Cuomo torpedoes floating LNG facility, Port Ambrose


To the delight of environmentalists assembled to hear the news, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced that he had vetoed a docking terminal off the coast of New York and New Jersey proposed for the transfer of liquefied natural gas. 

David Giambusso of Politico New York was one of the first to report the news :

After years of outcry from environmentalists and lawmakers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vetoed the proposed Port Ambrose liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Long Island.

“The reward was not worth the risk and we’re going to veto the Port Ambrose plan,” Cuomo said during an event at the Long Beach Ice Arena Thursday.

The facility as planned would have been a docking station for barges of liquefied natural gas — gas that is cooled and condensed to liquid form for transport. Environmentalists and elected officials had decried the proposal as a potential environmental and security disaster waiting to happen just miles from New York Harbor, and Cuomo had previously expressed reservations about the project.

The Long Beach Ice Arena was packed with environmentalists who had anticipated the announcement and applauded Cuomo as he entered the room.

News of Cuomo’s veto, along with a statement from the governor, was leaked to Newsday earlier in the day.”It seems like you know why I’m here,” Cuomo said. “It was supposed to be a secret.”

Following the close of public comments last week on the final environmental impact statement, Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had until Dec. 21 to veto or approve the project, but Cuomo took little time in exercising his option to quash the proposal.
With his veto, the proposed facility cannot move forward.

Did Cuomo let Christie off the environmental hook?
The veto by New York’s Democrat governor may be welcome news to New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie who vetoed a similar proposal in 2011 but now is competing among a flock of conservative candidates for the GOP presidential nomination. 
Fossil fuel interests like ExxonMobil, the Koch Brothers, and others are contributing heavily to Republican campaigns and the GOP candidates have been reluctant to show support for any proposal that would limit gas and coal energy or promote clean energy alternative like wind and solar power.
In a November 6 letter to Gov. Christie, environmental leaders reminded him of the reasons for his previous veto and asked him to repeat it.  With Gov. Cuomo’s decision, that may no longer be necessary.  
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A new way to update the continuing Bridgegate story

Star-Ledger reporter Ted Sherman, found a new way to report the seemingly never-ending Bridgegate story today.

He delivered 7 things we learned this week about the Bridgegate case in 16 photos and captions.

It reminds us of the photo spreads in New York Daily News, the New York Post and the old New York Mirror but updated for the digital age. And we marvel at how much can be said in successive captions when they’re organized around a single theme.

Check it out here and let us know what you think in the comment box below

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NJ Assembly adopts Governor’s changes to 3 enviro bills

When the governor ‘conditionally vetoes’ a bill, he returns it to the Legislature with suggested amendments that, if adopted, will guarantee his signature. 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yesterday conditionally vetoed the three bills below and the Assembly, on the same day, adopted his recommendations. 


Click the numbers for the first two bills to see the governor’s veto messages that contain his recommendations. The governor’s message was not available today for the third bill.


A-3954/S-2981 (Conaway, Singleton, Spencer, McKeon/Greenstein) 
Requires maximum contaminant level to be established for 1,2,3-trichloropropane in drinking water. EnviroPolitics spoke with the bill’s Assembly sponsor in this August 14 video.


A-1726/S-308 (Eustace, Lagana, Mosquera, Vainieri Huttle, Wimberly/Gordon)

Amends “Flood Hazard Area Control Act” to require DEP to take certain actions concerning delineations of flood hazard areas and floodplains

A-2579/S-1510 (Mukherji, Pintor Marin, Eustace/Smith, Bateman) 
Authorizes municipalities to facilitate private financing of water conservation, storm shelter construction, and flood and hurricane resistance projects through use of voluntary special assessments. This is the PACE bill that we featured in this June 27 post and video.


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Energy, environment bills set for votes in Trenton Nov 9

Monday will be a busy day for energy and environmental bills in committees of the New Jersey Legislature.

Here’s the  lineup:

ASSEMBLY TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND UTILITIES
11/09/15 10:00 AM
Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
A-4091  Eustace, T. (D-38)
Allows certain on-site generation facilities to deliver
electricity without utilizing electric public utility infrastructure.  Related Bill: S-2690
      
A-4128  Mazzeo, V. (D-2); DeAngelo, W.P. (D-14);
Spencer, L.G. (D-29) 
Requires BPU to approve qualified wind energy project
and exempts project from cost-benefit analysis.  Related Bill: S-2711
      
S-2711  Smith, B. (D-17); Whelan, J. (D-2)
Requires BPU to approve qualified wind energy project
and exempts project from cost-benefit analysis.  Related Bill: A-4128   
____________________________________________________________________________ 
SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
11/09/15 10:00 AM
Committee Room 10, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
A-943  Singleton, T. (D-7); Conaway, H. (D-7);
Moriarty, P.D. (D-4); Green, J. (D-22) 
Permits small businesses to qualify for loans from
NJEDA for costs of energy audit and making energy efficiency or conservation
improvements.
     
A-2340  Greenwald, L.D. (D-6); Spencer, L.G. (D-29);
Lagana, J.A. (D-38)
Requires report and public hearing prior to DEP
recommendation of site for inclusion on Superfund list.  
A-2580  Mukherji, R. (D-33); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29);
Muoio, E.M. (D-15)
Provides for priority consideration, by DCA, DEP, DOT,
and municipalities, of permit applications for green building projects.
    
S-2562  Pou, N. (D-35)
Requires report and public hearing prior to DEP
recommendation of site for inclusion on Superfund list.  Related Bill: A-2340
    
S-2967  Van Drew, J. (D-1)
Permits small businesses to qualify for loans from
NJEDA for costs of energy audit and making energy efficiency or conservation
improvements.  Related Bill: A-943
     
S-3192  Van Drew, J. (D-1); Connors, C.J. (R-9)
Designates striped bass (Morone saxatilis) as New
Jersey saltwater fish.  Related Bill: A-4563    
___________________________________________________________________________
SENATE TRANSPORTATION
11/09/15 10:30 AM
Committee Room 7, 2nd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
SR-95  Bateman, C. (R-16); Cardinale, G. (R-39)
Urges US DOT to promulgate regulations concerning
transport of crude oil by rail that ensures safety of NJ residents who live
along railroads.
Related Bill: AR-171     
____________________________________________________________________________ 
SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
11/09/15  1:00 PM
Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
S-72  Stack, B.P. (D-33); Oroho, S.V. (R-24)
Requires certain State oversight of budgets of regional
sewerage authorities.
Related Bill: A-3782     
S-2769  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Implements 2014 constitutional dedication of CBT
revenues for certain environmental purposes; revises State’s open space,
farmland, and historic preservation programs.
Related Bill: A-4203 
____________________________________________________________________________
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NJDEP to unveil results of Barnegat Bay scientific studies

A symposium to review and discuss the results of a comprehensive three-year scientific study assessing the ecological health of Barnegat Bay is scheduled for Tuesday, November 17 at Ocean County College, Commissioner Bob Martin announced yesterday.
An NJDEP news release provided the following details:
The public can hear the results of the studies and how the information will be used when the DEP and the Barnegat Bay Partnership host “What Lies Beneath – Barnegat Bay: A Public Outreach Forum” from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Gateway Building, Lecture Hall Room 104, at Ocean County College on College Drive in Toms River. 

Registration is required to attend the free event.
In addition to assessing the ecological health of the bay, the research results will identify stressors on the bay and explain new strategies for managing the bay.
“Environmental research poses and answers important human health and ecological questions for managing Barnegat Bay, fills in critical data gaps, and supplies valuable information for modeling, water quality criteria, and enforceable standards based on sound and defensible science,” said Thomas Belton, DEP’s Barnegat Bay research coordinator. “All of these Barnegat Bay research projects are designed to assist decision-makers to answer applied regulatory questions.”
The studies commenced after the Christie Administration announced a comprehensive action plan to address the ecological health of Barnegat Bay in December 2010. As a result of Governor Christie’s plan, the DEP’s Division of Science, Research and Environmental Health began developing and funding 11 research projects ranging in topic and scope from studying estuaries and wetlands to evaluating boater impacts on environmentally sensitive areas of the bay to assessing various species of fish, crabs, clams and other organisms.  Scientists collected data for these studies between 2012 and 2014.
The studies looked at development of estuarine water quality criteria, the impact of harmful algal blooms, natural resource assessment and management for sustainable fisheries, assessment of ecological impacts from the planned closure of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in 2019, prediction of algal blooms and jelly fish population explosions, reduction of boater impacts on environmentally sensitive areas, and ecological modeling of the bay for ecosystems-based management of important commercial and recreational fish.
The Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Science, Research and Environmental Health, led by Dr. Gary Buchanan, will present many of the studies. Results will also be presented by scientists from Rutgers University, Monmouth University, Rider University and Montclair University, as well as researchers from out-of-state schools as Drexel University, Villanova University, Louisiana State University and the University of Maryland.
To register for the forum, please email Terri Tucker at Terri.Tucker@dep.nj.gov or call her at (609) 984-6070.
For more details about the symposium, including the complete agenda of research discussions, and ongoing Barnegat Bay research, visit: www.nj.gov/dep/barnegatbay/plan-research.htm

For more information about the Christie Administration’s comprehensive action plan for Barnegat Bay, visit:www.nj.gov/dep/barnegatbay/

For Year 1 and Year 2 Research Reports assessing the ecological health of Barnegat Bay, visit:http://nj.gov/dep/dsr/barnegat/final-reports/ 

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NY investigating possible ExxonMobil climate cover-up


The New York attorney general has begun a sweeping investigation of Exxon Mobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how those risks might hurt the oil business.

NY Times reporters Justin Gillis and Clifford Krauss report today

The focus includes the company’s activities dating to the late 1970s, including a period of at least a decade when Exxon Mobil funded groups that sought to undermine climate science.

A major focus of the investigation is whether the company adequately warned investors about potential financial risks stemming from society’s need to limit fossil-fuel use. 

According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued a subpoena Wednesday evening to Exxon Mobil, demanding extensive financial records, emails and other documents.

Kenneth P. Cohen, vice president for public affairs at Exxon Mobil, said on Thursday that the company had received the subpoena and was still deciding how to respond.

“We unequivocally reject the allegations that Exxon Mobil has suppressed climate-change research,” Mr. Cohen said, adding that the company had funded mainstream climate science since the 1970s, had published dozens of scientific papers on the topic, and had disclosed climate risks to investors.

Read the full story here


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