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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Panels OK bill to change print legal ads rule despite outcry

Assembly Appropriations Committee hears testimony from newspaper industry Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com)

Nicholas Pugliese reports for The Record: 


Undeterred by a combined
2½ hours of unanimous testimony against a bill that would allow governments to
forgo publishing legal notices in newspapers and instead post them exclusively
online, committees in both the Senate and Assembly voted to advance the measure
on Thursday.
Publishers,
union representatives, environmental activists, residents and others lined up
to rail against a bill that they said could result in the loss of as many as
300 jobs, force some publications to shut down and hand governments a lever
with which to strong-arm local newspapers.
“It’s
been characterized as a thumb in the eye of the dailies,” said Stephen Parker,
co-publisher and general manager of New Jersey Hills Media Group, which
publishes newspapers in four counties. “It’s a shotgun blast to the weeklies.”
Lawmakers
in favor of the bill argued that it would be a money-saver for
municipalities and their taxpayers despite the fact that it was introduced and
voted on with such haste that the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services
has not had time to conduct a cost analysis.
Assemblyman
John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, who voted in favor of the measure, also
questioned the usefulness of printed legal notices in an increasingly digitized
media environment and an era of declining print circulation.
“There
are some things that are simply inevitable and that is the electronic world is
not going away,” he said. “The serving of public notice is critical
to democracy, but we are not serving public notice if there’s no
circulation.”
The
Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee
was the first panel to vote on the measure Thursday morning. After 90 minutes
of critical testimony, they voted 2-1 to release it to the full Senate, albeit
without the customary recommendation that it be approved there.
Asked
after the hearing why he wouldn’t recommend a bill of which he is the primary
sponsor, Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, responded, “I think the bill was important
enough that it should go to the full floor.”
The
Assembly Appropriations Committee then took up the measure in the afternoon
and, following roughly an hour of unfavorable testimony, approved it 7-0 with
two abstentions.
Representatives
of the New Jersey Bankers, New Jersey Association of Counties, New Jersey
League of Municipalities, New Jersey School Boards Association and New Jersey
Conference of Mayors submitted forms Thursday indicating that they were in
favor of the legislation but did not testify at either hearing.
The
bill was introduced on Monday as part of a package that included a measure to
allow Governor Christie to earn income from a book deal while in office in
exchange for raises for lawmakers’ staffs, judges, county prosecutors and other
officials. That bill, too, moved through Senate and Assembly committees on
Thursday.
The
legal notices measure would give governments the option to publish such public
records as budgets, bids for services and meeting announcements online as
opposed to in print. Under current law, governments and some private entities
are required to publish such notices in locally circulated newspapers. The
rates for legal notices are set by statute and have not risen since 1983.
Thomas
Cafferty, chief counsel for the New Jersey Press Association, testified
Thursday that the current arrangement is “designed to prevent municipalities
from using legal advertisements to either curry favor with a publication whose
writings might be favorable … or to punish newspapers whose writings may be
contrary to what the administration thinks the views of it should be.”
Allowing
local officials to choose where to publish legal notices — a provision of the
bill touted by supporters as creating flexibility for governments — would
actually arm them with the ability to hurt newspapers financially, he said.
Richard
Vezza, publisher of the Star-Ledger, called the measure “a bill of unintended
consequences” that could put as many as 300 people in the newspaper industry
out of work.
“The
road to hell is paved with good intentions,” he admonished lawmakers. “Do not
put 300 employees on the road to hell because you haven’t done your homework.”

Parker, the co-publisher of New Jersey Hills Media Group, said his company
operates with a profit margin of about 5 percent and would take a 15 percent
revenue hit without the income from legal notices.

“This
bill will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he said. “It will
certainly result in big layoffs, dropped coverage in many of the communities
that we serve and very likely the closure of many of our newspapers.”

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