Christie betrays defenders’ dim view of Trump’s intellect

Aaron Blake reports for The Washington Post:

Lost in the debate over whether President Trump should talk to Robert Mueller is this: The arguments against him doing it often betray a remarkably dim view of Trump’s intellect.
To his credit, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was rather blunt Sunday in making the case for Trump refusing the interview. Christie said flatly on ABC’s “This Week” that he worried Trump wouldn’t be able to stop himself from committing perjury (comments start at 8:47 in video above):
He should never walk into that room with Robert Mueller. Because in the end, one of the things that makes the president who he is, is that he’s a salesman. And salesmen, at times, tend to be hyperbolic. Right, and this president certainly has tended to do that.
That’s okay when you’re on the campaign hustle. That’s okay when you’re working on Congress. It is not okay when you’re sitting talking to federal agents because, you know, 18 USC 1001 is false statements to federal agents. That’s a crime. That can send you to jail.
This kind of argument has become rather common when it comes to Trump, but let’s step back for a second and focus on what Christie is really saying: He is saying that not only is Trump prone to hyperbole because he’s a salesman but that Trump can’t be trusted to tell the truth even when not doing so constitutes a felony. Christie is basically suggesting that a 71-year-old man who happens to be the president of the United States can’t differentiate well enough between truth and fiction (or what Trump himself has called “truthful hyperbole“).
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Trump unplugged: How Trump has acted under oath
Others who have argued that Trump shouldn’t talk to Mueller have danced around this point a little more artfully. Christie has said in the past that he didn’t think the evidence warranted an interview with a sitting president. White House lawyer Ty Cobb and others have alluded to the prospect of a “perjury trap” — the possibility that the interview could basically be an elaborate setup to get Trump to make a false statement.
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Stronger investment winds forecast for NE offshore energy


Favorable regulatory climate, natural attributes like wind speed, shallow waters, proximity to cities with high energy demand play into favorable assessment

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

With costs declining and a favorable regulatory environment, the U.S. offshore wind market will grow rapidly in the coming years, according to Moody’s Investors Service in a new analysis of the sector.
The Northeast, particularly New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, should see significant investment in offshore wind, partly with support from policymakers, partly thanks to varied natural attributes, like good wind speed, shallow waters, and proximity to large centers of power demand, according to the analysis.
The analysis could help New Jersey bolster its lagging efforts to tap the technology to accelerate its transition to cleaner energy. Gov. Phil Murphy has established a goal of having 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, the most aggressive target in the nation.
“Europe and Asia have been leading the way in developing the 32 gigawatts of offshore wind estimated to come online by 2020,’’ says Leslie Ritter, an assistant vice president and analyst at Moody’s. “But with over 13 gigawatts currently under development, the U.S. is poised to become a more material player in the industry as well.’’
Although prices for offshore wind remain substantially higher than U. S. wholesale power-market prices, forecasts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory project costs to decline to more competitive ranges in the coming years. 

Putting wind on hold

While onshore wind is cheaper than conventional energy power, the cost of offshore wind has hindered development along the Eastern Seaboard. In New Jersey, the Christie administration twice rejected a pilot, 24-megawatt project three miles off Atlantic City because of its projected impact on electric customers, who would pay for the project’s power.
In a sign of an improved regulatory climate, that project, dubbed Fishermen’s Energy, is being revived under a bill (A-2485) moving through the New Jersey Legislature, and scheduled to be taken up this week by committees in both houses.
The bill, part of a package of bills designed to promote a clean-energy agenda in the state, include a measure that would ramp up the renewable energy goals in New Jersey to have 50 percent of its electricity come from such sources by 2030, a target identical to one established in New York.
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An electric Harley: Heresy or the motorcycle’s salvation?

Is an electric Harley the future for millennials–and the company?

Connor Smith writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer:


…Another major pivot is the company’s continued investment in electric vehicle technology. On March 1, Harley-Davidson announced investment in Silicon Valley start-up Alta Motors, which makes lightweight electric motorcycles.​ Harley plans to spend $25 million to $50 million annually over the next several years to develop electric motorcycle technology.

Though an electric bike may seem to be the antithesis of the classic Harley road bike, Roese believes marketing and advertising can help align the new bikes with the existing brand.

“One of the ways to do it is don’t make it look super slick and clean and gleaming as though from some weird science fiction future, but rather, make it more grungy,” Roese said. “Keep it black, make it look like something a superhero from the Marvel Universe would use.”

And that’s what they did with Project LiveWire, its prototype electric bike, which Harley plans to bring to market in the next 18 months. Audiences across the world saw it in action during a scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character rode one as her stunt double chased a CGI villain through the streets.

According to a 2014 study by market research company Ipsos, conducted for the Motorcycle Industry Council, 73.8 percent of millennial motorcycle owners were interested in purchasing an electric motorcycle in the future, with top factors being gas prices and the environment.


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Pompton Lake cleanup coming to an end; Was it enough?

Aerial photo of the dredging equipment set up to remove contaminated sediment from Pompton Lake that was laced with mercury from DuPont’s former munitions facility. (Photo: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com)

James M. O’Neil reports for The Record:

Dump trucks loaded with sand have started to roll into Pompton Lakes for the final phase of a controversial cleanup of a contaminated lake that serves as a backup drinking water supply for North Jersey.

The three-year, $50 million project was designed to remove sediment from Pompton Lake that had been contaminated with mercury and lead from a former DuPont munitions facility nearby.

A dredging operation that started in 2016 continued through last summer to remove sediment from 36 acres of the 200-acre lake. This spring and summer, workers will spread a layer of clean sand over the dredged area to serve as a new habitat for aquatic life, and restore vegetation to the lake shoreline.


Controversial project

The project has drawn controversy because residents complained that a more thorough cleanup of the entire lake bottom should have been performed, and questions have been raised about whether the six-inch layer of new sand will be thick enough to protect wildlife from any residual contamination.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency wanted the sediment removed because a toxic form of mercury can build up in fish, posing a health risk to humans who eat them. Exposure to mercury can damage nervous systems and harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system.

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The lake is used by residents for skiing, boating and fishing, but it is so contaminated that fishermen are warned not to eat their catch.

Pompton Lake is also a backup source to replenish a key reservoir that supplies drinking water to towns in Bergen and Passaic counties.

“I hate when people call it a cleanup because it’s not,” said resident Regina Sisco of the project. “I’m happy they’re addressing 36 acres of the lake but what’s happening to the rest of the sediment? It’s a 200-acre lake. That’s really not a cleanup.”

Sisco said the dredging project seemed like a waste of money since significant contamination remains on the former DuPont property — the original source of the lake pollution.

“Who’s to say it’s not going to get recontaminated,” said Sisco, executive director of Pompton Lakes Residents for Environmental Integrity, a resident advocacy group.


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In New Jersey, the $300M PSEG nuclear bailout bill is back



By Frank Brill
EnviroPolitics Editor


Three high-profile energy bills–including a $300 million safety net for PSEG’s nuclear power operations–will be considered by the New Jersey Assembly’s Appropriations Committee when it meets at 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 5, in Committee Room 11, on the 4th Floor of the State House Annex in Trenton. 


The first bill, A2485, requires the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to approve an amended application for a wind energy project, the Fishermen’s Energy wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City. The venture was essentially deep-sixed by the BPU during former Governor Chris Christie’s two terms in office. 

A3723 would modify clean energy and energy efficiency programs, including the State’s solar renewable energy portfolio standards. Legislators pushing PSEG’s controversial request for guaranteed
earnings from its nuclear energy plants in the face of growing competition from less-costly, natural-gas suppliers (see A-3724 below) placed a number of the provisions favored by environmentalists in this bill in hopes of convincing the green community to drop its opposition to the bailout legislation. So far, it hasn’t worked.

A3724, far and above the most controversial of the three, establishes a “zero emission certificate program for nuclear power plants.” That’s the public relations description for giving PSEG–the state’s largest utility whose nuclear plants currently generate a tidy profit–up to $300 million in ratepayer money should their earnings go south. Wouldn’t all businesses love to count on such public largesse?


The bill is feverishly opposed by large energy users like chemical manufacturers whose operations would suffer a costly hit and, at least in the last headcount, both by environmentalists and by the state’s Rate Counsel.
Environmentalists oppose it because they see it delaying or preventing investments in the development of clean-energy solar and wind projects. The state’s Rate Counsel wants access to the company’s books to prove that the bailout is necessary. PSEG threatens to shut down its nukes if the legislation fails.
  

If the bill’s surface conflicts were not enough, it also is roiled by political subcurrents involving two powerful Democrats –Phil Murphy, the state’s new pro-environment governor, and pro-labor Senate President Steve Sweeney.


Sweeney represents the South Jersey district in which PSEG’s Salem Nuclear Generating Station and its nuclear employees are located. He tried to slip the bill through the legislature’s lame-duck session at the end of 2017 while a supportive Governor Christie, a Republican, was still in office and ready to sign it. Murphy’s incoming team rushed in and stalled the bill’s momentum. Since then, like two great white sharks, the pair has been warily eyeing each other while circling in and out of sub-surface negotiations and maintaining an almost eerie silence.


The bill has been modified extensively since January and could be changed again by its April 5 hearing date. It should be quite an interesting meeting.


Other voices, pro and con:
Sweeney: Preserving nuclear plants is critical for N.J.
We as consumers can’t afford PSEG’s nuclear bailout

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500 acres purchased to protect Lehigh River’s headwaters

A portion of the 500 acres containing headwaters of the Lehigh River acquired by the Wildlands Conservancy.

   
Frank Kummer reports for Philly.com:


You might know the Lehigh River as the whitewater that rushes through picturesque Lehigh Gorge State Park in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. But the gushing river actually starts as a series of tiny, pristine streams in what’s known as headwaters.


The Wildlands Conservancy just bought 500 acres of land containing headwaters to help protect the river’s source.


“This is a really important headwaters piece to protect the quality and quantity of clean water in the Lehigh,” said Dawn Gorham, director of land preservation at the Emmaus-based conservancy.  “It’s kind of a mix of protected lands and big development nearby.”


Gorham referred to the parcel, known as the Klondike Property, as “critical” and said it was immediately turned over to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.  It is the highest rated property for preservation in the Upper Lehigh River.


Gorham said the $2.5 million purchase from private land owners, Tighe and Neil Scott, took about four years to complete. It was funded with help from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the state Game Commission, the Palmerton Natural Resource Trustee Council, the Open Space Institute and the William Penn Foundation. Other groups also donated.


The state will use the land to expand Game Lands 312, roughly 3,962 acres that sprawl across Lackawanna, Monroe and Wayne counties. The terrain contains other headwaters of the Lehigh River and is noted for its wildlife including deer, turkey, grouse and waterfowl. Game Lands 312 will now total nearly 4,500 acres. The game lands are also adjacent to the Pinchot State Forest.


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