EnviroPolitics Blog

Christie backed off at lewd and for that he got screwed

Daily News writers Denis Slattery and Terence Cullen report:

Raunchy recordings of President Trump bragging about infidelities and lewd behavior cost Chris Christie his shot at a cabinet position, according to former White House aide Stephen Bannon.

The New Jersey governor’s reaction to the release of a 2005 recording of Trump making sexually degrading comments about women to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush sealed his fate, Bannon tells CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview set to air Sunday.

Bannon said the weekend after the scandalous tape was released was a “litmus test” in terms of who was really with Trump.

“Billy Bush Saturday showed me who really had Donald Trump’s back to play to his better angels,” he told CBS News.

Trump huddled his top advisers together on Oct. 8, a day after millions of Americans heard him describe grabbing women by the genitalia.

Bannon recalled then-Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus gave Trump an ultimatum: “You either drop out right now, or you lose by the biggest landslide in American political history.”

The conservative adviser — who went on to spend six months as the White House’s chief strategist — claims he was the only one in the room who said Trump still had an “absolutely 100%” chance of winning.

“(Voters) knew Donald Trump was just doing locker room talk with a guy,” he continued. “And they dismissed it. It had no lasting impact on the campaign.”

Anyone in Trump’s inner circle who thought otherwise was bound to pay a price, Bannon said.

Story continued here

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PADEP’s quarry reclamation requirements upheld

Thomas Friestad reports for the Bucks Courier-Times:

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection was “reasonable” in the reclamation requirements it set for New Hope Crushed Stone and Lime’s quarry in Solebury, the five-person Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board ruled Thursday.

The board had originally deemed the quarry off Phillips Mill Road a “public nuisance” in July 2014 for “the unabated, unpredictable and dangerous formation” of at least 29 collapsed sinkholes on Solebury School’s campus and other surrounding properties between 1989 and 2013, caused by mining operations, wrote board Judge Bernard Labuskes Jr. in the court’s decision.

New Hope Crushed Stone had to fill in its mining pit with backfill to eliminate the nuisance, the DEP determined, but the quarry protested requirements the department gave it in a January 2016 plan.

The requirements, including assigning four laborers to work 40 hours each week and placing a minimum of 200 cubic yards of fill in the pit per hour, were “arbitrary and capricious,” New Hope Crushed Stone wrote in an appeal to the Environmental Hearing Board the next month.

Quarry executives also argued that the DEP’s requirements ignored “significant safety concerns” — winter precipitation could cause soil near the pit to slip and send laborers over the edge, said Lou Vittorio, the quarry’s longtime consulting hydrogeologist. Christina Cursley, the quarry’s chief financial officer, also echoed comments she sent the DEP in a June letter, saying the quarry had difficulty hiring and retaining employees, and therefore had to juggle training unskilled laborers while making progress on filling the pit.

But the DEP presented significant evidence that other quarries had safely performed reclamation during winter months, Labuskes wrote. And staffing difficulties or not, he wrote, the quarry’s ability to comply with the DEP’s requirements is “irrelevant” in determining whether those requirements are objectively reasonable. The Environmental Hearing Board ultimately dismissed the quarry’s appeal.

Eli Lilly to close NJ office, eliminate 3,500 jobs worldwide

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly will close its New York-New Jersey headquarters in Bridgewater, as well as eliminate roughly 3,500 jobs around the world — about 8 percent of its total workforce — as part of an effort to streamline its operations.

Vince Calio reports for NJBIZ

The company said in a press release that the majority of the 3,500 employees will have the option of choosing its Voluntary Early Retirement Program, and that the move is expected to produce $500 million in savings annually starting next year.

“We have an abundance of opportunities — eight medicines launched in the past four years and the potential for two more by the end of next year,” David Ricks, Lilly’s CEO, said in a press release. “To fully realize these opportunities and invest in the next generation of new medicines, we are taking action to streamline our organization and reduce our fixed costs around the world.

“The actions we are announcing today will result in a leaner, more nimble global organization and will accelerate progress towards our long-term goals of growing revenue, expanding operating margins and sustaining the flow of life-changing medicines from our pipeline.”

The Bridgewater office, which was located in the Grande Commons off of Route 22, had about 200 employees and was used mainly for research and development. Some of those employees will be relocated to the company’s New York City office and Branchburg location, which is staying open, or will be offered early retirement benefits if eligible, a company spokeswoman said.

The office is being closed as a way to “streamline the global pharmaceutical research and development activities,” the press release said. “The commitment and perseverance of our people, who never give up on our mission of tackling hard-to-treat diseases, make up our legacy of more than 140 years. We will implement changes with fairness and the utmost respect for our Lilly colleagues, while we remain a vibrant, thriving competitor.”

The Indianapolis-based company expects to incur charges of approximately $1.2 billion in pre-tax ($0.80 per share after-tax), which includes the estimated participation of the U.S. voluntary early retirement program, global severance and facility closures. These charges will be reflected as asset impairment, restructuring and other special charges in the third and fourth quarters of 2017, the press release said.

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PSE&G gets green light for energy-saving programs

State’s largest utility looks to help hospitals, multifamily units, and government buildings cut power and gas bills, while offering new options to residential accounts

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

energy efficiency

The state is allowing Public Service Electric & Gas to once again offer energy-saving programs to help hospitals, multifamily units, and government buildings cut their electric and gas bills.

With the approval of the Board of Public Utilities last week, the state’s largest utility will extend three popular energy efficiency programs while offering residential customers a couple of new options to help reduce bills and better manage energy use.

The existing programs are targeted to underserved markets where sizable energy savings could be reaped, but have not occurred because the recipients lack the capital to invest in ways to cut energy use.

“Energy efficiency remains a huge missed opportunity for too many of our customers,’’ said Courtney McCormick, vice president of renewables and energy solutions at PSE&G.

For the first time, the utility won approval to offer residential customers a $150 discount on smart thermostats under the $85.1 million program approved by the BPU. PSE&G will invest $6.5 million to offer 35,000 customers the chance to purchase the thermostats at a discount, according to McCormick.

The utility also is investing $2.5 million in a new residential home-energy reporting program, which will identify a variety of energy consumption data to help customers reduce bills.

Warehouse tax abatement considered for ex-U.S. Pipe site

Former U.S. Pipe site in Burlington, NJ could become a mammoth warehouse

David Levinsky reports for the Burlington County Times:

BURLINGTON CITY (NJ) — The city government is planning to vote later this month on a proposed multimillion-dollar tax abatement deal with a Middlesex County developer interested in building a mammoth 1-million-square-foot warehouse at the former U.S. Pipe and Foundry property.

The proposed agreement with Matrix Reality Inc. spares the company from having to pay property taxes based on the assessed value of the property for 20 years, but it would require Matrix to pay service fees, also called payments in lieu of taxes or PILOT, to the city to help cover local services such as police and fire protection and trash collection at the redeveloped site.

Numerous other redevelopment projects, including several in Burlington County, have entered into similar agreements.

“Just about every warehouse in New Jersey has a PILOT,” Mayor Barry Conaway said Thursday, adding that he was convinced the agreement was the right thing to do so the property could be redeveloped.

None of the PILOT revenues are required to go to the school district, but Conaway said he hoped the City Council would agree to share some of the PILOT revenue with the district.

The council introduced an ordinance to enter into the agreement Tuesday. A public hearing and adoption vote are tentatively scheduled for Sept. 19.

The warehouse project is expected to generate about 600 year-round jobs and 300 or more seasonal positions at the former foundry site off Pearl and Jones streets.

The property is in need of some environmental remediation and has been dormant for most of the last two decades. City officials said the tax abatement was needed to assist Matrix in redeveloping the site, which spans into Burlington Township.

Critics slam plan to protect NJ Transit trains during floods

NJ Transit voted today to spend $185 million on property in Middlesex County where it can safely store its trains during major storms.

During Hurricane Sandy, 300 train cars were ruined by flooding at the agency’s Middlesex Maintenance Complex, also in Middlesex County.

However, critics contend that the flood-protection site itself lies in a flood plain and that the millions to be spent on it would be better put to constructing a new tunnel to Manhattan.

Brenda Flanagan has the story for NJTV News.

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