PSEG nuclear generating plant in Salem County, NJ.

Revamped legislation includes some modest clean-energy programs, but locks Division of Rate Counsel out of decision
if subsidy is needed


Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:


A bill to provide subsidies to New Jersey’s nuclear power plants appeared to get back on legislative track yesterday with the addition of some modest clean-energy initiatives, the latest maneuver aimed at bolstering its prospects.


In a marathon day for legislation that has endured its share of rocky moments over the past several weeks, a revamped bill (S-877) was unveiled to a roomful of lobbyists, energy executives, labor officials, and environmentalists nearly three-and-a-half hours after a committee hearing on it had been scheduled.


Last minute revisions, accomplished privately elsewhere, accounted for the delay.


When finished, a three-hour hearing before the Senate Environment and Energy Committee followed, as opponents tried to articulate concerns about the measure, having received the 50-page bill minutes before the hearing begun.

Senate Speaker Steve Sweeney

Business as unusual
Recognizing the unusual circumstances surrounding its
release, Sen. Bob Smith, the Democratic chairman of the committee, announced lawmakers would not vote on the
bill, but instead have it referred to the Senate Budget
Committee for a vote on February 5.


“This is not how we normally do things,” said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, the bill’s sponsor in what perhaps was the understatement of the day. “Nuclear is extremely important.”


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An illustration of an eastern cougar, a species last seen in 1938.

From Yale Environment 360: 


Eastern cougars once roamed every U.S. state east of the Mississippi, but it has been eight decades since the last confirmed sighting of the animal. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially declared the subspecies extinct and removed it from the U.S. endangered species list.


The decision, announced Monday, is the result of years of deliberation. The agency conducted an extensive review of the eastern cougar in 2011, and recommended it be removed from the endangered and threatened species list in 2015, Reuters reported. The species, also known as pumas, are the genetic cousins of mountain lions in the Western United States and of Florida panthers, which are now found only in the Everglades.


There is “no evidence of the existence of either an extant reproducing population or any individuals of the eastern puma subspecies,” the announcement in the Federal Register said. “It is also highly unlikely that an eastern puma population could remain undetected since the last confirmed sighting in 1938.”


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