NJ wind-energy bidder plays 'jobs' card

One of the companies competing for state approval to install wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey today claimed it alone was in a position to deliver 'green jobs' to the state as part of the package.

Fishermen's Energy said in a press release that it is "committed to build its construction, manufacturing, and assembly port facilities in New Jersey, likely in the economically hard hit port facilities of the South Jersey Port Corporation, bringing needed new jobs to New Jersey's waterfront - including homeporting Fishermen's Energy planned 340 foot special purpose construction vessel."

The company says the two leading rivals for the New Jersey project--Bluewater Wind and Winergy Power--have committed to locate their manufacturing support facilities and the 'green jobs' that these facilities will create outside of New Jersey.

"Bluewater Wind and Babcock & Brown (its parent company) have pledged to the Governor of Delaware to locate their ports, staging areas, and jobs in Delaware, making Delaware their hub for construction and jobs for the entire Mid-Atlantic, including New Jersey," says Fishermen's Energy, while "Winergy has committed to base its corporate manufacturing headquarters in Rhode Island."

Later this week, Governor Jon Corzine is expected to announce New Jersey's choice to receive a $19 million grant to develop a 350 megawatt, ocean-wind pilot project. If the project demonstrates that wind energy can succeed without significant environment damage, the state likely will ramp up its demand for ocean-wind power to as much as 3,000 megawatts.

For more, see yesterday's: DE, RI pick ocean wind firms, NJ's on deck

DE, RI pick ocean wind firms, NJ's on deck

The states of Delaware and Rhode Island have selected companies to develop offshore wind farms to help each state reduce its energy dependence on foreign oil. Later this week, New Jersey is expected to dip its toe into the offshore wind waters.

We reported in June ('First State' in offshore wind energy, too? ) on the 25-year power contract in Delaware that will enable New Jersey-based Bluewater Wind to sell 200 megawatts of wind-generated electricity to Delmarva Power from a wind 600MW wind farm it plans to construct 11.5 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach.

On Thursday, Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri announced the selection of another Jersey-based firm, Deepwater Wind, (formerly Winergy), a Bluewater Wind competitor, to develop a privately financed project that would provide 1.3 million megawatt hours of offshore wind power per year.

At left, Governor Carcieri signs a contract with Christopher Brown, CEO of Deepwater Wind, whose company will construct a wind energy project off the coast of Rhode Island.

(The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski)

Deepwater Wind's major investors are FirstWind, an on-shore wind project developer, D.E. Shaw & Co., a capital investment firm with experience in the energy sector, and Ospraie Management, an asset management firm with a focus on alternative energy markets.

One of the apparent reasons why Deepwater beat out rival Bluewater (and five other bidders) for the Rhode Island contract was its pledge to invest $1.5 billion in a regional facility that would manufacture support structures for the company's wind towers and turbines. The facility is expected to create up to 800 direct jobs, with annual wages of $60 million.

Later this week, Governor Jon Corzine is expected to announce New Jersey's choice to receive a $19 million grant to develop a 350 megawatt, ocean-wind pilot project. If the project demonstrates that wind energy can succeed without significant environment damage, the state likely will ramp up its demand for ocean-wind power to as much as 3,000 megawatts.

Bluewater Wind is one of five contestants for the state grant. Deepwater Wind also is in the competition, teamed up with New Jersey's largest energy company, PSEG, in a partnership called Garden State Offshore Energy.

Also seeking the grant are:

- Fishermen's Energy of New Jersey

- Environmental Technologies of New York, and

- Occidental Development & Equities of Bayonne

MORE:

Off-shore wind farm to be N.J. business’s first
R.I. picks developer for $1.5B wind farm
Rhode Island picks former Winergy for wind farm
Ospraie, D.E. Shaw, developer to build Rhode Island wind farm
RI awards offshore wind farm rights to NJ firm
Wind power to light up N.J.
Wind-Power Politics (NY Times Magazine)

Bear hunts: Expanding in NY, Frozen in NJ

In New Jersey, the possibility of a renewed bear hunt, like the fellow pictured on the left, is still up a tree.

The strength of the annual controversy surrounding the hunt belies the fact that New Jersey has held only two such events (in 2003 and 2005) over the past 38 years.

Those forays (328 bears were bagged over a single weekend in 2003 and 298 in 2005) caused such a fuss among animal advocate groups that the Department of Environmental Protection, encouraged by Democratic governor Jon Corzine, has blocked all attempts since then (including legal challenges from hunters) to repeat the event.

But calls for a renewed hunt are echoing again this year throughout rural areas in the state's northwest where residents and police report increased numbers of "bear incidents," including the bear who temporarily closed down a high school in Paramus and others who have wandered into back yards, strolled through the drive-through lane at McDonald's and even entered homes in search of food.

The Pocono Record reports that New Jersey wildlife officials have killed 18 bears through Aug. 25, compared with 13 problem bears euthanized for the same period last year.

Reacting to public complaints about troublesome bears, Republican legislators from the heart of bruin country on July 20 issued a letter to state environmental officials demanding the release of population estimates they suggested are being suppressed for political reasons.

Expect the bear-hunt debate volume to rise

What's likely to encourage New Jersey hunt supporters this year is news that the Department of Environmental Conservation in neighboring New York is expanding their bear hunt this year.

The DEC estimates the state's bear population at 7,000, including 2,000 in the southern range that encompasses western New York. Hundreds of bears, according to the DEC, are now living outside what used to be the primary ranges of the Adirondacks, Allegheny and Catskill mountains.

The Black Bear Blog has already noted the difference a state can make in a September 19 post entitled: New York Does What New Jersey Won’t About Bear Problems.

We suspect it won't be the last word on the subject until the bears all head off for hibernation this winter.

Getting energy from ocean wind and waves

For anyone interested in alternative energy, we recommend two

new and very interesting articles.

In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, writer Mark Svenbold's

Wind-Power Politics profiles Peter Mandelstam and his New Jersey-based BlueWater Wind, a tiny company that's making giant strides in bringing ocean-based, wind power to the East Coast.

Svenbold describes Mandelstam as a "47-year-old native New Yorker who is capable of quoting Central European poets and oddball meteorological factoids with ease" and one who had "committed himself — and the tiny company he formed in 1999 — to building utility-scale wind-power plants offshore, a decision that, to many wind-industry observers, seemed to fly in the face of common sense."

Indeed, BlueWater Wind has overcome formidable political and public opinion hurdles in winning its opportunity to build a wind farm off the coast of Delaware.

Part of the company's success can be attributed to a fortuitous combination of soaring oil prices, a growing public awareness of the folly of yoking the nation's economy to sometimes hostile foreign energy sources, and a rising public interest in alternative energy.

But it's also due, in no short measure, to what Svenbold describes as the "Bluewater touch" — a "crisp, informative, ever-helpful, a supercharged, Eagle Scout attentiveness" that is part corporate style and part calculated public-relations approach. That style would pay off tremendously " in the company’s barnstorming campaign of Delaware town meetings and radio appearances to capture what Mandelstam had reason to believe would be the first offshore-wind project in the country’s history. "

One of the reasons why Bluewater Wind's off-shore wind park is being viewed as economically viable is because its turbines will be close enough to big power markets in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington to avoid construction of expensive and politically unpopular transmission lines.

The fact that about half the world population lives within 50 miles of coastline also may prove to be a selling point for "wave-power," a technology that's being explored by several alternative energy pioneers in Europe and America, including Ocean Power Technologies of Pennington, NJ.

In today's Philadelphia Inquirer, staffer Sandy Bauers writes about the company and its co-founder, George W. Taylor, a 74-year-old engineer who learned the power of waves as a young surfer growing up in Australia.

Above, George W. Taylor, founder and CEO of Ocean Power Technologies in Pennington, N.J., wants to moor buoys off the world's coasts and pump electricity ashore via underwater cables. A test buoy is located five miles off the southern tip of Long Beach Island, N.J., where it makes enough power to run its onboard computer and send periodic progress reports. Photo credit: Clem Murray/Inquirer Staff Photographer

MORE:

Markell: No grudge over Carney, Bluewater
Wind industry delves into business detail
Wind, solar energizing Pennsylvania's economy

A cleaner puff of Pennsylvania is on the way

'First State' in offshore wind energy, too?
Making waves in alternative energy

What do you think about offshore drilling?

The New Jersey Petroleum Council is calling on its friends to let the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) know that America should be drilling for oil and gas off the nation's coast in the 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf.

Some 43 million currently leased OCS acres account for about 15 percent of America’s domestic natural gas production and about 27 percent of America’s domestic oil production, according to the MMS. That drilling is taking place primarily off California and Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico.

In light of the nation's energy crisis, the Bush Administration is calling on Congress to lift its moratoria on drilling in other OCS areas, including waters off New Jersey. The MMS estimates there may be 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of gas in areas of the OCS currently off limits to drilling.

In a recent email to industry members, business organizations and lobbyists, NJPC Associate Director John Maxwell writes:

"Clearly, additional supplies of energy in these forms are part of a comprehensive solution to our addiction to foreign oil from unsettled areas of the world. "

Maxwell urges supporters of expanded drilling to make their views known and directs them to Partnership for America's Energy Security, a website which automatically generates letters to the MMS urging an expansion of OCS drilling.

Those who oppose the lifting of the ban can also register their comments with the MMS by clicking Here. Fill in the form and then click on "Submit Comment" button at the bottom of the form.

NJ environmental bills on Senate short list

What pieces of environmental legislation are likely to top the agendas of the environmental committees in the Senate and Assembly when the New Jersey state legislature returns from its summer recess later this month?

EnviroPolitics put that question to the chairmen of both committees:
Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex/Somerset) and
Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D-Essex).

Today we have Senator Smith's answer:

The top two environmental issues for the Senate Environment Committee this fall are:

1. Licensed Site Professionals, and
2. Electronic-Waste Recycling

Identical bills creating a Licensed Site Professional (LSP) program within the Department of Environmental Protection
(S-1897/A-2962) have been introduced by the two environmental committee chairmen.

The idea is to streamline the DEP's review process for contaminated sites in order to whittle away at the department's backlog of more than 20,000 cases.

LSPs hired by companies seeking to remediate contaminated sites would be authorized to: review and submit all necessary paperwork to the DEP, develop remedial plans, supervise the cleanup and certify that it is performed in conformance with DEP's technical requirements.

The DEP supports the LSP program. It also has the backing of the business community. Several of the state's major environmental organizations are concerned, however, that the LSP's might be pressured by those paying their fees to cut corners.

For more see: Bills aim to speed enviro-cleanups in New Jersey

Electronic Waste Recycling - Senator Smith and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora were the sponsors of a relatively new state law requiring the recycling of all used computers and television sets. Their legislation was passed in a flurry of activity in the final days of the last two-year legislative session which ended early in January, 2008.

Several New Jersey-based electronics manufacturers and their trade associations complained that the bill contained numerous flaws. The sponsors are now working with those parties and others on a bill that would implement changes.

Other current issues: Senator Smith is the sponsor of numerous bills working their way through the Legislature that are designed to stimulate the development and installation of alternative energy sources, including solar and wind. He says the most important is
S-1538 which would change the state's legal definition of "farming" to allow the installation of solar panels and windmills on tens of thousands of preserved farmlands across the state.

Down the pike: Smith says there is a major effort under way to reach agreement on a stable funding source to offset property losses in areas affected by the Highlands Act and to replenish the state's landmark farmland and open space preservation program. He predicts an agreement sometime in the spring of 2009.

Hess cogen unit must pay $6.3M damages

A jury in San Diego has ordered New Jersey's Hess Microgen, a subsidiary of the oil giant Hess Corp., to pay a total of $8.2 million for deliberately withholding deliveries to harm a competing contractor.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported September 5 that lawyers for Xnergy, a Carlsbad, CA contractor that serves biotechnology and high-technology companies, argued in the trial that Hess Microgen sought to damage Xnergy so it could win the contractor's jobs for itself.

Hess Microgen “engaged in blatant corporate bullying and corporate blackmail by bringing jobs to a halt, effectively holding the projects hostage,” said Xnergy's lawyer, L.B. “Chip” Edleson of San Diego.

The 12-person jury apparently agreed in verdicts that found Hess Microgen had breached its duty of acting in good faith and intentionally interfering with a contract. The jury, in a separate decision, awarded almost $6.3 million in punitive damages for breach of faith and other misconduct.

Edleson's law partner told the Union Tribune that Hess Microgen faces similar lawsuits in San Diego, San Francisco and Reno over three other cogeneration projects. The other San Diego suit against Hess Microgen was filed by the city of San Diego over cogeneration equipment failures and other problems at a San Diego Police Department installation.

MORE:

Cogen Sour Over Hess Power

Offshore LNG plans torched and advanced

Controversial plans for the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals off the coast of New Jersey and New York were back in the news this week as three of the proposals came under fire and one advanced a step.

In New Jersey, the activist group Clean Ocean Action (COA), announced it was launching a campaign to inform the public and lawmakers about what it sees as the dangers of building the terminals 15 to 20 miles off the coast. COA leaders say they also hope to keep the possibility of offshore LNG facilities out of the final state Energy Master Plan which is due this fall.

Three separate proposals for the construction of LNG facilities of the Jersey coast have been advanced by:

*Atlantic Sea Island Group, which wants to build Safe Harbor Energy, an 80-acre island 19 miles off Sea Bright as a terminal for giant LNG carriers

* Exxon Mobil, which proposes a floating terminal 20 miles east of Manasquan where LNG carriers would link with an undersea pipeline that would carry the gas to shore

* Liberty Natural Gas , seeks to build an anchorage 15 miles off Asbury Park where tankers would link to a pipeline

COA, which opposes all three plans, released a 60-page report that contends the U.S. has a glut of natural gas reserves and does not need imports. The report also claims the facilities would endanger the marine environment and New Jersey's fishing and tourism industries. It also raises security issues, maintaining that offshore LNG terminal would be vulnerable to terrorists.

Bill Cooper, president of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas in Washington, told a Gannett reporter that, which the country has vast natural gas reserves, current U.S. policy either severely restricts drilling or flat out prohibits it. As a result, he said natural gas must be imported an that necessitates LNG terminals.

*****************************

In New York on Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied requests by New York, 'Connecticut, Suffolk County and several area towns to reconsider its approval of permist granted to Broadwater Energy for the installation of an LNG terminal in Long Island Sound.

Broadwater's proposal is opposed by the governors of both New York and Connecticut and has come under withering fire from numerous environmental and outdoor organizations and many newspaper editorial boards. Despite that, the company has continued to methodically advance its case with federal agencies, hoping they will overrule the local opposition.

For a summary of the latest Broadwater development, see Long Island editor/publisher Denise Civiletti's blog report.

MORE:
Group wants to torpedo idea of gas terminals off N.J.
(Star-Ledger - 9/4/08)

Clean Ocean Action torches idea of NJ offshore gas storage facilities
(Atlantic City Press - 9/3/08)

Ocean advocates ready to fight LNG terminals
(Courier-Post - 9/4/08)

Another coastal LNG facility bites the dust
(EnviroPolitics Blog - 6/9/08)

A third bid for an LNG facility off the NJ coast
(EnviroPolitics Blog 5/27/08)

LNG platforms - A northeast update
(EnviroPolitics Blog - 4/30/08)

NY nixes LNG platform; focus shifts to NJ
(EnviroPolitics Blog - 4//10/08)

New developments in NY's LNG barge saga
(EnviroPolitics Blog - 4/3/08)

NJ enviro group ready to rip LNG plans

Clean Ocean Action (COA), a New Jersey shore environmental group that had big success years ago in curbing waste dumping off the coast, is focusing its attention on plans by three separate developers who want to install liquefied natural gas facilities off the coast.

Several other state environmental groups say they are studying the issue with an open mind, recognizing the short-term need for new energy supplies in the expanding northeast market while alternative energy sources are being developed. They haven't immediately opposed the LNG idea since natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel than oil or coal.

COA has scheduled a news conference tomorrow in Trenton to unveil a study entitled: “LNG: An Un-American Energy Source, Liquefied Natural Gas: An Expensive, Dirty, Foreign Fossil Fuel that Threatens Our Natural Gas Energy Independence.”

Sounds like COA folks have made up their mind, doesn't it?

Share your thoughts on the LNG plans by clicking below on the comment line.