NJ lawmakers quietly pass two cantankerous enviro bills

NJ Dome with puffy clouds in backgrouind
By Frank Brill

EnviroPolitics Editor


“Not with a bang but a whimper” (The Hollow Men,T.S. Eliot )


After months of sustained criticism at public hearings, in newspaper editorials, and in radio and social-media ads, legislation to hand PSEG an annual $300 million public gift to keep their utility profits stable–and a separate bill boosting clean energy (at an uncertain taxpayer cost)–both  cleared the New Jersey Senate and Assembly on April 12 with hardly a peep. They now await Governor Phil Murphy’s approval, amendment or veto.


Tom Johnson reports in NJ Spotlight and Michael Sol Warren in NJ.com on the legislation’s background and passage.


PSEG’s case for the subsidy pales in comparison to the legislation’s deficiencies. Star-Ledger editor Tom Moran lines them up in: Will Murphy save us from PSEG’s outrageous nuke subsidy?


After reading Moran’s piece, you wonder how such lame legislation got through both houses with relative ease?


Two reasons:
1. The prime bill sponsor is Steve Sweeney who, as Senate President, controls what legislation comes up for votes in the upper house. If you’re a lawmaker who ever hopes to have one of your bills passed, you’d damn well better vote for the Senate President’s bills.    

2. PSEG is a political powerhouse.

  • The company has top-notch executives who understand New Jersey politics and strive to maintain a positive public image.
  • They build and maintain a solid energy infrastructure and train employees to keep your lights on during storms or to restore power promptly after an outage.
  • They respond to legislators and to local officials whose constituents have utility-related gripes.
  • They support a host of community events and place brand-awareness ads in dozens of publications and with media outlets like NJTV News.
  • Unlike many energy utility companies across the country, they take a progressive stance, advocating for solar and offshore wind energy and for conservation, too.
  • But when their stock price is threatened, PSEG can forsake the good-guy image and order their internal and external lobbyists to do bare-knuckled combat in the legislative trenches. And, by the way, they never lose.  


Related:
NJ Senate, Assembly passes nuclear subsidy bill (Reuters)
Will FERC charge slow the progress of PSEG’s bailout bill? (EnviroPolitics)
In New Jersey, the $300M PSEG nuclear bailout bill is back
(Enviro Politics)
PSEG twists arms to get its shameless nuke subsidy (Moran)
PSEG says it will close its nuclear power plants unless lawmakers agree to raise bills (The Record)
New industry-led coalition fights nuclear subsidies to PSEG (EnviroPolitics)


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NJ Assemblyman pays price for backing the wrong leader

Brent Johnson reports for NJ.com

Timothy Eustace, the second openly gay person ever elected to the New Jersey Legislature, will resign from the state Assembly on Friday, he confirmed to NJ Advance Media.

Eustace, a Bergen County Democrat who has served in the Legislature’s lower house since 2012, said Wednesday he’s “moving on to a different position” — though he declined to say what the job is.

“I’ve been honored and privileged to serve the people of New Jersey,” the 61-year-old Maywood resident said. “We’ve gotten some great stuff done.”

Politico New Jersey was the first to report the news.

Eustace was Maywood’s mayor from 2008 to 2011, when he was elected to represent north Jersey’s 38th legislative district — which includes parts of Bergen and Passaic counties — in the Assembly.

He is one of only two openly gay members of the Legislature. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, was the first. Gusciora came out in 2006, 10 years after his election.

Eustace and his late partner, Kevin Williams, gained national attention in the late 1980s when they became New Jersey’s first openly gay couple to apply to the state for joint adoption.

They later adopted three children who had contracted AIDS.

Eustace was elected to his fourth term in the Assembly in November.

But though he’s a major supporter of the environment, he was replaced as chairman of the Assembly’s environment committee in January.

That came after he backed former Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, in the battle for who would be speaker as a new term rolled around in January. New Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, won out.

Eustace was also recently passed over for a state Senate seat when veteran Sen. Robert Gordon resigned to become a member of the state Board of Public Utilities.

Democratic committee members in the district are expected to vote Wednesday night for Eustace’s district mate, Assemblyman Joseph Lagana, D-Bergen, to fill Gordon’s seat instead.

Eustace denied that either of those developments played a role in his decision to step down from the Assembly.

“Hopefully, I’m a bigger man than that,” he said.

Eustace’s resignation means Democratic committee members in the district will also vote on someone to fill Eustace’s Assembly seat until a special election in November for the remaining year of his term.

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E-vehicle bill could help Pa catch up to other states

Andrea Sears reports for  Public News Service 
As electric vehicles increase their range, more charging stations will be needed to meet the demand. (pxhere)
As electric vehicles increase their range, more charging stations will be needed to meet the demand. (pxhere)

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania is lagging behind some other states in creating the infrastructure to support electric vehicles, but a bill making its way through the Legislature could change that.

Transportation is one of the main sources of carbon pollution. But without a reliable network of charging stations, consumers are reluctant to switch to clean electric vehicles.

Noah Garcia, transportation policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says passage of House Bill 1446 would be a major win for clean energy in the Commonwealth. It would establish a statewide goal for transportation electrification.

“That goal would be to achieve levels of transportation electrification at least 50 percent above what would be expected to be business as usual by 2030,” says Garcia.

HB 1446 passed the House Transportation Committee with strong support and is expected to reach the floor of the House for a vote in the coming weeks.

Garcia notes that the bill also would require the state’s electric utilities and electric-vehicle charging service providers to create and implement a plan to meet the electrification goals.

“Those plans will include the deployment of charging infrastructure necessary to support a greater number of electric vehicles in the state,” says Garcia.

There are currently fewer than 300 charging stations and about 12,000 electric vehicles in Pennsylvania. In contrast, New York now has 600 charging stations and 30,000 electric vehicles.


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Farmers hit the road to reach shoppers before Amazon

The first order of business: David Nowacoski feeding his chickens (George Etheredge photo)

Michael Corkery reports for The New York Times:

EAST SMITHFIELD, Pa. — Huge retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Peapod are fighting for a piece of the online food delivery business.

So is David Nowacoski, a chicken and pig farmer here in East Smithfield.

Last month, Mr. Nowacoski started a service that delivers locally produced meats, cheeses and vegetables across three counties in northern Pennsylvania. His start-up collects food from far-flung farms and transports it weekly to residents who place their orders online.

We recently spent the day with Mr. Nowacoski and his wife, Marla, traveling about 92 miles in the family minivan, picking up and dropping off food from three farms, one cheese room, one tavern and a bakery.


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Need a bribe to buy an e-car? NJ might have one coming


Proposal would deliver rebates of $100M annually over three years to drivers who switch to plug-in vehicles

electric car black wireframe

Tom Johnson reports

for NJ Spotlight: 

Clean-energy advocates are still looking for ways to jumpstart the state’s efforts to phase out gas-guzzling cars in favor of plug-in electric vehicles.
Sen. Bob Smith, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, introduced a new bill (S-2382) that would have the state provide $100 million a year for the next three years in rebates to consumers who switch to zero-emission vehicles.
For Smith, the transformation of the transportation sector, the largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, is becoming a pet cause.
“I just think that we’ve got to get this show on the road,’’ said Smith, who has sponsored other bills intended to energize motorists to switch to electric vehicles, none of which have made much headway yet. “Global warming isn’t waiting for anyone.’’

Read the full story 

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Pa residents say whoa! to their township’s fracking map

Protect PT is challenging Penn Township's zoning ordinance, which allows drilling in the green areas of the map.

Protect PT is challenging Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, which allows drilling in the green areas  .
Reid Frazier reports for StateImpact Pennsylvania:
A dispute over a local law that opens up much of a Pittsburgh suburb to oil and gas drilling has made it to a Westmoreland County courtroom.
The citizens group ProtectPT is challenging Penn Township’s zoning ordinance, finalized in 2016, that allowed drilling in parts of the township zoned as “rural resource” areas.
These are typically open parts of the community, like farms and other sparsely populated areas. The community, about 20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, contains a mix of planned suburban subdivisions and farmland.
The group is arguing that the ordinance deprives residents in more densely populated parts of the township their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution to a clean environment.
The group wants the judge to limit fracking to a handful of industrial zones inside the township.
“We are saying this infringes on those rights because it pollutes the air, it pollutes the water through forcing chemicals into the earth and (by) polluting groundwater, as well as surface water for spills on the surface,” said Ann LeCuyer, of Trafford, Pa., which is part of the Penn-Trafford school district, and Protect PT’s Project & Outreach Coordinator.
“There’s trucks, there’s the drill rigs, there’s the noise, all which would reduce not only our health but our enjoyment of our property.”
The group is basing its lawsuit on the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment, Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which declares that “the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.”

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