Baroni adds three attorneys for his Bridgegate appeal

Bill Baroni with members of his original legal team in September

Todd South reports for North Jersey.com:

Three new attorneys have joined the criminal defense team for Governor Christie’s former deputy chief of staff Bill Baroni, who was convicted in November along with another of the governor’s top officials on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.

Attorneys Mayling C. Blanco, Carlos Francisco Ortiz and Stephen M. Orlofsky, of the Princeton office of Blank Rome law firm, filed paperwork in federal court Thursday to represent Baroni.

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Trial attorney Michael Baldassare will continue as co-counsel. He declined to comment on the case. The newly listed attorneys did not reply to requests for comment.

The three new attorneys includes Orlofsky, a former federal judge, and are from one of the largest law firms in the United States with more than 500 offices.

Baroni and co-defendant Bridget Anne Kelly face sentencing for their convictions on Feb. 21. Both have asked U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton for a new trial. Their attorneys have claimed that improper jury instructions and other issues should result in a new trial.

But federal prosecutors this week responded to the defense team’s claims, saying none rise to the level needed to grant a new trial.

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Bills to help young farmers advance in New Jersey


The following bills designed to give young farmers a leg up in New Jersey was released today by the Assembly Agriculture and Solid Waste Committee.    

A-4489  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
Space, P. (R-24); Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Taliaferro, A.J.
(D-3); Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Directs Dept. of Agriculture to develop and implement
beginning farmer mentoring program in cooperation with certain agricultural and
educational organizations and entities.
      
A-4490  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Provides corporation business tax and gross income tax
credits to persons hiring beginning farmers to perform custom farming.
      
A-4491  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Dancer, R.S.
(R-12)
Establishes “New Farmers Improvement Grant
Program” to provide matching grants for farm improvements to beginning
farmers.
    
A-4492  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Space, P. (R-24); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Dancer, R.S.
(R-12)
Requires NJEDA to establish loan program to assist
beginning farmers in financing capital purchases.
     
A-4493  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Dancer, R.S.
(R-12)
Establishes Garden State Young Farmers Loan Redemption
Program in Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.   

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BPU offers to let utilities do system upgrades faster

Tom Johnson reports today in NJ Spotlight:

The state is proposing to retain a program that allows water companies to invest in their aging infrastructure more quickly — without lengthy regulatory review — a mechanism viewed as accelerating needed repairs in systems many decades old.

In a proposal published earlier this week, the state Board of Public Utilities essentially decided to readopt the rule with minor technical changes while declining to expand the program to allow spending on a wider range of projects as advocated by some utilities.
The proposal, the subject of months of discussion among the agency’s staff and the industry, occurs at a time when policymakers are focusing increased attention on losses suffered by water companies, which range between 20 percent and 30 percent by some projections.
A new study prepared for the Natural Resources Defense Council released Tuesday found apparent losses for all New Jersey water utilities are likely to amount to 130 million gallons a day, much of which could be saved.
How big is New Jersey’s water problem? According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state needs to spend at least $8 billion over the next couple of decades to repair its drinking-water infrastructure. The cost of upgrading its wastewater systems is tabbed at around $20 billion
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Bill in Wyoming would rope and tie wind and solar energy

 

A wind turbine stands on property used by the MidAmerican Energy Co. Eclipse Wind Farm.  Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Wyoming’s legislature is considering a bill that would effectively outlaw renewable energy in the state.
The so-called “Electricity Production Standard” proposes to penalize utilities in Wyoming for generating electricity from solar and wind energy.

The bill would allow electric power to be generated using one of six pre-approved sources, including oil, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower and coal, to be used by Wyoming utility companies for electricity generation. Neither solar nor wind energy are included on the list of allowed fuel sources.
If the bill is passed, utilities in Wyoming would incur a penalty of $10 per megawatt hour whenever they used wind or solar to produce electricity for state customers.

“I don’t know how seriously to take it,” Rep. Marti Halverson, R-Etna, told the Jackson Hold News & Guide. “My guess is that it’s a little push back to the legislation that is being passed in other states that’s saying, ‘No coal, no how.”
The proposed legislation is arguably the most benighted of the half-baked proposals to promote coal energy floated to date in coal-friendly states.

“Coal production has been a cornerstone of the modern Wyoming economy since the 1970’s, and has served as Wyoming’s most stable source of tax revenues over the past four decades,” according to a 2015 study by the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
The study, “The Impact of the Coal Economy on Wyoming,” states that in 2012 coal production alone accounted for 11.3% of gross state product, 4.7% of total labor income and 1.8% of in total state employment. Direct taxation on coal production in 2012 accounted for $1.3 billion in total state and local government revenues.

 
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EPA water rule revived by U.S. appeals court in NYC case

Schoharie Reservoir in NY State


Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters:

A divided U.S. appeals court on Wednesday revived an Environmental Protection Agency rule permitting government agencies to transfer water between different bodies, such as rivers and lakes, without needing to safeguard for pollution.

Reversing a lower court ruling in the widely followed case, a 2-1 panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the EPA acted reasonably in 2008 in adopting its “Water Transfers” rule, over the objections of environmental groups.

The decision is a victory for New York City, and will help it provide its 8.5 million residents with “a reliable supply of clean and safe drinking water,” said Hilary Meltzer, deputy chief of the New York City Law Department’s environmental law division.

At issue was whether the EPA, citing Congressional intent, properly exempted the city from needing a Clean Water Act permit to draw water from the upstate Schoharie Reservoir, through an 18-mile tunnel discharging sediment-laden water into the Esopus Creek popular with trout fishers, and later to city faucets.



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DRBC lifts drought watch, urges efficient water use

Delaware River winter view – DRBC photo taken in 2000



The following is taken from a DRBC news release:


The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) today announced the termination of its drought management special permit in effect since Nov. 23, 2016, when the basin was placed in a drought watch.

“Due to recent precipitation and snow melt, combined storage in three large upper basin reservoirs has achieved and sustained a sufficient level for five consecutive days to result in automatic termination of the basinwide drought watch,” said DRBC Executive Director Steve Tambini.

“Although upper basin reservoir storage has rebounded in recent weeks automatically ending the drought watch operations, other indicators such as groundwater levels, stream flows, precipitation, soil moisture, and local reservoir storage have not all recovered,” said Tambini. “As a result, various state-issued drought watches and warnings based on those indicators remain in effect across most of the basin.”

“DRBC continues to urge all water users to maximize water efficiency wherever possible and to fully cooperate with requests by the basin states to curb water use where drought watches and warnings have been issued based on local conditions,” added Tambini. “The importance of a coordinated response by all water users cannot be overstated.”

The DRBC’s primary drought management objective, which complements the basin states’ drought response efforts, is to provide for conservation of regional reservoir storage for purposes of water supply and flow augmentation in the Delaware River and salinity control in the Delaware Estuary (i.e., the tidal river and bay). 

The upper basin reservoirs which determine DRBC drought stages are located in the Catskill Mountains at the headwaters of the Delaware River in New York State. These three New York City reservoirs provide about half of the city’s water supply and support a minimum flow target in the Delaware River at Montague, N.J. established by the U.S. Supreme Court Decree of 1954. Storage, releases, diversions, and flow targets in the DRBC drought management plan are determined in advance and must have the unanimous concurrence of the parties to the decree, which include the four basin states and New York City.

Combined storage in the three upper basin reservoirs had been as low as 39.3% of capacity in late November 2016. The reservoirs are currently at about 58% of capacity, which is approximately 70 billion gallons below normal for this time of the year.

By transitioning out of the drought watch stage, out-of-basin diversions to New York City and portions of New Jersey established by the decree will return to normal levels. In addition, the Delaware River flow objective at Montague and a second flow objective at Trenton, N.J. will also return to the normal targets of 1,750 cubic feet per second (cfs) and 3,000 cfs, respectively.


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