Farm groups fear Dow-DuPont merger will raise prices

Three agriculture advocacy groups
have urged the U.S. Office of the Attorney General to challenge the
proposed merger between DuPont and Dow because of possible antitrust
violations.
Jeff Mordock reports in The News Journal:

The
American Antitrust Institute, Food & Water Watch and the National Farmers
Union last week sent a letter to U.S. Principal Deputy Attorney
General Renata Hess. The three groups alleged the merger would consolidate
an already shrinking industry, diminishing innovation, raise prices and reduce
choices for farmers and consumers.

“AAI,
F&WW and NFU believe that additional merger activity, including Dow-DuPont,
could harm innovation competition in two fundamental ways: by eliminating
head-to-head competition in important parallel-path R&D and by reducing the
field of rivals needed for pro-competitive stacking,” the organizations
wrote.
DuPont
spokesman Dan Turner said the company expects regulators will thoroughly review
the deal because of its size and complexity.

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Ag, Energy and Enviro bills in committee today in Trenton

Below are the agendas for three committees taking up Agriculture, Energy and Environment bills today in the New Jersey Legislature.


Interested in following the discussions? You can listen live or following the meetings via the state legislature’s website.

NOTE: Access to the hearings is only available via Internet Explorer. The Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers won’t get you there. We don’t know about Apple’s Safari. We’re Windows watchers. Let us know if it works for you.

SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

10:00 AM
Committee Room 10, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
S-909  Rice, R.L. (D-28)
Exempts person who remediates property in environmental
opportunity zone from remediation funding source requirement.
Related Bill: A-2688
     
S-2276  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Establishes NJ Solar Energy Study Commission and
modifies State’s solar renewable energy portfolio standards.
    
S-2287  Bateman, C. (R-16); Smith, B. (D-17)
Changes submission and notice requirements for
short-term and long-term financing for environmental infrastructure projects.
      
 S-2292  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Kyrillos, J.M.
(R-13)
Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure
Trust to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure
projects for FY2017.
      
S-2293  Whelan, J. (D-2); Gordon, R.M. (D-38)
Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental
infrastructure projects for FY2017.
      
SCR-109  Smith, B. (D-17)
Approves FY 2017 Financial Plan of NJ Environmental
Infrastructure Trust.
     
For discussion only:
SCR-66  Lesniak, R.J. (D-20); Smith, B. (D-17)
Prohibits adoption of DEP’s proposed rules and
regulations to revise its Flood Hazard Area Control Act Rules, Coastal Zone
Management Rules, and Stormwater Management Rules.
Related Bill: ACR-160

     


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___________________________________________________________________________


ASSEMBLY AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Committee Room 15, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-2426  McGuckin, G.P. (R-10); Wolfe, D.W. (R-10);
Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Benson, D.R. (D-14)
Regulates tethering and confinement of, and proper
shelter for, dogs.
Related Bill: S-1013
A-3052  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Space, P. (R-24);
Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3); Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Establishes Dept. of Agriculture cooking contest.
A-3053  Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Dancer, R.S. (R-12);
Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Space, P. (R-24); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3)
Directs the Div. of Travel and Tourism to publish on
its website information of farm-to-table restaurants.
A-3054  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Andrzejczak, B. (D-1);
Houghtaling, E. (D-11); Space, P. (R-24); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3)
Establishes NJ “Farm to Restaurant” awards
program.
     Jun 6, 2016    – Posted: Assembly
Agriculture and Natural Resources
A-3125  Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Establishes New Jersey Eco-Ag Tourism Council.
A-3152  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Land, R.B. (D-1)
Establishes failure to provide certain specific
protections from weather and during emergencies for domestic companion animals
as animal cruelty.
Related Bill: S-1640
A-3154  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Land, R.B. (D-1)
Establishes cruelly restraining a dog as a criminal and
civil animal cruelty offense.
Related Bill: S-1642
A-3283  Dancer, R.S. (R-12)
Implements reporting requirements for agricultural
tourism pilot program; creates task force.
     Jun 6, 2016    – Posted: Assembly
Agriculture and Natural Resources
A-3682  Kennedy, J.J. (D-22)
Permits animal facilities to use artificial turf in
outdoor enclosures.
Related Bill: S-2080
      
A-3732  Space, P. (R-24); Andrzejczak, B. (D-1)
Directs Dept. of Agriculture to authorize and advise
food hubs.
AJR-98  Space, P. (R-24); Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3)
Designates June of each year as “Native Plant
Appreciation Month.”

______________________________________________________________________

ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE

2:00 PM
Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-1826  Conaway, H. (D-7); Singleton, T. (D-7);
Spencer, L.G. (D-29); McKeon, J.F. (D-27)
Authorizes Drinking Water Quality Institute to study
and recommend maximum contaminant level for 1,2,3-trichloropropane to DEP.
A-1954  Coughlin, C.J. (D-19); Benson, D.R. (D-14);
Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Makes changes to funding provisions for financial
assistance and grants from Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund.
Related Bill: S-1237
A-2417  Eustace, T. (D-38); Zwicker, A. (D-16);
McKeon, J.F. (D-27)
Requires large food waste generators to separate and
recycle food waste and amends definition of “Class I renewable
energy.”
Related Bill: S-771

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Dealmaker Trump honed his craft on New Jersey politics

Donald Trump at opening of his Taj Mahal in 1989 – Leif Skoogfors/Corbis via Getty Images

For someone who has courted the media for years, there’s still surprisingly more to learn about Donald Trump. Matt Katz, who taught us a thing or two about another famous headline-hunter in American Governor: Chris Christie’s Bridge to Redemption, now shares some interesting tales about Mr. Trump’s New Jersey years.
It starts with this recollection from a former governor:   
One morning in the mid-1980s, New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean walked into his office at the State House in Trenton. His secretary said Donald Trump, the casino owner from Atlantic City, was on the phone. Kean figured Trump wanted something from him.
“Donald, I’m very, very busy. What can I do for you?” Kean asked.
“Really nothing,” Trump responded. “It’s just a beautiful day today and I wanted to tell you you’re the best governor in the country.”
Kean had been expecting Trump to ask him about some piece of legislation that Trump had interest in. Instead, Trump opted for charm. Kean thought: “He’s not such a bad guy!”
Everybody in New Jersey politics has a Trump story. That’s because for more than a quarter-century, Trump, a self-proclaimed political outsider, played the ultimate insider’s game in New Jersey, where political deals require relationships and cash. With the state’s presidential primary on June 7, New Jersey voters will get their first opportunity to vote for a man who has long played an outsize role in state politics.
Read the full, fascinating story here

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NJ state funds may not be enough to save Atlantic City

 
Atlantic City breathed a sigh of relief last month when Governor Christie signed a badly needed and long-delayed financial rescue package for the resort town. But that legislation goes only so far, according to financial analysts and state lawmakers.

Salvador Rizzo reports for The Record:

Even with a new $60 million loan from state taxpayers, the threat of bankruptcy still looms over Atlantic City, where the $262 million municipal budget has a $100 million deficit, and where roughly $400 million is still owed to bondholders and local casinos that filed successful |tax appeals.

How the city could generate enough money to fill those yawning fiscal gaps remains an open question. Just weeks ago, before getting the $60 million loan, city officials were delaying paychecks to workers and taking other emergency steps to scrounge enough funds for schools and bond payments.

Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, a Republican, said after the rescue bills passed in the Legislature on May 26 that he expected to cut health care and prescription medication coverage for workers, and costs at the Police and Fire departments. The cash infusion from the state, Guardian added, would allow local officials to pay off $50 million to $60 million of their debt and “refinance” the rest “so that it’s nice and solid.”

Some doubt his math would work.

“The hole is too big,” said Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, R-River Vale, who voted against the rescue legislation. “While I think all of this is well-intentioned, I’m of the mind-set that when you get into a hole of half-a-billion dollars — for a municipality of less than 40,000 people — you’re never going to make up the difference.”

Financial analysts say the rescue legislation Christie signed does not address the larger economic currents that hobbled the casino town over the past decade: A rapidly shrinking property tax base that is going from $20.5 billion in 2010 to an estimated $6.5 billion by the end of next year. The closure of four of 12 casinos in 2014, which wiped out more than 8,000 jobs. A sharp decline in gambling revenue over the past decade, from $5.2 billion in 2006 to $2.56 billion in 2015. And unrelenting competition from neighboring states, where more and more new casinos continue to siphon gamblers who used to be Atlantic City mainstays.

“These are not new problems, and they are not invisible problems,” said Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal think tank. Since the state established a gambling monopoly in Atlantic City in 1978, he said, “we didn’t take any preventive steps to transform Atlantic City into a real tourist destination, one that would be busy other than the three months of the summer.”

First, casinos began to crop up in Pennsylvania, clawing away nearly one-third of Atlantic City’s gamblers, MacInnes estimated. A chain reaction of declining real estate values, casino closures and job losses ensued, devastating the local economy, he added.
Governors from Brendan Byrne to Chris Christie have made plans to revitalize the parts of the city that lie beyond the casino district, but none has made a dent, MacInnes said.

What Christie’s rescue package does is avert a bankruptcy filing in the near future; it gives city officials a five-month window to come up with a financial plan that balances their budget and then slashes costs over the next five years. If Christie’s administration rejects those plans, however, the governor would be empowered to take over the local government, sell off city assets and tear up contracts with unionized workers.

State officials also folded the $60 million loan into the rescue package and switched Atlantic City’s remaining casinos from the traditional system of paying property taxes to a system of fixed yearly payments in lieu of taxes. Because of the sputtering local economy, casinos often ended up overpaying property taxes and successfully appealing their bills. By itself, the city’s largest casino, the Borgata, is owed nearly $150 million in successful tax appeals. The fixed payments are seen as more predictable and therefore more likely to help stabilize the city’s finances.

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On Wall Street, the analysts who have been tracking Atlantic City’s frail finances in recent years say the jury is still out on whether the resort town can mount a lasting recovery.

“The rescue package, which includes a $60 million bridge loan and stabilized tax payments from the city’s remaining casinos, is a credit positive development that provides short-term financial relief for Atlantic City and removes the immediate threat of a default or bankruptcy filing,” said Doug Goldmacher, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.

Even with the rescue plan, he added, a default remains in the cards if Atlantic City restructures its debt in a way that hurts creditors’ bottom lines.

A debt restructuring “would be considered a default if it includes any bondholder loss or impairment,” Goldmacher said. “We will also analyze how the city plans to return to long-term fiscal stability as the casino industry continues to consolidate,” he added.

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Fight over septic tanks draws full house in NJ Highlands

New Jersey Highlands scene – NJDEP Photo

New Jersey’s bid to open up a portion of the Highlands to development won both praise and criticism Wednesday night, with some property owners hoping it could enhance land values but environmentalists fearing it will degrade the drinking water for millions.

Tom Johnson of NJ Spotlight covered the packed hearing attended by some 100 people at the New Jersey Highlands Council offices in Chester on a proposal by the Department of Environmental Protection to allow more building in approximately 69,000 acres of the most protected part of the region.

Johnson reports:

The rule proposes to increase the density of septic tanks in the preservation area of the Highlands, the latest in a series of regulatory changes environmentalists say weaken water-quality protections in the state being pushed by the Christie administration.
The dispute, to a degree, focuses on a highly technical debate over what levels of nitrate may be absorbed into the soil, and eventually leach into groundwater supplying up to 6 million people. But the larger issue remains a still-raging debate over the creation of the Highlands, a forested expanse of more than 860,000 aces of gently rolling hills, farmland, and forests.
“We need your help, but that’s not it. Find some money for the farmers and landowners,’’ said Hank Krumpp, a farmer in the Highlands, echoing a frequent complaint of property-owners who say the 12-year old law has ruined land values.
David Shope, a farmer from Long Valley, who bought his land in 1971, put it succinctly. “I’m still waiting to speculate on it,’’ he said. “Sprawl is in the eye of the beholder.’’
But that is precisely what many conservationists fear. ”What we’re seeing right now is a recipe for sprawl in the Highlands,’’ warned David Peifer, Highlands project director for the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.
Constance Stroh, president of the Upper Rockaway River Watershed Association, agreed, in part. “With this rule, the DEP is responding to the complaints of land speculators,’’ she said.
Elliott Ruga, policy director of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, said the change proposed by the department bows to pressure from developers. “I question whether the New Jersey DEP understands the values of the resources it is designated to protect,’’ he said.
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Large-scale NJ solar farm plan draws praise and concern

Solar panels at the PSE&G solar farm in Kearny, N.J. Carmine Galasso photo

PSE&G’s ambitious plan to build 10 new solar farms on closed landfills and former industrial sites across the state is generating mixed reaction — praise from the environmental community, concerns about potential costs to ratepayers, and worries that the projects could depress the price of solar credits that some homeowners rely on to pay off their rooftop solar arrays.

Record staff writer James M. O’Neill reports:

The $275 million plan by the Public Service Electric and Gas Co. would add 100 megawatts of solar power to the grid by 2021, enough to serve about 16,000 homes. The projects, part of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All program, come on the heels of eight completed solar farms, including one at the old Hackensack Gas Works site in Hackensack, and one nearly finished facility, at similar sites.

Environmentalists praise the move to add solar farms, not only because the program will add more renewable energy to the grid, but also because it will use old landfills and industrial brownfields instead of farmland or undeveloped land, which are often where solar farms get built in other states.

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“Brownfields and landfill sites are ideal locations for solar,” said Doug O’Malley, executive director of Environment New Jersey. “Ultimately, we need to be even more aggressive because as battery storage technology evolves and solar technology improves, we should see an even more rapid expansion of solar.”


But others raise concerns about the project.

Among them is Stefanie Brand, director of the state Division of Rate Counsel, which represents utility customers. Companies in New Jersey that produce power are unregulated, so they must compete in the market and take on the risk of building a power plant or solar farm in the hope they can recoup the costs and turn a profit. But like other companies that deliver electricity to customers, PSE&G is regulated, and its application to build the new solar farms, filed with the state Board of Public Utilities, includes a guaranteed profit of more than 10 percent. That’s an expense that will get passed on in higher utility fees to ratepayers — a market advantage PSE&G would have over unregulated companies investing in solar projects.

“We want more solar — more solar is good,” Brand said. “But what’s the right way to pay for it? PSE&G is asking ratepayers to assume the risk for this solar generation. Others are developing solar through unregulated subsidiaries. Why is PSE&G coming to ratepayers to take on risk?”

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