Will FERC charge slow the progress of PSEG’s bailout bill?

PSEG nuclear power generating complex in Salem County, NJ

Federal agency contends alleged violations occurred when company was bidding into power auction to set prices consumers pay for electricity



Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:


A federal agency is alleging a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group made false and misleading statements in bidding into the nation’s largest energy market, a process that helps determine how much consumers pay for electricity.


The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s staff issued a preliminary notice of alleged violations by PSEG Energy Resources & Trade LLC, the company’s trading arm, over a nine-year period from early 2005 until March 2014.


The notice, issued late Thursday, comes at an inopportune time for PSEG, which is hoping to win approval this week from both houses of the Legislature of a much-debated bill that would allow its nuclear plants to gain $300 million a year in ratepayer subsidies.


Without those incentives, PSEG has threatened to close three plants in South Jersey, saying they will not be profitable in the near future, a contention opponents have argued the company has failed to demonstrate.


Opponents of the subsidies
The disclosure of the preliminary findings by the agency rippled the past weekend through a loose coalition of groups trying to derail the nuclear subsidies. They long have disputed PSEG’s assertion the plants will likely lose money when existing contracts expire in a couple of years. 

The alleged violations by the company cited by the commission should be reason for pause, critics said.


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NJ contractors who paid largest share of $9.4M donations


Remington & Vernick Engineers Inc. was the largest donor among contractors, with $512,550, followed by T&M Associates with $366,880, Alaimo Group with $345,500, Pennoni Associates Inc. with $317,729 and CME Associates with $316,710, the NJ Election Law Commission reported.


James Nash reports for NorthJersey.com


After reporting that engineering firms and other contractors put $9.4 million into campaigns last year, the state’s campaign-finance watchdog — usually quick to advocate tougher rules on political spending — called on lawmakers to loosen the rules intended to prevent contractors from donating in exchange for contracts.

The $9.4 million sum, while the highest since the last gubernatorial election in 2013, is still low enough to suggest that contractors are evading “pay to play” laws by directing their political spending into harder-to-track independent groups that spend millions without directly coordinating with candidates, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Such independent groups spent $47.5 million in last year’s election, the commission said in a separate report, dwarfing the total spent by state parties and legislative leadership committees.

State law bars most firms with state contracts worth more than $17,500 from contributing more than $300 to candidates for governor as well as county and state political parties. Firms that exceed the limit must either get their money back or forfeit their public contracts for four years.


“We hope the new Murphy administration and the Legislature will take up ELEC-recommended legislation this year that would greatly simplify pay-to-play laws, increase the amount contractors can give, and allow parties to accept more than just token donations from contractors,” Jeff Brindle, the executive director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, said in a press release.

The $9.4 million sum from engineering, construction and law firms and other contractors was lower than most years since 2007, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Spending by contractors peaked at $16.4 million in 2007, according to commission data.

The largest beneficiary of the contractors’ largesse last year was state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Gloucester Democrat and ironworkers’ union leader who was defending his seat against a challenge funded largely by the state teachers’ union. Gov. Phil Murphy was only the sixth-largest recipient of contractor money, the state regulators found.


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Energy and enviro bills on NJ Senate voting agenda

The New Jersey Senate will meet at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 12, for a voting session. Included among the posted bills are:     

S71 (Singleton) – Prohibits dumping dredge spoils on and around certain islands without municipal approval.

S1083 (Cruz-Perez / Gopal) – Establishes loan program and provides corporation business tax and gross income tax credits for establishment of new vineyards and wineries.

S1217 (Sweeney / Smith) – Requires BPU consideration and approval of amended application for qualified wind energy project offshore in certain NJ territorial waters.

S1925 (Bateman) – Designates Bog Turtle as State Reptile.

S2287 (Turner) – Designates Pine Barrens Treefrog as NJ State Amphibian.

S2313 (Sweeney / Smith / Van Drew) – Establishes zero emission certificate program. [Related story]

S2314 (Smith / Sweeney / Van Drew) – Establishes and modifies clean energy and energy efficiency programs; modifies State’s solar renewable energy portfolio standards. [Related story]

A2787 / S2127 (Dancer / Andrzejczak / Houghtaling / Cruz-Perez / Singer) – Extends pilot program authorizing special occasion events at wineries on preserved farmland; implements reporting requirement.

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William Penn Foundation funding Delaware River’s revival

Leah Mishkin reports for NJTV News:

The William Penn Foundation is donating $42 million over the next three years to protect and restore clean water in the Delaware River watershed.
” … which includes parts of four states, 13,500 square miles in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware,” said Andrew Johnson, director of the Watershed Protection Program at the William Penn Foundation.

The foundation has already donated $64 million over the past four years for the same efforts.

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What’s this? Trump supporting wind energy?

Interior secretary calls wind part of administration’s
‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy, wants to gauge interest
in shallow waters between NJ and Long Island



Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:


In a step to bolster the tapping of wind resources off the Eastern Seaboard, the Trump administration is planning to open more areas in the Northeast to build offshore wind farms.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke appeared at a conference in Princeton on offshore wind Friday and announced plans to hold lease sales for two additional areas off Massachusetts and to gauge interest in new leases along the New York Bight, the shallow waters between Long Island and New Jersey.


Unlike past administration energy initiatives, such as the widespread opposition to new oil and gas drilling off the East Coast, the offshore wind development largely reflects aggressive state plans to chart a big new future for offshore wind in New Jersey’s coastal waters.


‘America dominance’
“The Trump administration supports an all-of-the-above energy policy and using every tool available to achieve American dominance,’’ Zinke said. Later, he told reporters state laws to block drilling off their coasts could hinder new oil and gas exploration there. One such bill is on Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk.


In contrast, Murphy wants to develop 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind capacity along the coast, enough to supply 1.5 million homes. Two developers have spent nearly $2 million buying leases from the federal government to build offshore wind farms. Those projects are still in the study phase.


So far, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees the process for the Department of the Interior, has awarded 13 commercial wind-energy leases off the Atlantic coast, including the two in New Jersey. Another lease off of Delaware is expected to be only 16 miles from of Cape May in the Delaware Bay.


There is tremendous interest in offshore wind, a technology that has flourished in Europe for decades. Zinke’s announcement concluded a three-day conference in Princeton attended by more than 800 people. There is only one offshore wind farm operating in the United States, a 30-megawatt project off of Rhode Island.

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Gun control bills to get a rare hearing in Pennsylvania

The Morning Call’s Tim Darragh reports :

With the memory of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., still fresh, state lawmakers from across Pennsylvania will on Monday start the first of two weeks of hearings on bills related to firearms.


Advocates for a variety of gun bills say it’s a rare opportunity to air out arguments for — and against — bills on a topic that stirs deep passions.


“I’m thrilled just to even have the conversation,” said State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, who will testify Tuesday. To his memory, “it’s the first time we’ve ever had any hearings on any gun proposals for or against.”


Seven Republicans and seven Democrats are lined up to testify Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, said Ron Marsico, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The hearings will be held in Room 140 in the state Capitol, and resume April 16 and 17, with the possibility of a sixth day April 18.


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