New Camden waterfront building could create 900 jobs

A rendering of the proposed $245 million office building on the Camden, NJ waterfront

Three prominent South Jersey organizations are teaming up to build a $245 million Camden headquarters that could bring nearly 900 jobs to the city, they announced Friday.

The Marlton-based insurance brokerage Conner Strong & Buckelew, Cherry Hill-based third-party logistics company NFI and Marlton-based residential real estate firm The Michaels Organization said in a news release that they are seeking a Grow New Jersey award at the Tuesday meeting of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to construct the headquarters building.

The project would see an 18-story, 375,000-square-foot tower rise along the Camden Waterfront, featuring office space for the three companies as well as shared amenities including an outdoor piazza overlooking the Delaware River and Philadelphia skyline.

“When the Camden Waterfront was announced almost a year and a half ago, we lauded the vision and commitment to Camden,” George E. Norcross III, Conner Strong & Buckelew’s executive chairman, said in a prepared statement. “If our applications are approved by the EDA, we will each be investing tens of millions of dollars and aligning the futures of our companies with the future of Camden.”

According to a breakdown in the news release:

Conner Strong & Buckelew is investing $86 million in the project, and would occupy 110,000 square feet at the tower, bringing a minimum 253 jobs to the city;
NFI is investing $79 million in the project, and would occupy 102,000 square feet, bringing 341 or more jobs to the city; and
The Michaels Organization is investing $79 million in the project, and would occupy 102,000 square feet, adding a minimum 275 jobs to the total.

The release said the “Camden Tower,” which does not yet have a formal name, is planned to be ready for occupancy in August 2019. Based on provided renderings, the building would be adjacent to the new headquarters for American Water Works Co. Inc., which broke ground earlier this month.

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Utility wants to extend popular energy efficiency program

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

Initiative helps hospitals, local governments, multifamily houses use less energy to reduce electric and gas bills — would also add smart thermostats

At JFK Medical Center in Edison, workers maintain one of two new energy-efficient air-conditioning chillers installed at the facility.

Public Service Electric & Gas is seeking to continue a popular program that helps hospitals, local governments, and multifamily housing units reduce their electric and gas bills by using less energy.

In a filing Friday with the Board of Public Utilities, the state’s largest utility is seeking to spend a total of $95.3 million on an extension of its energy-efficiency program, along with a new pilot to install smart thermostats in residences.

The request, a fairly modest filing compared with typical programs sought by PSE&G, would expand a current initiative to cut energy use, a prime goal of the state’s Energy Master Plan and one that helps drive down costs for consumers by reducing electricity and gas use.

PSE&G has been the most active utility in New Jersey to spend on energy efficiency, investing almost $400 million in various programs to help curb the use of electricity and gas. PSEG executives often talk about the need to revamp ratemaking to incent more investments in energy efficiency.

The current initiative would invest $74 million, if approved by the BPU. The bulk would go to its existing hospital efficiency program ($25 million); multifamily housing program ($20 million); and Direct Install ($15 million), which helps government agencies and nonprofits reduce energy costs by providing expert advice and upfront financing with the balance paid off by future bill payments.

The filing includes two new initiatives, a smart thermostat program for homeowners that will offer a $150 discount for Internet-connected thermostats with a low monthly repayment. There also will be a pilot component to evaluate installation of thermostats for multifamily and lower-income customers. The utility proposes to invest $11.5 million in the program.

The other new initiative is a residential home-energy reporting program, which will use a variety of residential energy consumption data to identify savings opportunities and to lower energy bills. PSE&G proposes to invest $2.5 million in the program.

The utility also has plans to spend $21.3 million in various administrative expenses and IT enhancements to analyze data from the programs. Division of Rate Counsel Stefanie Brand, who has yet to review the filing in detail, called the cost “very high.’’

Brand was more positive about the pilot for smart thermostats. “They are a lot cheaper than smart meters and provide many of the same kind of savings for customers,’’ she said.

The utility is clearly intent on ramping up its spending on energy efficiency as executives at an annual investors’ conference in New York yesterday said they hoped to invest $250 million in energy efficiency and renewable energy over the next five years.

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PSEG Power may exit from PennEast pipeline project

Newark company exploring sale of its $100 million share in controversial natural-gas pipeline

pipeline welders

Credit: Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY

Crews weld a pipeline connecting to a natural gas well in the Loyalsock State Forest.

Tom Johnson reports for
NJ Spotlight:
PSEG Power is exploring the sale of its share of the PennEast pipeline, a 118-mile project that has stirred widespread opposition in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and encountered numerous regulatory setbacks.

A spokesman for the Newark company acknowledged the discussions, saying it is considering selling its share — believed to be in excess of $100 million — but said it will continue to be a customer of the pipeline when it is built.

“We’ve decided to focus on our core business — managing and running a diverse fleet of power plants and construction of three new combined cycle (natural gas) plants,’’ said Michael Jennings.

But news of the decision elated opponents of the project, who have battled the proposal at the local, state, and federal levels every step of the way, delaying regulatory and permit approvals in numerous cases.

“It’s New Jersey’s largest utility; if they are having doubts about the project, it is not a positive development,’’ said Tom Gilbert, campaign director of Rethink New Jersey, a vocal foe of the project. “It is more evidence that the pipeline is in trouble.’’

PSEG Power is one of three New Jersey partners in the project, which would begin in Luzerne County, PA, cross under the Delaware River, and end in Mercer County near Trenton. Its route through many well-heeled suburban communities in Hunterdon and Mercer counties, as well as traversing public spaces and preserved farmlands, has met enormous opposition.

For some time now, there have been rumors floating in Trenton and elsewhere that PSEG would exit the project. That speculation was fueled during a routine question-and-answer period at the parent company’s annual investors’ conference in New York on Monday.

William Levis, the president and chief operating officer of PSEG Power, was asked by an analyst why an expenditure of more than $100 million for the PennEast project was omitted from this year’s presentation, after appearing in earlier reports. Levis dodged the question, refusing to add any details.

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Initially, the company refused to answer questions about the discrepancy, only saying that it is exploring a sale early yesterday evening. Pat Kornick, a spokeswoman for Penn East, downplayed the significance of the announcement.

“That’s a very typical transaction in this business,’’ said Kornick, while noting PSEG Power would remain a customer of the pipeline, which would deliver low-priced natural gas to its power plants. That demonstrates the need for the project, she said.

Whether the project is necessary is one of the chief points of dispute in consideration of the project. The pipeline is one of about a dozen or so either pending in New Jersey or already approved. New Jersey’s Division of Rate Counsel has submitted testimony, arguing that the developer has failed to prove the project is necessary, an argument repeated by opponents.

“We believe the pipeline will be built,’’ Jennings said. “We believe it will provide greater reliability and low-cost natural gas.’’

Many business interests share that view. So does the Christie administration, which has overhauled the state’s Energy Master Plan with a primary focus on building out the energy infrastructure in New Jersey, a goal it has partially realized. For consumers, it has meant lower heating costs in the past several winters, with bills in Public Service Electric & Gas territory dropping 28 percent for typical homeowners the past few years.

The other PennEast Pipeline member companies include NJR Pipeline Co., SJI Midstream, Southern Co. Gas, Spectra Energy Partners, and UGI Energy Services. UGI Energy manages the project and will be the operator of the PennEast Pipeline.

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Dakota Access Pipeline oil could begin flowing next week

The environmental blog Grist reports:

Tony Webster

Oil could flow through the Dakota Access Pipeline as early as next week.

On Tuesday, a U.S. district judge denied a motion to stop construction of the final piece of the pipeline, which had been filed by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes.

While disappointing to the tribes, the ruling is narrow. It only concerned the tribes’ claim that oil spilled by the pipeline in Lake Oahe could interfere with their right to religious practice, as they consider the lake’s water sacred. The ruling does not affect the tribes’ primary suit, which is expected see a final ruling by May. But oil will likely flow through the pipeline at least until that decision.

Also on Tuesday, indigenous people from across the country and their allies began gathering in Washington, D.C., ahead of the Native Nations March, which will protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. The demonstrators are setting up tipis outside the National Mall and holding cultural workshops and religious ceremonies. On Friday, they will march from the headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers to the White House.

Meanwhile, resistance to the pipeline is continuing far beyond D.C. in the form of divestment campaigns. On March 1, Norway’s largest private investor divested $34.8 million in shares from three companies funding the pipeline. On March 7, the San Francisco city treasurer said he would consider divesting the city’s portfolio.

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PADEP launches major 30-month, solar-energy program

Marie Cusick reports for StateImpact:

MARIE CUSICK / STATEIMPACT PENNSYLVANIA

The state is launching a federally-funded program called “Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future.”

The state Department of Environmental Protection is moving ahead with a 30-month program to kick-start a major solar energy initiative called
Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future. Acting DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell appeared on WITF’s Smart Talk Wednesday to discuss
the program, which is funded by $550,000 from the federal Department of Energy.

Although less than one percent of Pennsylvania’s energy generation is currently derived from solar power, McDonnell says he wants the state to become a solar energy leader by 2030.

McDonnell also discussed the department’s efforts to add more inspectors to its water program, following a recent warning letter from the Environmental Protection Agency, which said Pennsylvania lacked the necessary resources to enforce federal safe drinking water standards.

Listen to the full interview here:

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Update on EPA sediment cleanup recommendations

The Gibbons law firm provided this advisory to its clients and friends today.

BY PAUL M. HAUGE

We recently wrote about a new memorandum from EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management that sets forth eleven recommendations for the agency’s regional offices on how to clean up contaminated sediments, and later covered some of the recommendations in greater detail. Here we discuss the rest of EPA’s recommendations.

EPA’s recommendations are shown below in bold text, followed by our comments and analysis.

Recommendation 6: Develop risk reduction expectations that are achievable by the remedial action. The National Contingency Plan requires EPA’s remediation goals at a given site to be protective of human health and the environment, but sometimes natural or anthropogenic background concentrations unrelated to the CERCLA release being remediated (especially for persistent contaminants associated with cancer risks, such as PCBs and dioxins) can make it impossible to achieve that goal via the cleanup. In such cases, expectations need to match reality, and the remedy should include additional risk reduction strategies (e.g., fish consumption advisories) to ensure protectiveness.

Recommendation 7: Consider the limitations of models in predicting future conditions for purposes of decision making. Environmental professionals, no less than anyone else, can forget that computers are tools that help to inform decisions, but cannot replace human judgment. Even the most sophisticated model is a simplification of the real-world processes, and its results will necessarily incorporate some degree of uncertainty.

Recommendation 8: Consider a structured adaptive management approach to response action implementation that includes using early actions, interim and contingency remedies. Sediment sites are complicated, and managers need to be flexible, learning and adjusting as more data become available. An iterative, structured approach to decision-making can work better than a process that aims for a single “right” decision.

Recommendation 9: Collect baseline contaminant trend data in all appropriate media and use monitoring data to evaluate remedial effectiveness. You can’t evaluate a remedy unless you know (1) where you started, and (2) where you’re going. Assumptions and models about the effectiveness of the remedy must be tested with data.

Recommendation 10: Collaborate with Clean Water Act (CWA) programs. There is an obvious synergy and overlap between the Superfund program and the Clean Water Act, which regulates ongoing discharges to surface waters. Permits and other CWA tools can help to prevent sediment re-contamination, while effective Superfund remedies can help in the achievement of water quality standards.

Recommendation 11: Consider authorized navigation channels in Superfund sediment sites. Decisions about remedial actions tend to focus, and properly so, on the use of the affected waterway for recreation, fishing, and wildlife, but EPA staff cannot ignore another critical use: navigation. EPA should consult with the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that the selected remedy does not interfere with navigation.

Paul M. Hauge is counsel in the Gibbons Real Property & Environmental Department

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