NJ offshore wind energy forum Tuesday, March 29



This looks like a great program tomorrow at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ.


It is co-sponsored by Environment New Jersey, the Stockton University Sustainability Trust and the Business Network for Off-Shore Wind


Organizers say the forum comes after the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s sale late last year of two leases for offshore wind energy development off the Jersey Shore to RES Americas and US Wind Inc., as well as Fishermen’s Energy continued efforts to develop a 5-turbine wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City. 


The forum will address the development plans for each developer, the opportunities for New Jersey to become a leader of an offshore wind energy industry, and the potential economic market created for this industry through the introduction of an offshore wind renewable energy credit (OREC) system. 


Panelists include representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), RES Americas, US Wind Inc., Fishermen’s Energy, and New Jersey’s 2nd Legislative District. Also, there will be a special video statement from Senator Cory Booker directed to the audience on the importance of offshore wind energy in New Jersey.

A keynote address will be delivered by Deputy Director Walter Cruickshank of BOEM, and multiple Q & A sessions are planned. Light refreshments will be served at the forum’s conclusion.



More information is available at Enviro-Events Calendar  


Plan to attend? Please RSVP here for your general admission ticket (no cost). 


If you can’t make it, you still can listen to the entire event  via live stream.  

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Ditch wasteful plastic. Eat your cutlery

plastic cutlery

Concerned about the amount of plastics thrown into the waste stream everyday?

This Indian inventor thought about the waste and the possible hidden effects
of the chemicals used to create plastic cutlery that you eat from.

His solution: Edible cutlery. Utensils you can eat with your meal. Made from natural grains and created in a variety of flavors.

Check it out:

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How a university should NOT react to a racism charge


Charges of racism and cronyism, a university in a public relations pickle, two heavyweight state senate Democrats crossing swords, and–at the center–a bank-robber-turned-minister. You know this story had to originate in New Jersey.

The Star-Ledger‘s Tom Moran lays it out:

“Mark this down as Lesson #1 from Kean University’s fumbling response to charges of racism at the school:

“Do NOT hire a former bank robber with a phony resume to conduct your internal investigation — even if he calls himself a minister.

“This actually happened. It is the latest twist in a story that is bizarre even by New Jersey standards.


Read the full story here  




 

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The fishing’s hot outside nuclear plant in Lacey, NJ

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Snow was falling, temps were near freezing and winter still held New Jersey
in its icy grip earlier this month, but none of that mattered to me.

Brian Donohue reports for the Associated Press:
Because I was headed to the one place in the Garden State where summer lasts forever: Oyster Creek, where the toasty outflow from the nearby nuclear power plant keeps the water temperatures warm enough to keep the fish biting year round.
As the nation’s oldest nuclear power plant, the Oyster Creek Generating Station, sucks in 1.4 billion gallons of water a day from the Forked River to cool its reactor, then pumps the water back out into neighboring Oyster Creek at higher temperatures, NJ.com reported. Come late winter and early spring, the creek becomes — literally and figuratively — the state’s hottest fishing hole.
Species including striped bass, bluefish and flounder that largely migrate to warmer waters or go dormant in winter instead remain in the warm waters of the creek and keep biting through the hardest freezes.
So follow the fishermen like Newman Kessler, who drove two hours in a snowstorm from his home in Ossining, New York.
Donning plaid earmuffs and ski gloves, Kessler cast from the bank with the hope of landing his first striper of 2016.
While the snow kept the number of fishermen to a handful on the Friday I visited — the first since the March 1 opening of the season for striped bass fishing in New Jersey rivers and bays — Kessler said he is used to jockeying with more than 20 anglers for a spot along the banks.
“And more often than not, you’ll see them pulling fish out,” he said.
Before the plant opened in 1969, Oyster Creek was like any one of scores of brackish creeks that empty in the bays — a great spot to catch fish, but generally not until water temperatures begin to rise in late March or April.
It wasn’t long before locals realized the nuclear plant allowed them to get an early start. A well-kept secret among locals for years, the spot has become more popular — and crowded — as word has spread online. On my visit, fishermen were of few words, reluctant to attract any more competition.
 


 
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Court: Demolition of Doris Duke mansion can resume

In this Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015 file photo, a portion of the sprawling main mansion of the Duke Farms estate that tobacco heiress Doris Duke once called home is seen in Hillsborough, NJ.
 

Demolition work will now be allowed to resume at a historic New Jersey mansion once owned by tobacco heiress and socialite
Doris Duke.

Associated Press reporter Bruce Shipkowski writes:

A state appellate court on Friday removed an emergency stay that was issued March 6 at the request of a community group that’s been fighting for months to stop the work. The panel said the group failed to show “a reasonable probability of ultimate success” with their case against The Duke Farms Foundation.


It wasn’t clear Saturday when the demolition work would resume. A large portion of the Hillsborough Township mansion had been torn down the day before the emergency stay was issued earlier this month.


“We are grateful that the courts agreed with us,” Michael Catania, the foundation’s executive director, said Saturday. “We are hoping to get started again (on the demolition) in the near future, but we haven’t set a schedule yet.”

The 67,000-square-foot mansion has been empty since Duke’s death in 1993. Foundation officials say it is in disrepair and would take at least $10 million to fix.

David Brook, a lawyer and a leader of the community group Demolition of Residence is Senseless, or DORIS, said the group has the option to take its case for an emergent motion to the New Jersey Supreme Court. However, he said that was not likely to happen.

“This is a sad day for us, for Hillsborough, for everyone involved,” in this matter, Brook said Saturday.

 

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Marcellus gas royalties bill back in the spotlight in Pa.

                                                                                                                 MariE CUSICK/ STATEIMPACT PA
“The Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act of 1979 was enacted to avoid some of these predatory practices,” says Bradford County businessman and royalty owner Dave DeCristo. “Obviously people were getting ripped off.”
Royalty advocates were back in Harrisburg Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass legislation to prevent drillers from cheating landowners out of money.
Marie Cusick of State Impact reports:
“The legislature should clearly define ‘royalty’ to prevent the theft of our resources through creative accounting,” says Jackie Root, who heads the state chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners.
Shortly after the Marcellus boom took off, people began complaining some drillers were shortchanging them. Most of the complaints have focused on Chesapeake Energy, which has been sued over the issue around the country. The issue is complicated, and it often revolves around who pays for post-production costs, which the expenses of moving gas from the well to the market and include things like compression, dehydration, and pipeline transport.
In 2013 Rep. Garth Everett (R- Lycoming) introduced a bill to attempt to address the problem. Although the measure was approved by a House committee, it never made it to the floor for a vote. He later blamed the House GOP leadership for blocking it.
Last summer Everett revived the effort. The new bill has 37 co-sponsors from both parties. On Tuesday the House Environmental Resources and Energy committee held an informational hearing and heard testimony from landowners who say they’ve been cheated, as well as representatives from the Game Commission and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which have also had trouble get paid properly.

 
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