasn’t about nuclear power, global warming or air pollution — it was about money, power politics and who wields influence in Trenton,’’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey and a critic of the nuclear bailout.
After munching down on meatloaf at a White House lunch on Valentine’s Day 2017, former Gov. Chris Christie had no intention of buttering up then-FBI Director James Comey, as President Donald Trump asked him to.
Carrying out Trump’s charm offensive — Christie was told to tell Comey that Trump “really likes him” — could have put him at risk of complicity in a Trump effort to obstruct Comey’s investigation of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and his contacts with Russian officials.
“Christie thought it would have been uncomfortable to pass on that message,” the Mueller report said.
Christie’s cameo moments in the sprawling report showcase his skills as a danger-avoiding political strategist, his instincts and savvy honed from training in the Republican political and legal establishment.
Christie, a political chess player despite his own explosive, bombastic behavior, was now in the role of tempering the impulses of a limited-attention-span president with no experience in government.
Christie was one of the few “adults in the room” — one of his stock phrases — in a chaotic, combative government filled with neophytes and led by a crank-In-chief who is described in the Mueller report as frantically trying to thwart the investigation.
And Christie, “the One Constituent,” who staggered out of Trenton, battered by the Bridgegate scandal, took care to keep his own neck out of trouble.
The notion that Christie didn’t heed Trump’s request because it might make Comey squirm is a bit of a stretch. Christie showed no hesitancy at publicly trashing his “old friend” Comey during the 2016 Republican National Convention over his handling of Hillary Clinton email probe.
