Elcon opponents keep pressure on Falls supervisors

Rendering of Elcon’s proposed chemical-waste treatment plant in Lower Bucks County, Pa.

Chris Ullery reports for the Bucks Courier-Times

About 10 people again asked supervisors Tuesday to deny plans for Elcon’s liquid hazardous waste treatment facility at an upcoming April 30 meeting.

Residents opposed to a hazardous waste treatment facility in Falls continued pressuring township officials to reject Elcon’s proposal ahead of a planned special supervisors meeting later this month to consider the application.

About 10 people spoke out Tuesday against Elcon Recycling Services’ proposed plant that could process between 150,000 to 200,000 tons of chemicals and pharmaceutical waste a year.

The plans were not an item under consideration for the board this week, but residents and others have been using the public comment at recent meetings to keep Elcon on that forefront of officials’ minds.

Representatives of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Protect Our Water and Air have urged residents to continue commenting at public meetings leading up to a potential vote on Elcon’s plans at the end of the month.

Supervisors will hold a special meeting and possible vote on Elcon’s plans on April 30 in Pennsbury High School West’s Keller Hall, 608 S. Olds Blvd. beginning at 7 p.m.

The company aims to build the facility on a 23-acre site in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex, an approximately 3,000-acre industrial park encompassing the former footprint of U.S. Steel’s Fairless Works operation not far from the Delaware River.

Elcon representatives say its facility would be state of the art and create up to 120 short-term construction jobs and about 50 full-time operations jobs. The company has said the plant would produce little pollution and adhere to all environmental regulations. Opponents, primarily made up of local residents and backed by local environmental groups, are skeptical.

Over the past several years, the proposal has ping-ponged, as Elcon submitted proposal materials and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection temporarily rejected them for deficiencies. But the latest version, submitted last July, cleared an initial bar, putting DEP on track to issue an intent to approve or deny in May.

The township’s planning commission voted not to recommend the plans be approved by supervisors during Marchmeeting.

The comments at Tuesday’s meeting were similar to past objections to the plant, and the township has posted the meeting video on it’s YouTube channel.

If supervisors vote on the plans, it likely won’t be the end of the issue regardless of the outcome.

Fred Stine, citizen action coordinator with Riverkeeper, and Lise Baxter, co-founder of POWA, said last week Elcon could take the town to court over a denial, but the two organizations might sue the town over an approval.


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PSEG gets its $300M nuclear bailout

The Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations

The Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations in Lower Alloways Creek, New Jersey, is shown on Aug. 9, 2012. (Photo: Gary Emeigh / GARY EMEIGH/THE NEWS JOURNAL)


Nicholas Pugliese and David P. Willis report for NorthJersey.com

Worried that New Jersey’s nuclear power plant operator would follow through on its threat to shutter the state’s nuclear fleet, regulators on Thursday approved $300 million a year in subsidies — money that will be raised from homeowners through their  electric bills.

“In my view, the board is being directed to pay ransom and the hostages are the citizens of New Jersey,” said Bob Gordon, a commissioner with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities who voted for the subsidy. “We are here today not because these three plants are losing money but because they are not profitable enough.”

Newark-based Public Service Enterprise Group, the largest owner of the state’s three nuclear reactors, at the Salem and Hope Creek plants in Salem County, has said it will close the facilities down with the bailout. That, the company warned, would put thousands of people out of work and force it to develop new natural-gas-fired generators that would spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and cost residents more in the long run.

But a diverse coalition of opponents, which includes business, consumer and environmental groups, argued that PSEG has failed to prove its plants are in danger of shutting down. They point to independent reports by the New Jersey Rate Counsel and the Independent Market Monitor for PJM, the operator of the regional power grid, that found the plants are profitable and do not qualify for the subsidies.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, cleared the way for the subsidies last year when he signed off on the creation of a so-called “zero emission certificate program” for the nuclear plants as part of legislation that also sought to accelerate the development of solar and wind energy.

New Jersey is not the first state to grapple with whether to subsidize its nuclear plants, which provide about 40 percent of all power produced in the state and the vast majority of its carbon-free electricity. 

New York and Illinois have approved similar bailouts in recent years. Several plants in other states, undercut by cheap natural gas, have been retired prematurely.

Developments in recent days have heightened the drama around Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Public Utilities.

PSEG on Tuesday notified federal regulators of its intention to shut down the Salem and Hope Creek plants, adding in a filing: “If ZECs are awarded to all three plants, the retirement submittals would be unnecessary.”

That came a day after the coalition of opponents sent letters to Murphy and the BPU commissioners asking that a state-commissioned analysis of PSEG’s financials by an independent consultant be made public.

Read the full story

Related news coverage:

Public utilities board approves $300M subsidy for PSEG nuclear plants (NJBIZ)

New Jersey approves $300 million in nuclear subsidies; PSEG had threatened to close reactors (Philly.com)

Critics slam PSEG’s notice of nuclear shutdown on eve of subsidy decision (WHYY)


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Ryan Zinke goes for gold with new gig

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.”

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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.

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Grants for Communities and Not-for-Profits in Adirondack or Catskill Parks


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.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) d has announced the availability of $1,450,000 in Community Smart Growth Grants for communities and not-for-profits in the Adirondack and Catskill parks.

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.

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