FBI: Reboot your router to stop Russia-linked malware


[No, this has nothing to do with the environment (although possibly with politics) but we recognize it as important enough to call to the attention of  all our readers. Heed the FBI’s warning and reboot your router. It only takes a few minutes and could save you a lot of grief–and cause some for Russian hackers. Wouldn’t that be nice? — Editor]


Louis Lucero II reports for the New York Times:

Hoping to thwart a sophisticated malware system linked to Russia that has infected hundreds of thousands of internet routers, the F.B.I. has made an urgent request to anybody with one of the devices: Turn it off, and then turn it back on.

The malware is capable of blocking web traffic, collecting information that passes through home and office routers, and disabling the devices entirely, the bureau announced on Friday.

A global network of hundreds of thousands of routers is already under the control of the Sofacy Group, the Justice Department said last week. That group, which is also known as A.P.T. 28 and Fancy Bear and believed to be directed by Russia’s military intelligence agency, hacked the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 presidential election, according to American and European intelligence agencies.

The F.B.I. has several recommendations for any owner of a small office or home office router. The simplest thing to do is reboot the device, which will temporarily disrupt the malware if it is present. Users are also advised to upgrade the device’s firmware and to select a new secure password. If any remote-management settings are in place, the F.B.I. suggests disabling them.


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Lower limits announced for horseshoe crab catches in NY



The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has advised commercial Horseshoe Crab Permit Holders that:

  • Effective Monday, June 4, 2018, the daily trip limit is decreased to 30 crabs. This trip limit will remain in effect until further notice.

These Changes Only Apply to Commercial Fishing

All horseshoe crab harvest must be reported on the Vessel Trip Report (VTR). Weekly submission of horseshoe crab VTRs is required from April through July. If you need extra VTRs, or would like information on online reporting, please call 631-444-0857.


This action is taken pursuant to the quota distribution schedule of subdivision 44.3 of 6 NYCRR


Postcards have been sent to appropriate permit holders.
See complete list of Commercial Fishing Limits.


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PSE&G says big spending plans won’t hurt ratepayers


Company insists that expenditures will not spike ratepayer’s bills, but Rate Counsel, others remain skeptical

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
Public Service Electric & Gas plans to align its capital spending with state energy policies by filing requests to invest $2.9 billion on a clean-energy initiative and $2.5 billion to upgrade its power grid.

Public Service Enterprise Group, the utility’s parent, outlined the broad features of the programs yesterday at the New York Stock Exchange to analysts at the company’s annual investor’s conference. The formal filings should be made to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in the coming weeks and later this year, executives said.

Despite the huge proposed expenditures, PSEG executives argued they will not spike customers’ bills, in part because of the historically low natural-gas prices, which have plummeted in recent years, leading to lower electricity prices and sharply reduced heating costs.The spending proposals reflect the bulk of the company’s planned $14 billion – $17 billion capital investment program over the next five years with 90 percent of the expenditures targeted for the utility. Just last week, PSE&G won BPU approval to spend $1.9 billion to replace cast-iron and unprotected steel mains in its gas distribution system in a separate rate case.
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Even with the investments, Ralph Izzo, the company’s president, CEO, and chairman, said “in a decade, customers will be paying what they were paying back in 2010.’’ Customers’ bills have dropped by 20 percent since the company’s last rate case eight years ago, he said. 

Rate Counsel remains skeptical

Others were more skeptical. “This is just a massive transfer of wealth from the citizens of New Jersey to the shareholders of PSEG,’’ said Stefanie Brand, director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel.
Steve Goldenberg, an attorney representing large energy users, said these multi-billion dollar programs, when combined with other initiatives, such as a new $300 million annual subsidy for nuclear power plants, would place an intolerable burden on the business community and ratepayers.

Read the full story

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Multi states sue EPA over landfill methane regulations

Attorneys general sue EPA, claiming illegal delay of landfill regulation

MIranda Green reports for The Hill:
Nine state attorneys general (AG) filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency late Thursday alleging the agency is breaking the law by failing to enforce landfill methane regulations.
The regulation at issue is a 2016 guideline developed to help solid waste landfills reduce emissions. While the guideline went into effect in October 2016, the Trump administration has since delayed the rule, saying it will instead complete a reconsideration of it by the spring of 2020.
The attorneys general say the multi-year delay is a violation of the Clean Air Act.
“We will not turn a blind eye as he illegally refuses to implement this critical landfill methane regulation,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in a statement. “Climate change is the most important global environmental issue of our time. We must act to address it now for the sake of our children.”
Other states joining the lawsuit include Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Landfills are the third largest source of human related methane emissions in the country. The AGs argue that the regulation not only helps to cut the pollution but also the stench in neighboring communities.
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The suit is the second filed against EPA this week. Becerra and 16 other state AGs also sued EPA Wednesday over suspended safeguards for agricultural workers handling pesticides.
California has taken the lead in challenging EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt‘s regulatory rollbacks dealing largely with pollution and climate change.

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Fishermen’s offshore energy project gets ‘third wind’ in NJ

Murphy signs bill requiring BPU to accept application from Fishermen’s, third time project will come before state agency

offshore wind

Tom Johnson reports for
NJ Spotlight:

Fishermen’s Energy is going to get another shot at convincing the state to approve its small, pilot offshore wind project about three miles from Atlantic City.

Gov. Phil Murphy yesterday signed without comment a bill (S-1217) that requires the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to accept an application from Fishermen’s and review it within 90 days.
For Fishermen’s, it will be the third time the 24-megawatt offshore-wind project will have come before the regulatory agency. The two previous times, the BPU rejected the proposal as being too expensive to ratepayers, who will pay for the electricity from the wind turbines.

A jump-start

To clean-energy advocates and legislators, however, the bill is viewed as jump starting the state’s nearly eight-year-old effort to develop offshore wind as a viable and cleaner source of electricity in the state.
“Wind energy offers the opportunity to create jobs in a growing sector of the economy at the same time we generate clean energy that helps protect the environment,’’ said Senate President Steve Sweeney, the sponsor of the bill.
For Murphy, the project, if approved, offers a chance to get an offshore wind project operating before he has to run for re-election a little more than three years from now. Murphy has established a goal of developing 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacity along the Jersey coast by 2030. None of the big offshore wind farms currently in development are likely to be operating until 2023 at the earliest.
Since the Fishermen’s project was last before the BPU, the company reached a preliminary agreement earlier this spring to be acquired by EDF Renewable Energy, a global developer of clean-energy projects. EDF has developed 400 megawatts of offshore wind capacity in Europe.
EDF executives are confident the Fishermen’s Energy project will get a better reception this time around. Former Gov. Chris Christie initially backed offshore wind, but soured on the technology, viewing it as too expensive to utility customers, who already pay some of the highest energy bills in the country.

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