Pa. top court disallows gas drilling in residential zone

P.J. D’Annunzio reports in  the Legal Intelligencer:

The states Supreme Court has overturned a ruling allowing the construction of “unconventional” natural gas wells in an area zoned for residential and agricultural use in Lycoming County.
In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Christine Donahue wrote that the record did not reflect sufficient evidence to allow for conditional use of the wells in the zone. Justice Kevin Dougherty dissented, arguing that the opposite was true.
Inflection Energy petitioned the Fairfield Township Board of Supervisors to drill on the property in question, which the township allowed. The case was appealed by the landowners and a Lycoming County judge ruled in their favor. However, the Commonwealth Court later reviewed the case and held the township’s zoning ordinance permits drilling in R-A zones.
The dispute centered on whether Inflection satisfied a section of the ordinance that stated conditional use may be granted if it could show the requested purpose is “similar to and compatible with the other uses permitted in the zone where the subject property is located.”
“In its application, Inflection did not identify any use allowed in the R-A district that it considered to be ‘similar to’ the drilling and operation of industrial shale gas wells,” Donahue said.
Deeper into the opinion, she added, “In reversing the trial court’s decision, the Commonwealth Court, without explanation or citation, insisted that the record contained ‘detailed findings of fact.’ As noted, however, the board’s decision contained no findings of fact whatsoever with respect to similarity of use. The Commonwealth Court further maintained that the trial court … improperly acted as the fact-finder and substituted its credibility determinations for those of the board. We must again respectfully disagree.”
Donahue reasoned, “Inflection’s proposed gas wells use provides no public or essential services to the residents of the R-A district, and provides no infrastructure that supports and promotes residential and agricultural development in Fairfield Township. Inflection’s proposed use is intended solely for Inflection’s own commercial benefit, and not in any respect for the benefit of furthering the expressed goals of Fairfield Township’s R-A district.”

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UPDATE: Environmental & energy bills released today


UPDATE: Every bill listed below was released except S-1683. It was held for additional discussion at a future meeting.
  
The New Jersey Senate’s Environment and Energy Committee meets at 10 a.m. today in Room 10 on the third floor of the State House Annex. Committeemembers will consider the following bills:


A1033 Palisades Interst. Park-open space elig.

ACR144 Clean Air Act-concerns

S542 High Point St. Park-desig. Vet. St. Park

S1683 Solid & haz. waste-concerns regulation

S1760 Palisades Interst. Park-open space elig.

S2253 Natural gas veh.-bus., income tax cred.

S2255 Veh. charging stations-prov bus tax cred

S2645 Infra. Bank enabling act-makes changes
S2646 Env. infra. proj., FY2019-approp. fds.

S2647 Env. infra. proj.-expend cert. sums

SCR121 Clean Air Act-concerns

SCR122 Infra. Bank-approves FY 2019

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Judge to Pruitt: Show the evidence for your climate denial

Pruitt's used mattressEPA Administrator Scott Pruitt receiving a special delivery from Greenpeace


From the DAILY KOS:


Remember last March, when Pruitt’s scandal du jour wasn’t about trying to get himself a used mattress or his wife a fast food gig or wasting money on fancy pens or any of the other 10 scandals this month? Remember when all we were concerned about was how he said climate change wasn’t caused by human activity?
As it turns out, a federal judge hasn’t let herself be distracted by the increasingly outrageous revelations against Pruitt from that original concern. On Friday, US District Court judge Beryl Howell ordered the EPA to produce the evidence upon which Pruitt based his comments.
This could be a tall order, because, of course, there is no good evidence to suggest humans aren’t driving climate change. At least none solid enough to hold up in court.
But tobacco lobbyist-turned-fossil-fuel-defender-turned-shadow-EPA-admin Steve Milloy isn’t worried. He suggested on Twitter that Heartland’s climate report is all the proof Pruitt needs for the judge.
Unfortunately for Milloy, a quick Google on that report brings up all sorts of reasons why it’s not going to pass any sort of courtroom scrutiny. Despite being named after the IPCC, Heartlands Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) report clearly lacks the credibility of its namesake. And it doesn’t take a law degree and years on the judicial bench to smell the BS: the school teachers who received the report in a mass spamming last year quickly saw through the sham.
As well they should. Heartland has issued NIPCC reports for years now and the content of each report relies on already-debunked denier talking points. For example, RealClimate debunked the 2008 report by pointing to pre-existing rebuttals. The 2009 and 2011 reports were overrun with cherrypicks, the 2013 report was zombie science, 2014’s was a joke, and 2016 took a fruitless run at the consensus.
And let’s not forget that deniers have already tried, and failed, to prove their denial in court. Perhaps, then, the courtroom will house the Red Team attack on climate science Pruitt has long tried to get going. But instead of being used to attack regulations, Pruitt will be playing defense.
Looks like Pruitt might get a chance to go to the (used) mattresses after all.

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Guess who might provide a big boost to U.S. solar industry

Analysts expect solar panel costs to drop by a third. That could be a lifeline for U.S. developers, who sidelined billions of dollars in projects over the tariffs.

China announced it was scaling back some of its solar subsidies. Analysts expect the policies to reduce the amount of solar installed in China, but increase its solar panel sales globally, lowering prices. Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Nicholas Kusnetz reports for Inside Climate News:The American solar market may be about to get boost from an unexpected source: Energy analysts say the Chinese government’s decision to dramatically cut its solar power subsidies will create a glut of solar panels and send their prices tumbling worldwide.

It comes at a crucial time for American solar installers. Falling prices could take the sting out of President Trump’s solar panel tariffs, which have raised costs in the United States and led to billions of dollars in cancelled and frozen U.S. investments.

“It’s changing the tone from negative to positive for the U.S.,” said Xiaoting Wang, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Last week, the Chinese government announced it would halt approvals of new subsidized utility-scale solar plants, limit the amount of smaller-scale distributed generation installed and shrink the subsidies it provides to solar generators. All told, these policies are expected to cut the amount of solar capacity installed this year in China by 30 to 40 percent, according to Wood Mackenzie and BNEF.

Because China leads the world in new solar installations, the steep drop in demand will ripple across the global market.
BNEF expects prices of some panels to fall 34 percent as result. That will bring down installation costs for new solar projects, particularly large, utility-scale systems, and spur new investment in other countries, though BNEF said that new investment is unlikely to make up for the drop in China.

Lower Prices Could Counteract the Tariffs

Morgan Lyons, a spokesman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said it’s too soon to know what the effects on the U.S. market will be, but that it will likely lead to lower costs.
The drop could also counteract the impact of new tariffs the Trump administration imposed on imported solar panels. The tariffs, which started this year at 30 percent and will decline over the next three years, gave a boost to domestic manufacturers of solar panels, who faced competition from cheap imports from China and other countries. One of those manufacturers, First Solar Inc., saw its stock price fall sharply after China’s announcement because it’s now expected to face lower-cost competition once again.
But the tariffs have the opposite effect on the solar installation sector, which employs far more people than manufacturing.
U.S. solar developers have canceled or frozen more than $2.5 billion in investments, Reuters reported Thursday. A report by GTM Research said the tariffs would cut solar installations by 11 percent over five years, or about 7.6 gigawatts less new capacity than previously forecast.






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NJ’s ‘Battle of the Bob’s’ promises to be dirty and nasty

Bruised by his lackluster win in Tuesday’s primary, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez still favored to beat Republican Bob Hugin in fall election

menendez hugin

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (left) and Republican senatorial hopeful Bob Hugin
Colleen O’Day reports
for NJ Spotlight:


Now that the primary is over, the battle of the Bobs for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat begins in earnest and though he may be bruised, Sen. Robert Menendez is still the favorite to win after what is expected to be by all accounts a nasty, negative campaign.
Menendez (D-NJ), a 12-year incumbent, had a lackluster win on Tuesday over a virtually unknown Lisa McCormick, garnering just 62 percent of the vote. He lost to the local news publisher in six counties – Cape May, Hunterdon, Salem, Somerset, Sussex and Warren. All but Somerset are Republican-dominant with low Democratic registration. His only dominant majorities of more than 70 percent were in Essex and Hudson counties, which have strong Democratic machines, and in Bergen.
But at least two national politics ratings continue to rate New Jersey’s Senate race this year as a likely Democratic win and Jersey-based pundits agree, although it is not likely to be as easy as his 20-point victory in 2012.
“All the news about Sen. Menendez leading up to the primary was bad, it won’t be in the general election,” said Matthew Hale, a professor of political science and public affairs at Seton Hall University, noting that the Senate Ethics Committee “severely admonished” Menendez less than six weeks before the primary. “A lot of people who voted for McCormick are going to come back to Sen. Menendez in November.”
Hale said the November election will wind up being less about the corruption charges against Menendez — of which he was not convicted — and more about the latest scandal involving the Trump administration. Menendez was charged with accepting gifts and travel from a campaign donor on whose behalf he intervened with a federal agency. Menendez said the gifts were from a friend. A trial led to a hung jury and the Justice Department has since dropped the charges.

Read the full story


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NJ ban on styrofoam food containers in schools advances


By Frank Brill
EnviroPolitics Editor


The New Jersey Senate today passed (37-1) legislation that would prohibit the sale of food and beverages in Styrofoam food containers by public schools and public institutions of higher education.


The prohibition would not apply to any food or beverage that was filled and sealed in a styrofoam food container before a school or public institution of higher education received it.


Co-sponsors Troy Singleton (D-Mount Laurel) and Senator Christopher Bateman (R-Somerville) claim that the containers have led to environmental issues, including waste pollution, because they are not bio-degradable and have few facililties that can recycle them.


 A long list of environmental organizations support the legislation, S1486, that now moves to the Assembly.


Related: NJ bill would ban Styrofoam school lunch containers

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