EnviroPolitics Blog

Lofty plan to honor the musical legacy of Camden’s Victor building is scrapped. Recycling firm EMR is moving in.

TIM TAI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

[The Read the full story link at the bottom has been corrected]

Melanie Burney reports for Philly.com:

A grandiose plan to revive and restore Camden’s great musical history at one of the last remaining RCA Victor buildings has hit a sour note. Instead, the place where Frank Sinatra signed a contract and Fats Waller made phonograph recordings has been sold for $13.5 million to a South Jersey metal recycling firm.

Located at Front and Cooper Streets, the eight-story building has been called the most historic place for recorded music in the world. It is where the Victor Talking Machine Co. built a music dynasty in downtown Camden, churning out records and legendary artists such as Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday recorded for the label.

Last year, a developer announced ambitious plans to transform the site into a commercial office space with a nod to its musical past, including a Victor museum, a recording studio, a rooftop restaurant with a scenic skyline view, and an entertainment venue. The proposal called for bringing back the studio and stage where artists recorded and live orchestra performances were held.

But that lofty vision was scrapped when Millennial Place sold the building to EMR Eastern, marking the second time the property has changed owners in just over a year. Instead, the building will bring more office workers and another business venture to the bustling waterfront.

The Bellmawr-based company plans to relocate its national headquarters and about 120 employees to the 90,000-square-foot building by the summer, said president Joseph Balzano Jr. The total project is expected to cost about $33 million after renovations, he said.

The interior had been gutted by the previous owners and few changes are planned for the outside, except replacing broken windows, Balzano said. The lobby and seventh and eighth floors where phonograph recordings were made by Enrico Caruso and Camden’s Russ Columbo and where Sinatra signed his first contract with Victor Studios will be preserved, he said.

“It’s a beautiful building,” said Balzano. “It’s nice that it has some historic significance.”

TIM TAI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The former Camden City School District headquarters, once part of the RCA complex in Camden, has been sold for $13.5 million to a metal recycling firm.

The building is part of what little remains of the former 58-acre industrial Victor Talking Machine Co. complex. The company began in a small machine shop on Front Street that produced Victrolas. It grew to a massive operation that covered the equivalent of 10 city blocks, churned out 800,000 records a day and had sales over $400 million.

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D.C. lobbyists profiting from PFAS drinking water fears

Chemicals giant Arkema Inc. has been one of the companies and groups lobbying on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. @Arkema_group/Twitter

Corbin Hiar and Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
report for E&E News:

With growing concerns about drinking water contamination in communities nationwide, lobbyists have rushed to shape the emerging congressional debate around a decades-old class of widely used toxic chemicals.

Nearly two dozen groups disclosed lobbying federal officials on issues related to “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” or “PFAS,” in the last quarter of 2018 — the most recent period for which data are available — up from just one company during the same period a year before, according to an E&E News analysis of filings.

Amid a flurry of regulatory and legislative action on the chemicals, organizations representing environmentalists, doctors, and cities have entered the lobbying fray alongside powerful industry associations and giant corporations like Exxon Mobil Corp., Dow Chemical Co., and Chemours Co.

Overall, 28 separate entities have specifically listed lobbying Congress or agencies on PFAS since the issue first popped up in a filing by French chemical maker Arkema Inc. from the fourth quarter of 2017. Beyond Capitol Hill, some of the top advocacy targets were EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and White House offices.

And the number of groups that in the last two years spoke to congressional members and agency officials about the chemicals — found in everything from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam but only recently linked to health risks like cancer — could be even higher.

That’s because some outfits could be obscuring their PFAS advocacy by only disclosing lobbying on vague issues such as “drinking water” or “chemicals.” And the American Chemistry Council has been advocating on what the lobby group refers to “flourotechnology” for several years.

But K Street’s newfound interest in PFAS, in particular, comes as no surprise to Betsy Southerland, the former director of science and technology in EPA’s Office of Water.

“Early on, I don’t think we had a lot of lobbying on either side of the issue — either for more regulation or no regulation — because people were clueless,” said Southerland, who left EPA in 2017 after more than three decades at the agency.

“As more and more communities monitor for these things, they become aware that they have a problem. So I think that’s why you’re seeing a spike in the lobbying right now,” she said.

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Penn State parents fight hazing that caused son’s death

“The fraternity defendants negligently, recklessly, and outrageously forced, coerced, encouraged or otherwise caused Pennsylvania State University sophomore Timothy Piazza to consume life-threatening amounts of alcohol, and caused him to become intoxicated, fall and suffer grievous injuries and death,” the lawsuit alleged. “For more than 11 hours after his fall, Timothy Piazza endured horrible pain and suffering, which was documented by closed-circuit cameras.”

Lauren del Valle reports for CNN:

The parents of a Penn State University student who died in a hazing ritual have settled with the university and sued 28 members of the fraternity they say contributed to their son’s death.

Jim and Evelyn Piazza settled with Penn State last week for an undisclosed amount of money and safety reforms almost two years after the death of their son, Timothy.

The agreement also features strong language stipulating the university’s commitment to permanently barring Beta Theta Pi from existing at Penn State.

The civil lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court names 28 former Penn State University Beta Theta Pi fraternity members, alleging negligence, conspiracy and battery assault. There are three criminal cases in connection with the incident that remain in various stages of the legal process.

Jim and Evelyn Piazza, parents of Timothy Piazza.

The suit also names as a defendant St. Moritz Security Services, the company that provided security monitors at Greek Life social events, according to the civil complaint. The company declined to comment to CNN.

The Beta Theta Pi fraternity’s national organization settled with the Piazza family for an undisclosed amount of money last September.

“The early findings of that investigation indicated that the behavior of several undergraduate members was in direct contradiction of the International Fraternity’s expectations and risk management policies, as well as the International Fraternity’s reputation and commitment to character development,” a previous statement made by the organization stated.

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Power companies to PJM grid: Help, we’re in trouble

Companies have been lobbying to raise what they say are depressed prices that threaten the viability of their nuclear plants

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

The chief executive officers of three major energy companies are pressing the regional grid operator to move much faster on a slew of reforms that would boost revenues from their power plants, a move opponents say could increase prices to consumers.

In a letter to the PJM Board of Managers last week, the executives expressed concern about the slow pace of progress in deciding significant changes in how energy prices are established within the nation’s largest power grid.

The latest installment in the decade-old discussion is occurring as two of the companies — Public Service Enterprise Group and Exelon — are seeking approval for hundreds of millions of dollars in ratepayer subsidies to support three nuclear power plants from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in a separate proceeding.

The letter highlights the intense lobbying by the energy sector in seeking to raise what have been depressed power prices that the industry says have threatened the economic viability of coal and nuclear power plants.

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The issue led Gov. Phil Murphy last spring to sign a controversial new law creating potential ratepayer subsidies for PSEG and Exelon, which owns a share in two of the three nuclear units in South Jersey. Both companies are hoping to share $300 million in annual subsidies if the BPU approves the financial incentives, based on a finding that the plants will close without them.

Ralph Izzo, chairman, CEO, and president of PSEG, has long argued prices paid to the company’s nuclear plants do not adequately reflect the benefits they provide to the power grid, particularly in terms of fuel diversity, resiliency and a source of carbon-free electricity.

Execs: Grid need to act ‘swiftly and decisively’

PJM operates the power grid stretching from the Eastern Seaboard to Illinois. With a steep drop in energy prices, many coal and a half-dozen nuclear power plants have shut down, leading energy companies to pressure PJM to take steps to increase revenue to make sure there is enough electricity to meet power demands.

While praising some steps the PJM has taken to improve energy prices, the energy executives said they only “provide modest incremental change, but fall short of the fundamental changes that are needed to support baseload electric generator units over the long-term.’’ Besides Izzo, the letter was signed by Exelon’s CEO Christopher Crane and Charles Jones, the CEO of FirstEnergy, the parent company of Jersey Central Power & Light.

The executives said it is imperative the PJM board act “swiftly and decisively’’ on price formation reforms so that these fundamental issues can be addressed within the PJM markets. The PJM may act on a pending proposal to change its pricing regime at its next meeting on February 12.

That proposal, however, has met with opposition from various stakeholders, including the Organization of PJM States Inc. (OPSI), a group representing state utility commissioners, including New Jersey’s BPU.

In a separate letter to PJM late last month, the organization noted the proposed changes will increase costs to ratepayers. “PJM has not shown increases at these levels to be necessary or that they will be implemented in a manner that will maintain just and reasonable rates.’’

The issue of potential increases in energy prices as a result of actions taken by PJM were cited by the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel in opposing subsidies sought by PSEG and Exelon in the case before BPU. “It is clear that energy market revenues will increase for energy generators,’’ the Rate Counsel said in a filing it submitted to the New Jersey agency.

PJM’s proposal could result in an increase in energy revenue of approximately $1.92 billion, according to PJM’s projections.

Under the New Jersey law, any increase in revenue as a result of action taken by PJM or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will decrease any subsidy given to the nuclear units, should the BPU determine the plants would close without the incentives.

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Court orders ban of top-selling pesticide, says EPA violated law, ignored scientific studies

Then EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2016.
(Andrew Harnik / AP)

Federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies’ brains.

Michael Biesecker reports for the Associated Press:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days.

A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued last year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit, apples, and other crops. The attorneys general for several states joined the case against EPA, including California, New York, and Massachusetts.

In a split decision, the court said Thursday that Pruitt, a Republican forced to resign earlier this summer amid ethics scandals, violated federal law by ignoring the conclusions of agency scientists that chlorpyrifos is harmful.

“The panel held that there was no justification for the EPA’s decision in its 2017 order to maintain a tolerance for chlorpyrifos in the face of scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children,” Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in the court’s opinion.

Michael Abboud, a spokesman for acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, said the agency was reviewing the decision, but it had been unable to “fully evaluate the pesticide using the best available, transparent science.”

EPA could potentially appeal to the Supreme Court since one member of the three-judge panel dissented from the majority ruling.

Environmental groups and public health advocates celebrated the court’s action as a major success.

“Some things are too sacred to play politics with, and our kids top the list,” said Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The court has made it clear that children’s health must come before powerful polluters. This is a victory for parents everywhere who want to feed their kids fruits and veggies without fear it’s harming their brains or poisoning communities.”

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Trump taps Bernhardt to replace Zinke at Interior

President Trump has tapped Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt for the agency’s top job. Bernhardt is shown speaking here last summer at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. @DOIDepSec/Twitter

Michael Doyle reports for E&E News:

President Trump today announced his plans to nominate acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for the department’s top job, elevating a savvy manager known for both his policy expertise and his background as a lawyer and lobbyist for oil, gas and Western water interests.

A 49-year-old Colorado native, Bernhardt has years of Interior Department experience in several administrations. He’s far more familiar with the department’s inner workings than was outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at the outset, though their policy preferences are similar.

“I can’t think of an instance in the past year where I’ve done something where I would not be very confident that he and I were 100 percent on the same page on,” Bernhardt told E&E News in an interview earlier this year.

“I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior,” Trump tweeted this afternoon. “David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!”

Stylistically, the often soft-spoken Bernhardt can strike a marked contrast to Zinke, the former Navy SEAL whose combativeness recently flared when he publicly proclaimed a top House Democrat to be a drunkard.

But Bernhardt’s alignment with Zinke on issues including endangered species protections, public lands and energy development also guarantees the policy clashes that dominated Zinke’s rocky 23-month tenure will continue. His selection shows the Trump administration is not backing down.

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