Delaware River conservation law may bring millions to NJ


Michelle Brunetti writes in the Atlantic City Press:
New Jersey Audubon is anticipating that millions of dollars in federal funds will soon be available for environmental restoration and protection in the Delaware River Basin after President Barack Obama signed a conservation law last week.
The Delaware River Basin Conservation Act authorized creation of a basin restoration program in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The program will identify, prioritize and run projects throughout the watershed, which makes up 40 percent of the state, said Eric Stiles, president and CEO of NJ Audubon.
“The ability to leverage private, state and now federal funding to protect and restore these critical habitats will have a major impact on water quality and special protection species in our state, including the red knot and Atlantic sturgeon,” Stiles said.
The watershed is made up of all the waterways that drain into the Delaware Bay and Delaware River. In South Jersey it encompasses substantial parts of Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden and Burlington counties, as well as small parts of Atlantic and Ocean counties.
The program will bring funding for projects to protect water resources, especially in the Pinelands and Highlands, Stiles said, bolstering work to combat habitat degradation, invasive species and climate change.
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Pa. Commonwealth Court grants new argument to landowners battling eminent domain in pipeline case

Elllen Gerhart) with her daughter Elise Gerhart, in front of the family home,
are fighting eminent domain taking by Sunoco for the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Susan Phillips reports for StateImpact:
Landowners battling pipeline companies over eminent domain takings got an early Christmas gift from the Commonwealth Court in the form of a new legal maneuver this week. An attorney representing a family fighting Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline in Huntingdon County will be able to use a recent Supreme Court ruling to try to strengthen their case.
In September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Robinson Township case, which overturned aspects of the state’s new oil and gas law Act 13, that the legislature could not grant eminent domain authority to companies building gas storage facilities. The court’s decision hinged on the fact that the public was not the “primary and paramount” beneficiary, as the state had claimed.
“Instead, it advances the proposition that allowing such takings would somehow advance the development of infrastructure of the Commonwealth. Such a projected benefit is speculative, and, in any event, would be merely an incidental one and not the primary purpose for allowing these takings,” wrote Justice Debra McCloskey Todd for the majority.

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Although neither the Supreme Court decision, nor the Robinson Township case, addressed pipelines, many wonder if the same argument could be applied in the hundreds of cases pending before county level courts. In case after case, for those challenging eminent domain takings by Sunoco across the 350-mile route, the courts have ruled against landowners. But this decision appears to open the door a bit for the Gerhart family, and possibly others, through the use of a new argument.

Ellen Gerhart and her daughter Elise have become vocal opponents of Sunoco’s plans. In efforts to prevent tree-clearing this year Elise Gerhart camped out in a tree, and Ellen Gerhart was arrested for trespassing on her own land. The charges were recently dropped. The Gerharts had lost their eminent domain case against Sunoco in Huntingdon County Court of Common Pleas, but appealed to the Commonwealth Court where the case is still pending.
The family’s lawyer Rich Raiders had already filed the appropriate briefs, and the deadline for submitting more arguments to the court had passed before the Supreme Court ruled against eminent domain for gas storage in September. But Raiders asked the court for the opportunity to file new information based on the Supreme Court’s Robinson Township decision, and he found out Monday that his motion was granted. Raiders says he thinks the Supreme Court justices may be interested in looking at the issue of eminent domain and pipelines.
“If the Commonwealth Court is letting me brief this issue, it is a hint that there’s interest above,” Raiders told StateImpact.
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Public closes Gov’s book deal; newspapers win a reprieve

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
It was the overwhelmingly negative public reaction–phones ringing off the hook in many legislators’ offices–that killed linked bills on Monday in the New Jersey Assembly that would have allowed Gov. Chris Christie to profit from a book deal while in office and also eliminate the long-required printing of public legal notices in newspapers–a revenue source vital to the daily and weekly publications. 



David Cruz puts it all together in this NJTV NEWS report.





Republican Gov. Christie’s unprecedented working relationship with Democratic party bosses (the mostly hidden figures who really call the shots in the State House) allowed the so-called ‘revenge bill’ to fly down the pre-Christmas fast track until newspaper publishers and open-government groups fought back and incited the public reaction.


The Governor who rarely loses in the Legislature didn’t take this one well. Witness the Asbury Park Press by Bob Jordan: Chris Christie in Twitter storm after bill defeats 


Star-Ledger editorial writer and columnist Tom Moran, who has been an pebble in the governor’s shoe for most of Christie’s two terms in office, wrote in Christie & Dem bosses get public spanking they deserve:

In the end, no damage was done, except to the reputations of the politicians who tried to pull off this dirty stunt.

This time, they couldn’t get the votes. The players were all in the regular seats, with Gov. Chris Christie playing the tune, and the three chieftains of the Democratic Party dancing with him. Just like the old days.

This time, though, the followers didn’t follow. This time, on a memorable Monday in Trenton, they revolted.  

The Ledger followed up with an editorial: Dear Gov. Christie: Your priorities are cockeyed. Sincerely, N.J.  It read, in part:

Chris Christie has priorities, and he’s sticking by them. Never mind that they are irrational and that almost no one else shares them: He is convinced that his support of 18 percent is such an ironclad mandate, he could go around kicking kittens each day for the next 12 months and still be applauded for his authenticity. 

So with a resolve that borders on psychosis, our governor continues to ignore New Jersey’s most urgent concerns, authorizing a spokesman to affirm that the effort to eliminate legal notices from newspapers is neither dead nor buried. In fact, he vowed that it will be “a top priority when we return from the holidays.”

Really, you have to give the guy credit for trying, just like you gave credit to Sisyphus for getting pancaked by a boulder for all of eternity.

It would be immodest for a newspaper to rank its own concerns among governmental priorities, so we won’t try – judging by countless calls and emails from our wonderful readers to lawmakers since Friday, that argument has already been made with gratifying gusto.

But we can make this observation: When a governor engages in revenge politics – which is the best way to define this effort to destroy newspapers – he makes it too easy for everyone to question his so-called “priorities.”

As we’ve long noted, Politics is New Jersey’s favorite spectator sport. 


We wish you all a wonderful holiday but almost can’t wait to get back to the Legislature in January. Oh, such fun to ride.

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Trump, some states going in opposite directions on climate

Wind farm in Colorado City, Tex. Texas  has more wind power than any other state.Spencer Platt/Getty Images


Tatiana Schlossberg writes for The New York Times:

The incoming Trump administration appears determined to reverse much of what President Obama has tried to achieve on climate and environment policy.

In position papers, agency questionnaires and the résumés of incoming senior officials, the direction is clear — an about-face from eight years of policies designed to reduce climate-altering emissions and address the effects of a warming planet. The Republican-led Congress appears to welcome many of these changes.

But mayors and governors — many of them in states that supported President-elect Donald J. Trump — say they are equally determined to continue the policies and plans they have already adopted to address climate change and related environmental damage, regardless of what they see from Washington.

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“With a federal government that’s hostile to climate action, more and faster climate action work from cities, states and businesses will be required to stay anywhere near on track with our carbon pollution goals,” said Sam Adams, the former mayor of Portland, Ore., and current director of the World Resources Institute United States.

“In many cases, the solutions that help address climate change are what you have to do anyway in a city — transit options so the city doesn’t get gridlocked, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and unlocks a tremendous amount of economic competitiveness because you don’t have thousands of people stalled in traffic,” Mr. Adams added.

In last month’s election, Seattle, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, voted to expand mass transit. Portland, Ore., which many say is the most environmentally minded city in the country, began a new municipal waste program a few years ago, resulting in higher recycling and composting rates, and smaller amounts of trash headed to landfills. Miami Beach is raising roadbeds and building flood walls to hold back the rising seas.

California, led by the Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, has adopted a cap-and-trade program, which limits carbon dioxide emissions and sets up a market for companies to buy and sell carbon allowances, so companies can meet or come under that carbon dioxide limit. The state has set one of the nation’s most ambitious climate targets — to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Hawaii is planning to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Read the full story here

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Cause of deaths of 200 blackbirds remains a mystery in NJ

Bill Gallo Jr. reports for NJ.com: STOWE CREEK TWP–What caused the sudden deaths of scores of red-wing blackbirds last month remains a mystery, state officials say.

bird.jpgWhat caused the death of blackbirds in Stow Creek remains a mystery. (Wikipedia) 
Tests on the estimated 200 of birds found around Frank Davis Road in late November “are inconclusive,” said Larry Hajna, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Hajna said the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife reviewed necropsy and other test results, but the exact cause of the birds’ deaths could not be pinpointed.
“We cannot rule out some sort of pesticide poisoning because of the highly localized nature of the mortalities, but we have determined that if this were the case, the deaths were not caused by pesticides commonly known to be toxic to wildlife,” Hajna said on Friday.
He also said that the birds’ deaths were not likely caused by the compounds used to treat wheat seed planted in fields near where the dead birds were found.hat caused the sudden deaths of scores of red-wing blackbirds last month remains a mystery, state officials say.

“We also determined the deaths were not likely the result of infectious disease,” Hajna added.
The large number of dead birds were discovered on Nov. 22 in a rural area of the Cumberland County township. Their bodies were scattered across roadways and in fields and wooded areas.
It was the same area where 12 to 18 dead red-wing blackbirds were found two weeks earlier.
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Lawmakers ignoring $7.4B boom in ‘corporate welfare’?

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Salvador Rizzo reports for The Record:

At a time when New Jersey lawmakers are rushing a bill to end what they call “corporate welfare” for the news media, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration this month surpassed $7.4 billion in tax subsidies awarded to hand-picked businesses and nonprofits.

This historic boom in tax giveaways — one of the largest on record in the United States — has been facilitated by both parties in the Legislature during a years long financial crisis and a plague of revenue shortages. Some of the biggest grants Christie has doled out have benefited politically connected insiders. The cost for state taxpayers could grow by billions of dollars more before New Jersey’s main subsidy program expires in 2019.

Christie asserts that government bodies and private businesses would save $80 million a year by posting legal notices online, instead of printing them in newspapers, as New Jersey law currently requires. The governor’s office has refused to break down its cost analysis and has not provided supporting documentation requested by The Record under the Open Public Records Act.

TWITTER: Christie upbraids Dems over newspaper bill

NEWSPAPER BILL: Panels OK bill to change print legal ads rule despite outcry

TRENTON: How lawmakers voted on Christie book bill, salary boost

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Press Association said the cost of publishing legal notices is $8 million a year for taxpayers and $12 million for businesses, according to a 2010 study. Advertisement rates for legal notices are set by law, and they were last increased three decades ago. Publication of public notices in newspapers is hardly unique to New Jersey and has for nearly a century been an established method of communication for governments across the nation.

Whether it is $8 million or $80 million a year, the figure pales in comparison to the $7.4 billion in corporate subsidies Christie has awarded as of this month through the state Economic Development Authority, an agency tasked with creating and retaining private-sector jobs. This subsidy boom has been enabled largely by the passage of the bipartisan Economic Opportunity Act of 2013.

Conservative and liberal groups have criticized the explosion in tax breaks under Christie, calling it textbook “corporate welfare” and noting that the state has garnered a record 10 credit-rating downgrades because of a lack of revenue to cover the cost of hospitals, pensions, schools, property tax rebates and other services. State revenue is not keeping pace with New Jersey’s ballooning, legally mandated costs, analysts at Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings say.



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