Report lauds $3.7B potential of Marcellus liquids in Pa.

Workers install the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Washington County, PA, this year. A state report released Tuesday says that Marcellus gas liquids could spur up to $3.7 billion in investment in Pennsylvania.
CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

Andrew Maykuth reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Production of Marcellus Shale gas liquids such as ethane and propane could fuel up to $3.7 billion in investments as well as attracting additional petrochemical and plastics manufacturing to Pennsylvania, according to a report released Tuesday by Gov. Wolf and the Team Pennsylvania Foundation.


“Pennsylvania has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop and implement a strategy that will cultivate a manufacturing renaissance and transform our economy across the commonwealth,” Wolf said in a statement.

 
The study, “Prospects to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Opportunities in Petrochemical Manufacturing,” was done by energy consultant IHS Markit.

Natural gas liquids are currently being transported across Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook in Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Mariner East pipeline, and also used as the raw material in a Shell Chemical ethane cracker under construction in Beaver County.


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NJ lawmakers take yet another shot at RGGI participation

Tom Johnson writes for NJ Spotlight: 


Regional effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions could be critical, some lawmakers say, if Trump rolls back initiative to reduce power plant pollution

power plant

With a new administration in Washington pulling back on climate-change initiatives, New Jersey lawmakers are reviving an effort to rejoin a multi-state initiative to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Senate Environment and Energy Committee yesterday approved a bill that would have New Jersey rejoin a regional program to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, a venture Gov. Chris Christie pulled out of early in his first term.
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Not even its proponents believe the governor will sign the bill if passed, but they argue it is important to make clear the state’s intentions once a new executive takes office.

“The timing couldn’t be more important,’’ Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey told the committee, citing reports that the Trump administration could dismantle a plan to reduce power plant emissions adopted by former President Barack Obama as early as this week.
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, agreed, saying the best way to implement that effort, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, is by joining the multistate effort known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. “It’s important to send a message,’’ he said.
The program has become a political football in New Jersey since Christie pulled the state out of it, calling the initiative a tax on utility customers and ineffective in its goals.
Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the sponsor and chairman of the committee, disagreed, citing reports from a consultant that claimed it’s boosted economic activity in the region, lowered customers’ bills, and returned more than $113 million to New Jersey.
“It’s a great program. I think we should never have left it,’’ said Smith, a course his latest bill would prevent. “If we are in, we’re in; we can’t pull out afterwards.’’
After Christie pulled out, the Legislature tried to get New Jersey back in, but the executive branch ignored those efforts. The matter also was litigated in the courts, with the Christie administration losing on procedural grounds, which it later corrected by adopting a formal withdrawal through a rule-making process.
The move to rejoin the regional initiative was opposed by business lobbyists yesterday, who said the state is doing a fine job reducing emissions contributing to climate change.
“We have the lowest emissions in PJM (the regional power grid stretching from the Eastern Seaboard to Illinois) from our power plants,’’ said Sara Bluhm, a lobbyist for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. She expressed concerns that rejoining the multi-state program would increase electricity bills.
The power sector is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, behind the transportation sector, in New Jersey. The state gets nearly half of its electricity from nuclear power, which does not produce pollution contributing to global warming.
Nonetheless, a plan put together by the state Department of Environmental Protection to achieve an 80 percent reduction in carbon pollution by 2050 identified RGGI as one of the three main components to realize that goal. The others include a program to encourage low- and zero-emission vehicle adoption in New Jersey, and steps outlined in the state’s Energy Master Plan.
The vehicle-emission program, which has been adopted in California and nine other Northeast states, is reportedly also targeted for elimination by the new administration in Washington.
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Trump building wall but maybe not the Hudson rail tunnel

The first element of Gateway, a mission-critical bridge, may not get the needed — and expected — federal funding, possibly derailing entire initiative

gateway amtrak

Credit: Amtrak/Chuck Gomez
Amtrak train exiting the north tube of the outmoded Hudson River Tunnel from New York into New Jersey.
John Reitmeyer reports for
NJ Spotlight:

Work on a key bridge that’s part of the ambitious Gateway plan to build two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River is supposed to begin this year. But whether that will happen seems up in the air, as the initial preview of President Donald Trump’s first budget has put the project’s substantial federal funding in question.

Only a few sentences related to transportation spending are in a budget summary released by the White House last week, but they indicate the Trump administration plans to freeze new federal-grant agreements for infrastructure projects like Gateway that aren’t yet fully funded.
The budget proposal marks an apparent reversal by the Republican president on the issue of infrastructure after he repeatedly stressed the need to rebuild the nation’s “roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, sea ports, and airports” while on the presidential campaign trail in 2016. The project had been earmarked as the most important in the country by the Obama administration, since it not only impacts New York and New Jersey but the economy of the entire East Coast.
In response to a possible freeze, warnings are already being sent by federal lawmakers, transportation advocates, and even Gov. Chris Christie — who canceled New Jersey’s last major trans-Hudson tunnel project in 2010 — that there will be a major effort launched to save the funding for Gateway and keep its construction on track.

Read the full story here

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EnviroPolitics Podcast: The Week in review – Mar 13-19


Our podcast is back with a New Episode (#14) in which we review some of the interesting political and environment stories featured in the past week in our daily subscription newsletter, EnviroPolitics or its free companion–EnviroPolitics Blog.


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Lots of green legislation activity Monday in Trenton


Environmental and appropriations committees in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly are scheduled to handle 22 bills on Monday, March 20, dealing with clean energy, land conservation and other issues, while railroad plans to handle discharges from trains and agency priority reviews for green building projects are the topics of three floor votes in the Assembly.

Here’s the lineup: 

SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
3/20/17 10:00 AM
Aide: (609) 847-3855
Committee Room 10, 3rd Floor, State House Annex
*Revised 3/16/17 – S-2400 has been added for consideration.
S-772  Smith, B. (D-17)
Requires electric public utilities to enter into
long-term contracts for certain forms of Class I renewable energy.
    
S-2400  Cruz-Perez, N. (D-5); Allen, D.B. (R-7)
Authorizes use of tracking dog to search for and
recover wild deer during prescribed hunting season.
Related Bill: A-1616
      
S-3029  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Establishes “Volkswagen Settlement Utilization
Fund for Motor Vehicle Emissions Reduction and Air Pollution Control”;
directs DEP to use moneys in fund to establish and implement certain air
pollution control programs.
      
S-3059  Sweeney, S.M. (D-3); Smith, B. (D-17)
Requires State’s full participation in Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
      
S-3060  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Requires municipalities, public utilities, and State to
use LED technology in certain street lights.
     
S-3061  Bateman, C. (R-16); Smith, B. (D-17)
Requires BPU to conduct study concerning zero emission
credits.
      
S-3062  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Allows 50 percent credit against societal benefits
charge to electric or gas public utility customers who install and maintain
publicly available zero emission vehicle charging stations.
    
S-3063  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Allows 50 percent credit against societal benefits
charge to local governments that utilize traffic signals that use light
emitting diode technology.
     
S-3064  Smith, B. (D-17); Thompson, S.D. (R-12)
Requires BPU to conduct energy storage analysis.
      
S-3065  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Provides gross income tax credit for costs to purchase
and install smart thermostats.
     
S-3066  Sarlo, P.A. (D-36); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Requires installation of smart thermostats in all new
residential construction.
     
SR-96  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Urges Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to impose
cost caps on electric transmission projects.
     
SR-110  Smith, B. (D-17); Greenstein, L.R. (D-14)
Urges BPU to adopt goal to equip 500,000 homes with
energy-saving smart thermostats by 2023.

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ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS
3/20/17 10:00 AM
Aide: (609) 847-3835
Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex
Time changed to 10 a.m.
A-4580  Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Burzichelli, J.J.
(D-3); Quijano, A. (D-20)
Appropriates $2,900,000 from “2009 Farmland
Preservation Fund” for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for
farmland preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2989
      
A-4581  Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Andrzejczak, B.
(D-1); Singleton, T. (D-7); Downey, J. (D-11)
Appropriates $22,385,743 to State Agriculture
Development Committee for farmland preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2987
      
A-4582  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Mazzeo, V. (D-2);
Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Zwicker, A. (D-16)
Appropriates $32.5 million from constitutionally
dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for county
planning incentive grants.
Related Bill: S-2990
      
A-4583  Zwicker, A. (D-16); Conaway, H. (D-7); Land,
R.B. (D-1); Downey, J. (D-11)
Appropriates $2,988,859 from 2009 Historic Preservation
Fund and constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to provide capital
preservation grants for certain historic preservation projects.  Related Bill: S-2991
     
A-4584  Zwicker, A. (D-16); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3);
Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3)
Appropriates $7,500,000 from constitutionally dedicated
CBT revenues for planning incentive grants to municipalities for farmland
preservation purposes.
Related Bill: S-2988
     
A-4597  Zwicker, A. (D-16); Singleton, T. (D-7);

Muoio, E.M. (D-15)
Appropriates $59,532,000 from constitutionally
dedicated CBT revenues for State acquisition of lands for recreation and
conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects, and capital and park
development projects.
Related Bill: S-2997

S-2997  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Appropriates $59,532,000 from constitutionally
dedicated CBT revenues for State acquisition of lands for recreation and
conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects, and capital and park
development projects.
Related Bill: A-4597
______________________________________________________________________

ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE
03/20/17  2:00 PM
Aide: (609) 847-3855
Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex

A-4092  Eustace, T. (D-38)
Provides for protection of public’s rights under public
trust doctrine.
Related Bill: S-2490
      
A-4569  Eustace, T. (D-38); Diegnan, P.J. (D-18);
McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37); Benson, D.R. (D-14)
The “Water Quality Accountability Act”;
imposes certain testing, reporting, management, and infrastructure investment
requirements on water purveyors.
Related Bill: S-2834
     
____________________________________________

ASSEMBLY VOTING SESSION
3/23/17  1:00 PM
Assembly Chambers
Voting Session:
A-2081  Mukherji, R. (D-33); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29);
Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Holley, J.C. (D-20)
Provides for priority consideration, by DCA, DEP, DOT,
and municipalities, of permit applications for green building projects.
      
A-2463  Eustace, T. (D-38); Vainieri Huttle, V.
(D-37); Caride, M. (D-36); Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Lagana, J.A. (D-38); Lampitt,
P.R. (D-6); Mukherji, R. (D-33)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.
Related Bill: S-806
      
S-806  Weinberg, L. (D-37); Gordon, R.M. (D-38)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.
Related Bill: A-2463
     
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