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.’’

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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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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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