Striped bass poachers beware, the Coast Guard’s on patrol

U.S. Coast Guard image.

U.S. Coast Guard image.
Justin Auciello reports for WHYY’s Down the Shore blog:

The U.S. Coast Guard is ready to issue fines to anglers who
catch striped bass outside of the allowable boundary, officials
say.
Striped bass are federally protected within the “Exclusive
Economic Zone,” which begins three miles offshore. The
prohibition allows striped bass “to grow and prevent overfishing”
said Lt. Matthew Kahley, an officer who deals with fisheries
enforcement at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in
Philadelphia.
The fine is $500 per fish, and anglers caught with more than
five fish could face even larger fines, according to NOAA
spokesperson Kate Brogan. NOAA assists the Coast Guard
with enforcing the regulation.
In the release, the Coast Guard acknowledges that the
excitement and passion that comes with striped bass fishing
sometimes results in anglers losing track of their location.
To prevent straying into the Exclusive Economic Zone, the
agency recommends that captains use electronic charts and
marine band radio.
“Protecting marine resources has long been a Coast Guard
mission, and we have Coast Guard members out actively
patrolling and enforcing these rules,” said Kahley. “If we find
someone who is fishing for Striped Bass in the prohibited
area, they should expect to receive a violation.”

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Why some are looking for jobs in the Pa. coal industry


Reid Frazier reports for StateImpact:

At a gymnasium in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, Trenton Phillips is looking for a job as a coal miner.
Phillips already works at a company that fixes belt lines at coal mines. He’s at a job fair in Greene County today. He passes booths for health care and trucking jobs. He stops only at a booth for a coal mine contractor. He wants to become a mine foreman or supervisor.
“I’m currently looking for something where I can advance. Maybe one day be somewhere higher up, not have to break my back and use my head a little more,” says Phillips.
Phillips, 24, got a job at a union coal mine after graduating high school six years ago, during better times for the coal industry. With overtime, he says he made up to $90,000 a year.
“It was pretty much boomin’ when I was coming right out of high school so that seemed like the thing to do,” said Phillips.
The mine closed in 2015. So Phillips drove a truck in the oil and gas industry for a year. But the hours were unpredictable. So, when a job opened up at the belt repair company, he grabbed it.
He says he’s not afraid of another coal industry slump, now that President Trump is in the White House. Trump has begun rolling back regulations on coal mine waste and its carbon pollution. Trump has promised to revive the coal industry, and coal miners are taking this promise to heart, sticking with an industry that has been walloped in recent years.
“Now everything seems to be going back up and it’s going in the right direction,” he said.
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New industry-led coalition fights nuclear subsidies to PSEG


Deriding ‘PSEG energy tax,’ group argues there’s no need for subsidies since company’s South Jersey nuclear plants are still profitable

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

artificial island

PSEG Power’s nuclear generating facility on Artificial Island
A new industry-led coalition is lining up to oppose efforts by the state’s largest energy company to ask ratepayers to subsidize its three nuclear power plants in South Jersey.
The New Jersey Coalition of Fair Energy said it would campaign to “Stop the PSEG Energy Tax,’’ a reference to a lobbying drive by the Public Service Enterprise Group to prop up its nuclear units with subsidies similar to those imposed on utility customers in New York and Illinois.
The announcement comes at a time when opponents worry PSEG will try to steer a yet-to-be-seen bill through the lame-duck session in the next five weeks — before a new Legislature and governor take office.


Ratepayer subsidies in place

With cheap natural gas driving power prices down, the nation’s nuclear and coal plants are facing economic challenges with more than a half-dozen closing prematurely in the past few years. New York and Illinois have approved ratepayer subsidies to prevent retirement of nuclear units in their states, while PSEG has threatened to close its units here if they turn unprofitable.
“We’re here to say that New Jersey residents can’t afford another tax increase that will cost them hundreds of millions of dollars on their electricity bills,’’ said Matt Fossen, a spokesman for the coalition. The coalition includes Calpine Corp., Dynergy, and NRG Energy of Princeton, as well as the Electric Power Supply Association, an industry trade group.
“PSEG has earned billions of dollars in revenue in recent years and the company is on record saying its plants will remain financially viable in the future,’’ Fossen added. “The PSEG energy tax is a ‘solution’ to a problem that does not exist.’’


Crucial to reliability

Ralph Izzo, PSEG’s CEO, president, and chairman, has acknowledged the plants are currently profitable, but warned, given industry trends, the units could turn unprofitable in the next few years. The company argues nuclear units are undervalued because they produce carbon-free electricity and provide needed fuel diversity for the energy sector, crucial to the reliability of the power grid.
The changes roiling the industry have prompted efforts to prop up both coal and nuclear at the federal level; the Trump administration has proposed giving financial incentives to those plants and at PJM Interconnection, the regional power-grid operator. Neither plan has been acted on yet.
New Jersey also is expected to rejoin a regional initiative to curb greenhouse gas emission from power plants, a step that could bolster the economics of PSEG’s nuclear units, the coalition noted. With the proposal by PJM, the policies, if adopted, could make the nuclear units more profitable, Fossen said.
“They should be given a chance to work,’’ he said. “There is no need for the Legislature to rush to pass a bill of such magnitude in a lame-duck session without a full and thoughtful examination of a subsidy and its implications on the cost of electricity and its impact on a fair, level, and competitive marketplace.’’

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Pipeline company’s eminent domain use is challenged


Pipeline company needs access to private land along route, pushes federal agency to let it use eminent domain to sidestep uncooperative property owners

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

pipeline

In another challenge to the expansion of natural-gas pipelines, a conservation group is accusing a federal agency of unlawfully allowing the taking of private land in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Trenton.
The lawsuit filed against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation is the latest legal entanglement involving the 120-mile PennEast pipeline, a project spanning two states and crossing the Delaware River.
The $1 billion project, facing strong opposition in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has been troubled by numerous delays, including the refusal of property owners to allow PennEast Pipeline LLC access to land along the route.
The standoff has prevented the company from submitting all the information it needs to obtain crucial permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. To obtain access, the company is seeking to gain final approval for the project from FERC, a decision that would give it the power of eminent domain over those properties.

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Christmas tree growers on hunt for stowaway lanternflies

Michelle Merlin reports for The Morning Call:

Christmastime has long haunted tree experts with threats of weevils and aphids, and (for non-Muggles) pesky nargles. With the spotted lanternfly, the real risk is not to fir, pine or spruce but in inadvertently moving the bug to a new area and helping it spread across the state or even further.
“The hazard is people cut down a tree within the quarantine area and then they take it for the holiday to some relative or friend far out of the quarantine area,” said Emelie Swackhamer, a Penn State Extension horticulture educator.
At the state level, inspectors in quarantined areas reached out to Christmas tree growers and created compliance agreements with anyone who thought their trees would be going into homes in lanternfly-free areas.
Experts fear the invasive bug, which was first discovered in eastern Berks County in 2014, will hurt stone fruit, grapes and other agricultural products. The plant hopper is native to China, India and Vietnam and was invasive in Korea, where it was found in 2004, and damaged several plant species which also grow in Pennsylvania.
The state had issued quarantines in municipalities where it had been seen until a few weeks ago, when officials issued countywide quarantines — meaning products can’t be moved from one place to another without being checked for the bugs and their eggs — and added seven new counties to the list.
Experts hope they can avoid spreading the spotted lanternfly further by warning people about its potential dispersal via Christmas tree.
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State lawmakers ask EPA to waive ethanol blend in NJ


Adding ethanol to gasoline is a federal requirement that may drive production costs at Paulsboro refinery over the top, threatening its viability

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

paulsboro refinery

Credit: WHYY.org
Top legislative leaders in New Jersey are pressing federal environmental officials to waive rules governing blending of ethanol into gasoline, a requirement they say threatens the viability of the Paulsboro refinery.
In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, the lawmakers from the Third Legislative District said complying with the rule makes it difficult and expensive to operate an oil refinery in the region.
The appeal from Senate President Stephen Sweeney; John Burzichelli, the deputy speaker in the Assembly; and Assemblyman Adam Taliaferro echoes concerns from officials in Pennsylvania, including Gov. Tom Wolf.
The ethanol-blending rule, under review by the EPA, pits segments of the oil-refining sector in the Northeast against Midwest corn farmers over a requirement to comply with a Renewable Fuel Standard involving ethanol.
The standard requires refiners to blend a certain percentage of ethanol or other biofuel into gasoline and diesel to comply with the rule. Refiners that do not have the capability to blend ethanol into the fuel can comply by purchasing credits (known as “RINs”) instead, an expensive proposition, the lawmakers said.
“The cost of compliance to this regulation puts at risk these energy-sector jobs in our region,’’ the legislators said in the joint letter to Pruitt. “In addition, these high costs also contribute to the cost of gasoline for residents and consumers.’’
The legislators note the agency has legal authority under the Clean Air Act to waive the renewable obligations “should they present a harm to a state or regional economy.”
The Paulsboro plant, now in its 100th year, employs 475 full-time workers, as well as another 300 contractors, according to the legislators.
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