E-vehicle bill could help Pa catch up to other states

Andrea Sears reports for  Public News Service 
As electric vehicles increase their range, more charging stations will be needed to meet the demand. (pxhere)
As electric vehicles increase their range, more charging stations will be needed to meet the demand. (pxhere)

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania is lagging behind some other states in creating the infrastructure to support electric vehicles, but a bill making its way through the Legislature could change that.

Transportation is one of the main sources of carbon pollution. But without a reliable network of charging stations, consumers are reluctant to switch to clean electric vehicles.

Noah Garcia, transportation policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says passage of House Bill 1446 would be a major win for clean energy in the Commonwealth. It would establish a statewide goal for transportation electrification.

“That goal would be to achieve levels of transportation electrification at least 50 percent above what would be expected to be business as usual by 2030,” says Garcia.

HB 1446 passed the House Transportation Committee with strong support and is expected to reach the floor of the House for a vote in the coming weeks.

Garcia notes that the bill also would require the state’s electric utilities and electric-vehicle charging service providers to create and implement a plan to meet the electrification goals.

“Those plans will include the deployment of charging infrastructure necessary to support a greater number of electric vehicles in the state,” says Garcia.

There are currently fewer than 300 charging stations and about 12,000 electric vehicles in Pennsylvania. In contrast, New York now has 600 charging stations and 30,000 electric vehicles.


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Farmers hit the road to reach shoppers before Amazon

The first order of business: David Nowacoski feeding his chickens (George Etheredge photo)

Michael Corkery reports for The New York Times:

EAST SMITHFIELD, Pa. — Huge retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Peapod are fighting for a piece of the online food delivery business.

So is David Nowacoski, a chicken and pig farmer here in East Smithfield.

Last month, Mr. Nowacoski started a service that delivers locally produced meats, cheeses and vegetables across three counties in northern Pennsylvania. His start-up collects food from far-flung farms and transports it weekly to residents who place their orders online.

We recently spent the day with Mr. Nowacoski and his wife, Marla, traveling about 92 miles in the family minivan, picking up and dropping off food from three farms, one cheese room, one tavern and a bakery.


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Need a bribe to buy an e-car? NJ might have one coming


Proposal would deliver rebates of $100M annually over three years to drivers who switch to plug-in vehicles

electric car black wireframe

Tom Johnson reports

for NJ Spotlight: 

Clean-energy advocates are still looking for ways to jumpstart the state’s efforts to phase out gas-guzzling cars in favor of plug-in electric vehicles.
Sen. Bob Smith, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, introduced a new bill (S-2382) that would have the state provide $100 million a year for the next three years in rebates to consumers who switch to zero-emission vehicles.
For Smith, the transformation of the transportation sector, the largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, is becoming a pet cause.
“I just think that we’ve got to get this show on the road,’’ said Smith, who has sponsored other bills intended to energize motorists to switch to electric vehicles, none of which have made much headway yet. “Global warming isn’t waiting for anyone.’’

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Pa residents say whoa! to their township’s fracking map

Protect PT is challenging Penn Township's zoning ordinance, which allows drilling in the green areas of the map.

Protect PT is challenging Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, which allows drilling in the green areas  .
Reid Frazier reports for StateImpact Pennsylvania:
A dispute over a local law that opens up much of a Pittsburgh suburb to oil and gas drilling has made it to a Westmoreland County courtroom.
The citizens group ProtectPT is challenging Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, finalized in 2016, that allowed drilling in parts of the township zoned as “rural resource” areas.
These are typically open parts of the community, like farms and other sparsely populated areas. The community, about 20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, contains a mix of planned suburban subdivisions and farmland.
The group is arguing that the ordinance deprives residents in more densely populated parts of the township their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution to a clean environment.
The group wants the judge to limit fracking to a handful of industrial zones inside the township.
“We are saying this infringes on those rights because it pollutes the air, it pollutes the water through forcing chemicals into the earth and (by) polluting groundwater, as well as surface water for spills on the surface,” said Ann LeCuyer, of Trafford, Pa., which is part of the Penn-Trafford school district, and Protect PT’s Project & Outreach Coordinator.
“There’s trucks, there’s the drill rigs, there’s the noise, all which would reduce not only our health but our enjoyment of our property.”
The group is basing its lawsuit on the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment, Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which declares that “the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

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Will FERC charge slow the progress of PSEG’s bailout bill?

PSEG nuclear power generating complex in Salem County, NJ

Federal agency contends alleged violations occurred when company was bidding into power auction to set prices consumers pay for electricity



Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:


A federal agency is alleging a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group made false and misleading statements in bidding into the nation’s largest energy market, a process that helps determine how much consumers pay for electricity.


The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s staff issued a preliminary notice of alleged violations by PSEG Energy Resources & Trade LLC, the company’s trading arm, over a nine-year period from early 2005 until March 2014.


The notice, issued late Thursday, comes at an inopportune time for PSEG, which is hoping to win approval this week from both houses of the Legislature of a much-debated bill that would allow its nuclear plants to gain $300 million a year in ratepayer subsidies.


Without those incentives, PSEG has threatened to close three plants in South Jersey, saying they will not be profitable in the near future, a contention opponents have argued the company has failed to demonstrate.


Opponents of the subsidies
The disclosure of the preliminary findings by the agency rippled the past weekend through a loose coalition of groups trying to derail the nuclear subsidies. They long have disputed PSEG’s assertion the plants will likely lose money when existing contracts expire in a couple of years. 

The alleged violations by the company cited by the commission should be reason for pause, critics said.


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NJ contractors who paid largest share of $9.4M donations


Remington & Vernick Engineers Inc. was the largest donor among contractors, with $512,550, followed by T&M Associates with $366,880, Alaimo Group with $345,500, Pennoni Associates Inc. with $317,729 and CME Associates with $316,710, the NJ Election Law Commission reported.


James Nash reports for NorthJersey.com


After reporting that engineering firms and other contractors put $9.4 million into campaigns last year, the state’s campaign-finance watchdog — usually quick to advocate tougher rules on political spending — called on lawmakers to loosen the rules intended to prevent contractors from donating in exchange for contracts.

The $9.4 million sum, while the highest since the last gubernatorial election in 2013, is still low enough to suggest that contractors are evading “pay to play” laws by directing their political spending into harder-to-track independent groups that spend millions without directly coordinating with candidates, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Such independent groups spent $47.5 million in last year’s election, the commission said in a separate report, dwarfing the total spent by state parties and legislative leadership committees.

State law bars most firms with state contracts worth more than $17,500 from contributing more than $300 to candidates for governor as well as county and state political parties. Firms that exceed the limit must either get their money back or forfeit their public contracts for four years.


“We hope the new Murphy administration and the Legislature will take up ELEC-recommended legislation this year that would greatly simplify pay-to-play laws, increase the amount contractors can give, and allow parties to accept more than just token donations from contractors,” Jeff Brindle, the executive director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, said in a press release.

The $9.4 million sum from engineering, construction and law firms and other contractors was lower than most years since 2007, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Spending by contractors peaked at $16.4 million in 2007, according to commission data.

The largest beneficiary of the contractors’ largesse last year was state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Gloucester Democrat and ironworkers’ union leader who was defending his seat against a challenge funded largely by the state teachers’ union. Gov. Phil Murphy was only the sixth-largest recipient of contractor money, the state regulators found.


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