Enviros (and business) split over climate bill

Both the environmental and business communities are undergoing internal disputes over climate-change legislation.

Washington Post environmental writer David A. Fahrenthold
reports today that a " curious debate has broken out among American environmental groups, as the Senate balkily starts
to focus on the threat of climate change."

Some groups like the Environmental Defense Fund, he says, are no loner using scare tactics in their ads. Instead, they're trying to win votes for the legislation by talking about how it would create "green jobs" and lessen the need for oil imports.

This approach isn't sitting well with other, smaller environmental groups, he says. They fear that the new approach "might send the signal that a weaker bill is acceptable."



Meanwhile, monolithic business opposition to climate change legislation continues to crumble.

A new group of businesses - including retail giant Gap Inc. and several large utility companies - joined the lobbying fray over climate change on Wednesday, arguing that Congress must pass legislation to limit greenhouse gases as soon as possible.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "American Businesses for Clean Energy will push for passage at the same time that other business groups, most notably the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, try to block or change global warming bills wending their way through Congress.

"We're way behind in taking action, and we need to go now," said Tom King, president of National Grid U.S., a utility serving parts of New England and New York."

In the latest change of lobbying tactics, if not intent, the Chamber of Commerce, which has suffered the defections of several large members who object to the group's opposition to climate change legislation, apparently now is modifying its position.

Have an opinion you'd like to share on the climate change bill or the lobbying positions or tactics of the environmental or business communities? Use the opinion box below. If one isn't open, click on the tiny 'comments' line below to activate it. You can remain anonymous, if you'd like, but signed comments are appreciated.

Related:
Democrats move on climate bill
Senate panel approves climate change bill despite GOP boycott
Republicans Boycott Climate Bill Debate
Will the GOP win or lose on opposing climate bill?
Chamber pushes 'bipartisan' climate bill
US puts climate debate on hold for five weeks despite plea by Merkel

Our latest posts:
Politics by the pound in New Jersey
NY/NJ Port shippers see wolf in 'green' costume
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Like to fish & float? Have we got a gig for you

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Politics by the pound in New Jersey

David Gewirtz weighed in as a guest contributor to Anderson Cooper's blog today with the following observations on the just-concluded New Jersey governor's race:

Jon Corzine lost by 4.4 percent to Chris Christie, a man who is by any measure big-boned. Corzine lost to Christie by just about 101,659 votes. In other words, he lost by the population of a mid-sized New Jersey town.

Corzine has made something of a campaign issue over Christie's weight, even to the point of running a campaign commercial accusing the heavier candidate of "throwing his weight around".

The dig was lost on nobody and was a matter of heavy press coverage for quite some time during the election process.

The thing is, we New Jersey folk don't take being insulted lightly. I'm a big guy and so are a lot of New Jersey citizens. Sure, there's some svelt former bankers running around the Garden State, eating up all those yummy Jersey-grown organic veggies, but New Jersey also has its fair share of rotund (and proud of it, you gonna make something of it?) citizens.

So here you have a fat cat picking on a fat dude. Out of the 2.2 million or so New Jersey residents, could there possibly have been 100,000 or so who didn't vote on issues and didn't vote on party, but voted because they were simply pissed off about the fat ads?

New Jerseyians who vote because they're pissed off? If New Jerseyians do one thing really well (and we do a lot really well), we do "pissed off" with panache. Give us something to get righteously indignant about and we're happier than a pig in a poke.

And that's what I think happened to Jon Corzine. I don't think it was a resurgence of the GOP's reach and influence. I just can't see the helicopter-hunting Sarah Palin
carrying New Jersey in any way, shape, or form.

I just think some New Jersey residents remembered how much they hated bankers like Goldman Sachs and remembered that Corzine was the banker at Goldman Sachs. And I think some other New Jersey residents simply voted an "Oh, no, he didn't" about the weight thing.

I'm telling you. Don't piss off New Jersey. You'll regret it.

NY/NJ Port shippers see wolf in 'green' costume

A broad group of retailers and other shippers are calling on the mayors of New York and Newark to withdraw their support for changes in federal law that they say would allow local regulators to bar independent owner-operators from harbor trucking.

The Journal of Commerce reported yesterday that "The 29 organizations, including the National Retail Federation and the National Industrial Transportation League, said they had “grave disappointment” with support the mayors announced Oct. 19 for the effort led by the Port of Los Angeles, which has targeted independent operators as part of its effort to limit truck pollution at the port. "

In a letter to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the organizations say they "fully support efforts by the ports, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to improve their air quality."

The organizations argue that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (and the NRDC) have been claiming that port trucking services should be exempted from federal preemption in order to improve air quality but that the union's real goal is "to eliminate competition from small independent businesses in favor of companies that the Teamsters believe could be more easily organized."

Among the organizations signing the letter were the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, the New Jersey Retail Merchants Association, the New York State Motor Truck Association, and the New York Shipping Association.

Related:
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CRT Sets the Record Straight on Port Air Quality
LA Ports Meet Clean Air Goals Years Ahead of Schedule

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Forbes takes a look at burying carbon at sea

Forbes has found a place capacious enough to store several hundred billion tons of CO2, enough to take on all the power plants within 155 miles of the coast from Maryland to Massachusetts for the next 100 years. Can you guess where it is?


Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey have participated in national surveys to locate potential underground locations for the disposal of carbon dioxide emissions produced in the generation of electricity from coal-burning power plants.


New Jersey is even reviewing plans for a new coal-burning power plant in the city of Linden. The plan calls for the burial of the plant's CO2 byproduct beneath the ocean floor off the state's coast.

And the federal government is throwing a lot of money into research to test whether so the so-called 'carbon capture and sequestration' technology, which has been successful in small scale projects can be ramped up for industrial-sized applications.

In a new article on the subject, appearing yesterday in Forbes, writer Bruce Upbin tells us that:

"Geologic cavities in the U.S. alone could hold between 2,020 and 14,220 billion tons of CO2, enough to soak up three to 36 months of national output. Doing so would cost $200 or so per ton of carbon. It would require permits from local, state and federal agencies and would generate a good deal of anxiety for those living above the gas. In 1986, a volcano crater in Cameroon released a CO2 bubble large enough to kill 1,800
people while they slept."

But what, he asks, "If you could put the carbon where nobody lives?"

Guess where that turns out to be?

"There is a perfect place 70 miles off the eastern U.S. seaboard and two miles below the ocean floor. It's a porous sandstone formation, trapped under a mile of hard shale, that stretches from New Jersey to Georgia. The section off the Jersey shore alone is capacious enough to store several hundred billion tons of CO2, enough to take on all the power plants within 155 miles of the coast from Maryland to Massachusetts for the next 100 years."

If you get the feeling that this topic isn't going away anytime soon, you're right. So we suggest that you might want to read the entire Forbes piece, which you'll find here.

Related:
British emissary says carbon capture is crucial
Prioritise project diversity says carbon capture institute
Carbon capture shows major potential in China
Is carbon capture the political key to climate bill?
Feds' $2.4B to 'stimulate' carbon capture projects
For carbon sequestration, it's test time

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Will NRG save Bluewater's wind projects?

Princeton-based NRG Energy Inc. is reported to be discussing the financial rescue of Bluewater Wind, the company that hopes to build the nation's first wind-energy farm off the coast of Delaware and has similar plans for New Jersey.

Bluewater has been mostly dead in the water since its primary Australian financier, Babcock and Brown, was waylaid by the international economic tailspin triggered by the U.S. banking industry implosion.

Bluewater's president Peter Mandelstam said in September that he was confident that a deal with a new ownership investor would be completed within 60 days and that Babcock and Brown will be out
of the project by the end of the year.

The (Wilmington) News Journal reports today that unnamed sources familiar with the plan say that Bluewater is in serious negotiations to sell to NRG Energy Inc.

Rob Propes, Bluewater's project director for its planned Delaware wind farm, declined to comment about the identity of companies the firm is talking to about the sale of a "fully controlled interest," reports the News Journal's Aaron Nathans.

"A sale would include all of the projects in Bluewater's development pipeline, among them the planned wind farm off Rehoboth Beach, a similar venture planned in New Jersey and proposals in other states, he said. Propes said Bluewater expects to announce a deal in the coming weeks."

There are two ironic twists to the story. Nathans notes that:

"Such a deal, if culminated, would pair Delaware's most prominent clean energy project with one of the state's most prominent polluters. NRG...owns the coal-fired Indian River Power Plant, which long has ranked among the state's major air-pollution sources.

But he also reports that NRG earlier this month received "final approval for the largest air-pollution control effort in state history. The $500 million project will cut some smog-forming and toxic emissions at Indian River by 75 to 90 percent. The effort includes shutting down the two oldest units at the four-unit facility."

The second irony is that NRG and Bluewater were competitors at one point and NRG did its best at that time to denigrate Bluewater's Delaware wind plans.

Nathan explains:

"The Bluewater project was a response to a 2006 state request for proposals for new, in-state generation to stabilize electricity prices and increase reliability on the Delmarva Peninsula. At the time, few Americans had given much thought to offshore wind farms, which made the Bluewater proposal novel. It picked up substantial public support as company officials toured the state.

"But Bluewater had competition from NRG, which was proposing a coal gasification plant, known in some circles as "clean coal," and many believed NRG had the inside track. A third competitor, Conectiv, proposed a natural gas-fired plant.

"During the competition, NRG officials were critical of the Bluewater project, raising questions about the wind company's ability to provide electricity during the hottest summer days, when winds are light. Bluewater ultimately won the competition, and state agencies, lawmakers and eventually Delmarva agreed on a power purchase agreement."

Bluewater's offshore Delaware project envisions the installation of least 79 turbines about 14 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. They are expected to generate enough electricity to power 55,000 homes

In New Jersey, Bluewater has received a $4 million state grant for an offshore meteorological tower and hopes eventually to develop a 350 MW wind project some 16 miles off the coast of Atlantic City.

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently released rules governing offshore wind farms, which developers say will speed construction of such projects.

Related:
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Offshore Rhode Island wind power at a dead calm
Wind energy out to hook fishing industry support
We should all be in the solar and wind business
Will TX beat NJ and NY to offshore wind energy?
New York plans U.S.'s largest offshore wind farm
NJ's offshore wind energy pick is lobbying large

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Like to fish & float? Have we got a gig for you

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is searching for a new executive director to replace Douglas Austen, a man the commission has been trying to cast overboard for the last 18 months.

Commission members voted in January 2008 to fire Austen but the Patriot-News reports that they reversed themselves a week later "under threat of removal as commissioners by Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration."

Apparently, the 10-member group now has a green light from the front office. It announced on Monday that it was conducting a nationwide search for Austen's replacement. The commission's news release described the move as “a transition in leadership of the organization.”

Required qualifications include "upper level management or policy-making experience in a fisheries, wildlife, conservation, or natural resources organization and minimum of a bachelor’s degree from a college or university.”

In addition to directing the operations and activities of the agency, the executive director serves as the agency’s chief law enforcement officer, and is a member of the Environmental Quality Board, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Mid-Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council and an ex-officio member of the PFBC Boating Advisory Board.

Interested individuals should submit a résumé by Dec. 1, 2009 to: Executive Director - Search Committee, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, C/O Human Resource Office, 1601 Elmerton Ave., P.O. Box 67000, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7000

Related:
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Fish and Boat Commission Launches Search for Executive Director
PA Fish and Boat Commission search within agency

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Will NJDEP's new water quality plan wipe out your development?

NJBIZ reports that "the value and development potential of some real estate properties in New Jersey could take a hit as county and municipal governments prepare new wastewater management plans and redraw sewer service area boundaries.

"And despite the potentially devastating impact of such changes, many property owners are unaware they may be affected."

The business publication's Evelyn Lee explains:

"Last year, the state Department of Environmental Protection amended its Water Quality Management Planning rule, making county and municipal governments responsible for updating their wastewater management plans.

"The amended rule removes environmentally sensitive features — such as wetlands and endangered species — from sewer service areas, which encompass properties served by wastewater treatment systems. In amending the rule, the department came up with a draft map of sewer service areas to reflect the rule change, and guide counties and municipalities in developing their own sewer service area maps.

"The new maps could reassign properties currently within a sewer service area to a non-service area, said Ellen Radow Sadat, a partner at the Princeton office of law firm Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP.

This could significantly reduce the value of the site by eliminating future development, she said, as “without sewer service, it’s very difficult for development to occur.”

Radow Sadat is calling for projects already underway to be grandfathered into the state’s new sewer service areas: “People have invested their money in the land, with the prospect of potentially growing and expanding in New Jersey.”

See the entire NJBIZ story here.

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Related:

Drinker Biddle: The potential demise of your development rights
Langan: Status of NJDEP efforts to update WQM plans

NJDEP Water Quallity Management Plan website

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EPA developing remediation goals for dioxin

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on a plan to develop interim preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) for dioxin in soil at contaminated sites.

The plan includes a review of current dioxin cleanup guidance that has been established by the EPA, states and other countries, including the latest fully peer-reviewed dioxin toxicity assessments.

EPA will release the draft interim PRGs for public comment in December 2009, and anticipates issuing the final interim PRGs in June 2010.

The agency is currently undertaking a reassessment of dioxin, the results of which are expected to be released by the end of 2010.

More information on the plan and how to comment: www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/remedy/sfremedy/remedies/dioxininterimplan.html


Our most recent posts:
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Offshore Rhode Island wind power at a dead calm

Plans to build the first offshore wind farm in Rhode Island have suffered a setback after the developer, Hoboken, New Jersey-based Deepwater Wind, failed to reach an agreement to sell electricity to the state’s largest electric utility, National Grid.

The Providence Journal reports: "National Grid this week rejected a proposal to purchase energy from a small wind farm that Deepwater Wind plans to build off Block Island. In documents filed with the state Public Utilities Commission Thursday, National Grid says that negotiations with Deepwater have so far failed to yield a “commercially reasonable” power-purchase agreement, mainly because the projected cost of electricity generated by the wind farm would be three times the price of energy from traditional sources.

“The [agreement], in pure financial terms, is uneconomic by a significant margin for Rhode Island customers for the entire term,” wrote National Grid attorney Ronald T. Gerwatowski.

The filing, submitted late Thursday afternoon to meet a deadline set by a new state law, does not signal an end to talks between the two sides. It is, however, a blow to Deepwater, which until now had encountered no significant obstacles in its race with other companies to install the first offshore wind turbines in the United States.

The New Jersey-based start-up company needs a contract not just because it would guarantee a buyer for its electricity, but also because such an agreement would help attract additional financing for its two projects in Rhode Island that will cost a total of $1.5 billion.

Deepwater first plans to install up to eight turbines three miles off the Block Island coast by 2012 and would follow that demonstration project with a much larger wind farm consisting of approximately 100 turbines at least 15 miles from the Rhode Island shore.

There is more to the story which continues here

Related:
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NJ's Governor Candidates on 'Smart Growth'

New Jersey Future asked the state's three leading candidates for governor to respond to a questionnaire about smart growth.

The organization reports today that the responses given to six questions posed offered "many similarities-along with some nuanced differences."

Here's how New Jersey Future summarized the answers:

Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine, the incumbent, emphasizes steps his administration has taken, from the Global Warming Response Act to the Economic Redevelopment and Growth Grant Program, as evidence of his commitment to promote both a strong economy and a healthy environment. In a second term, he pledges that his Policy Office "will convene a State Plan cabinet working group to align state agency actions with State Plan objectives."

Republican Christopher Christie criticizes the Governor's failure in his first term "to coordinate and focus the efforts of multiple departments" in redevelopment activities and land-use management. He touts his own "Bringing Back Our Cities" plan, which includes tax incentives aimed at revitalizing urban areas, adding, "The Office of State Planning needs to be restored to a leadership role" in carrying out the State Plan.

Independent Christopher Daggett proposes to promote smart growth by expanding transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) programs statewide and restoring Regional Contribution Agreements (RCA) as a tool for producing new affordable-housing units in receiving municipalities. He also pledges to "reconvene state and local government officials, builders, environmentalists, business leaders and housing advocates to re-examine the State Plan."

Read the candidates' full answers to all six questions here.

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