Peco backs away from $35M microgrid project

Peco
has called a retreat on plans to install a $35 million self-sustaining
“microgrid” in Delaware County after the proposal generated stiff opposition
from customer advocates. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Andrew Maykuth writes:

The
Philadelphia utility, in a filing posted with the Pennsylvania
Public Utility Commission, withdrew the plan to build the experimental
microgrid in an area of Concordville that has endured a large number of power
outages.

The proposed
microgrid, which could
operate independently of the regional power grid during a widespread outage,
included 10.5 megawatts of natural-gas and solar-power generators and 200
kilowatts of battery storage.

But
advocates for small businesses, consumers, industrial users, and retail energy
suppliers had questioned whether it was proper for Peco to reenter the
power-generation business it had been forced to spin off under the 1996 Electricity
Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act.

The
advocates also questioned whether all Peco customers would benefit from the
project, whose costs the utility had proposed to recover in rate surcharges
that would affect all of its 1.6 million customers. Peco said the impact would
eventually require an increase of about 29 cents a month for a residential
electrical customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours.

Peco’s
proposal “raises significant legal and policy questions,” the Pennsylvania
Office of Consumer Advocate said in a June filing with the PUC.


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Is Trump kicking Jersey guys to the Washington curb?

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
It looks like the importance of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his associate, former state Assembly Speaker Rich Bagger, are shrinking as the future administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump takes shape.

Michael D. Shear, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman report for the NY Times:

Vice President-elect Mike Pence will take over the job of leading Donald J. Trump’s transition effort, taking the helm from Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, as Mr. Trump moves to assemble a government after his stunning upset victory, the transition team said on Friday.

Mr. Christie had been in charge of the transition for the last several months, but the surprise nature of Mr. Trump’s victory made it critical to move more quickly to assemble a team. Mr. Christie’s standing has been in question in recent weeks as two of his former aides were convicted in the scandal involving the political motivation behind closure of the George Washington Bridge at Fort Lee, N.J., in 2013.

The president-elect told advisers he wanted to tap Mr. Pence’s Washington experience and contacts to help move the process along, according to people familiar with the discussions. An executive committee, which will include members of Congress, will advise Mr. Pence as the process moves forward.

Mr. Christie, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who has been a top campaign supporter, will serve as vice chairs of the transition, the sources said.

Former Christie Chief of Staff Rich Bagger

Rick Dearborn, the chief of staff to Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, will move from the campaign’s Washington office to help run the transition office. He move will push aside Rich Bagger, who is close to Mr. Christie and had been working on the transition. 

Read the full story here

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Video celebrates The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands

The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands from Pinelands Alliance on Vimeo.

Five months ago, New Jersey celebrated the 37th anniversary of the passage of the Pinelands Preservation Act. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance marked the event with the beautiful video above that pays tribute to Governor Brendan Byrne, The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands.


The video not only is a reminder of how the state put the Pinelands off limits to most development–a continuing threat to this day–but also offers a glimpse of  the area’s tranquil streams and woods. It shows you what a great place the Pinelands is to visit.


If you haven’t explored the area, start making plans. Bring your children and grand kids. You and they will discover the magic of the Pinelands’ expansiveness and the solitude and peace that it bestows.    

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Video celebrates The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands

The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands from Pinelands Alliance on Vimeo.

Five months ago, New Jersey celebrated the 37th anniversary of the passage of the Pinelands Preservation Act. The Pinelands Preservation Alliance marked the event with the beautiful video above that pays tribute to Governor Brendan Byrne, The Man Who Preserved the Pinelands.


The video not only is a reminder of how the state put the Pinelands off limits to most development–a continuing threat to this day–but also offers a glimpse of the area’s tranquil streams and woods. It shows you what a great place the Pinelands is to visit.


If you haven’t explored the area, start making plans. Bring your children and grand kids. You and they will discover the magic of the Pinelands’ expansiveness and the solitude and peace that it bestows.    

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Trump victory has shocked NJ enviros focusing on 2017

New Jersey’s environmental leaders reacted on Wednesday to the election of Donald Trump with shock, despair and anger as the prospect of a diminished Environmental Protection Agency began to take hold.


David Giambusso writes for Politico:

While
Gov. Chris Christie has not been an environmental champion during his tenure,
the EPA under President Obama has often been an important ally in New Jersey’s
fight to clean up decades of toxic waste, air pollution and water pollution.
Now, with
a year left under some kind of Republican leadership both at the state and
federal level, environmental advocates and Democrats expressed deep concerns
about potential damage, and pinned their hopes more strongly than ever on a
Democratic governor in 2017.

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New Jersey is grappling
with a host of chemicals in its drinking water, thanks to industrial polluters
from decades past. There are also a number of Superfund sites throughout the
state. Emissions from power generators and transportation are a major concern. All
of these issues are under the purview of the EPA.
“My
belief is that Trump will appoint an administrator to the EPA that will not
have the interests of the planet at heart,” state Sen. Bob Smith said in
an interview. “Whatever progress we were starting to make under Obama I
think it’s going to be trashed. I don’t want to sound like a doomsday prophet
but that election was not good for the environment.”
Democrats
and green groups are engaged in multiple battles in New Jersey to protect air
quality, remove lead chromium and the chemical PFOA from drinking water, cut
emissions from power generators, slow the spread of pipelines throughout the
state and protect the Highlands and Pinelands regions from encroaching
development. Victories against the Christie administration have been rare and
now prospects for future gains seem even more bleak.
Assemblyman
John McKeon, vice chairman of the Committee on Environment and Solid Waste,
said he wanted to wait and see if Trump’s actions will match his campaign
rhetoric, which he called frightening.
During his campaign, Trump
called global warming a hoax, said he plans to roll back regulations on fossil
fuels, pull the nation out of international efforts to address climate change
and dismantle limits on emissions from power plants.
“The prospect of
someone that doesn’t believe in climate change being at the helm of the federal
government with a Republican Senate and Congress is a real difficult
thought,” McKeon said in an interview. “I know how much damage Chris
Christie was able to do in New Jersey and he was just the governor.”
As governor, Christie
pulled the state of the Regional Greenhouse Initiative, encouraged the expansion
of natural gas pipelines and has sought to loosen restrictions on development
near high quality water sources.
Environmental leaders now
are gunning for 2017 with renewed determination.
“We’re lining up all
this legislation, vetting it and getting it ready for what we hope will be a
Democratic governor,” Smith said.
Among the legislative
priorities are clean energy funding, solar expansion, Highlands and Pinelands
protections, electronic waste and food waste.
“In many ways we’re
going to have, potentially, a reverse scenario,” to now, said Doug O’Malley,
head of Environment New Jersey. “There’s a likelihood we’ll have to be
defending against federal rollbacks but we’ll have a more progressive
environmental leader in the Statehouse.”
He said that organization
will be key if Trump starts cutting back EPA protections. One bright spot in
Tuesday’s election for New Jersey greens is that their ranks are likely to
swell.
“There’s not really a
silver lining but when you have conservative administration, people take
notice,” O’Malley said. “We’ll likely see more people joining
organizations because they’re going to be outraged by Trump.”
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The State of NJ is now calling the shots in Atlantic City

John Reitmeyer reports for NJ Spotlight:


The state’s formal takeover of Atlantic City’s local government was authorized yesterday by a vote taken in Trenton by the state Local Finance Board, an agency that oversees municipal and county government finances in New Jersey. 

The board’s action followed last week’s rejection by the commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs of a five-year fiscal-recovery plan that was submitted by Atlantic City officials under the terms of state takeover legislation signed into law by Christie in late May.

Tim Cunningham, director,
 Local Finance Board

While the takeover law didn’t initiate the immediate intervention that Christie had originally asked lawmakers to grant him, it gave his administration the sole power to determine the viability of the city’s recovery plan, which it was given only a few months to produce.

Tim Cunningham, the director of the Local Finance Board, told reporters after the vote was held yesterday that his next step will be to meet directly with city officials. He acknowledged his powers under the takeover law now include having the authority to tear up collective-bargaining agreements and take direct control over personnel decisions.

“It’s an incredible responsibility, and it’s one that I’ve lost sleep over the last couple weeks,” Cunningham said.

The takeover law also allows him to sell off assets like Bader Field, the city’s former airport, and its water utility, which has become a major source of controversy in the wake of a decision by officials in Michigan to seek cost savings through the public-water system in Flint, leading to mass lead poisoning.

But the board also stopped short of granting Cunningham the authority to take the city into bankruptcy, something that hasn’t happened to a municipality in New Jersey in roughly 80 years.


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