Will New Jersey see Licensed Site Professionals?

What's that loud groaning sound under New Jersey's Capitol Dome?

No it's not Governor Corzine's latest list of budget cuts.

It's the formerly lean and mean (and now rotund) legislation introduced by the chairmen of the Senate and Assembly environmental committees back in June. The bills offered a creative method for private-sector environmental consultants to help state regulators jump start cleanups for many projects on the state's embarrassing backlog of 20,000 contaminated sites.

The legislation (S-1897 and A-2962) sought to create Licensed Site Professionals, a group of experienced environmental engineers and others, who would develop remedial plans, supervise cleanups and certify that they were performed in conformance with Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) technical requirements. It was based on a highly successful LSP program that's been operating in Massachusetts for 15 years.

In its debut hearings, the legislation was met with a howls from environmental groups who envisioned crooked consultants collecting fees from property owners for totally inadequate work.
Sure. New Jersey engineering firms don't have any ethics or professional pride. And they're certainly not concerned about opening the Star-Ledger one morning to find that the state DEP has revoked their LSP license for certifying false cleanup reports. That's great for business--especially in the current economic climate.

Unfortunately, in politics, you can't simply deal with reality, you have to deal with "perceptions." So, for the last seven months, the sponsors have been hashing out various amendments with the enviros, with the DEP, and with other affected parties, including industry and consulting organizations.

The result? The original 53-page bill has mushroomed to 130 pages and now, according to insiders, not only are the enviros expressing their usual outrage, but those who stood to benefit most from the original bill--business property owners and environmental consultants--have grievance lists of their own involving new taxes in the bill and the lack of clear direction to LSP's on how to proceed with cleanups and how to be sure the end has been reached.

Does the bill still have legs? We hope so, as there is no reasonable alternative in sight.

We should all have a better idea about the bill's future on Monday at 10 a.m. when the Senate Environment Committee takes public testimony (but will not vote) on the latest version of the legislation.

You can follow along, via your computer, by logging on to the Legislature's website at: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/Default.asp Then select the link that says: "View or listen to live proceedings" and then click on "Senate Environment."

And be sure to let us know what you think by clicking on the "Comment" line (or box) below.

MORE:
N.J. looks to outsource waste site cleanup
Bills aim to speed enviro-cleanups in New Jersey
Hiring a Licensed Site Professional in Massachusetts
Licensed Site Professional Association (Web Site)

Week's top environmental news in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Jan. 19-23

Below are just a few of the environmental news stories for New Jersey and Pennsylvania which appeared in EnviroPolitics during the week of January 19-23.

PSE&G looking to spend $888M Public Service Electric and Gas Co. announced Thursday that it is seeking regulatory approval to spend $888 million on energy infrastructure and efficiency programs to create much-needed jobs and boost New Jersey's ailing economy Bergen Record

NJ Natural Gas pitches projects to help local economy The Wall Township, NJ-based utility, which serves nearly 485,000 customers in Monmouth, Ocean and Morris counties, has asked the state Board of Public Utilities to approve the proposals by the end of next month AP Press


Report: Drywell at Oyster Creek safe A corroded steel radiation barrier at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey is good to go until its next scheduled inspection in 2012, despite some water leakage, according to a federal report AP Press


New law helps public buildings go green Public buildings that can't go green because they lack the funds to pay for the work have a new way to finance these projects through a law enacted Wednesday Star-Ledger


Agency backs plan to link Atlantic City, River Line rails A bistate agency backs plan for a new station to provide better access between Trenton and southern New Jersey AC Press


Delay in the sentencing of foundry managers continues Prosecutors and defense attorneys are preparing for battle as sentencing delays continue in the Phillipsburg case of four Atlantic States foundry managers convicted in April 2006 of environmental and safety crimes Express-Times


New law aims to reduce greenhouse gases Gov. Corzine signed into law today legislation that aims to create jobs and reduce greenhouse gases by making government buildings more energy efficient. State, counties, municipalities, school boards and other public agencies can now enter into agreements with energy companies to pursue savings Bergen Record


Road to history passed through Princeton and Trenton On the day when Barack Obama became the nation's first African-American president, New Jersey’s Lisa Jackson is poised to become the first African American to lead the federal Environmental Protection Agency Star-Ledger


Freeze raises fears rivers will be dolphins' icy graves The Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers in Monmouth County, where a pod of bottlenose dolphins have lived since the summer, are freezing, increasing concerns that the mammals might not be able to survive much longer AP

EPA report says seas could destroy New Jersey coast Accelerated sea-level rise could increase coastal flooding, storm intensity and the ongoing destruction of tidal marshes and barrier islands in southern NJ, a federal report finds AC Press


Bat-killing ailment spreads to NJ & PA














AP Photo/Mike Groll
A mysterious lethal phenomenon killing bats in New York
for the past two years has spread to populations in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, wildlife authorities in both
states say Star-Ledger

Pennsylvania

Palo Alto blaze controlled below ground Smoke may still be rising, but officials believe an underground coal refuse fire is under control Pottsville Republican


Judge hears testimony in landfill deal A grass-roots group’s lawsuit charges that Williams Twp supervisors improperly met with Chrin Brothers landfill representatives for a year to hash out a far-reaching agreement over a controversial proposal to expand the landfill Morning Call


Lawsuit: Firm 'squandered' Lehigh Coal's assets A management firm the state installed in 2006 to help a historic Schuylkill and Carbon county coal company overcome regulatory problems instead drained the company's finances for its own benefit, a lawsuit says Morning Call


Centre County residents voice landfill concerns Residents of local townships came to State College Tuesday night to issue concerns about what they say could be the largest landfill east of the Mississippi Penn St. Daily Collegian

Recession hurting recycling efforts Value of scrap metal, paper down, so some are less apt to recycle Times Leader
> Carbon County facing downturn in recycling market Despite the recent downturn, Duane Dellecker, the county’s solid waste director, says recycling is the still the way to go Lehighton Times-News

Energy industry steps up presence at Farm Show The Pennsylvania Farm Show is becoming an important stop for public officials and private business owners promoting development of alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind power Scranton Times-Tribune

Knox Mine Disaster: 50 years later The small group of men fleeing onrushing water through the Knox Coal Co.’s River Slope Mine tore frantically at the pile of debris before them, trying to clear a way to the air shaft through which they hoped to escape. But even when they managed to reach the bottom of the 10-foot-by-10-foot Eagle Shaft, they found it was a good 50 feet to the surface – straight up the dirt and rock walls Times Leader


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

Subscribers to EnviroPolitics get access to full versions of all the top environmental and political news stories in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York every business day. They also are alerted to environmental regulations proposed in Trenton and Harrisburg and are able to track all environmental legislation in both states--from introduction to enactment!
See what you've been missing. Try a no-obligation, 30-day subscription: Free Trial

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

How will you follow the Inauguration today?

How and where will you be watching or listening to today's historic event?

Have you brought a TV or radio to work ?

Will you be ducking into the nearest coffee shop with a wall mounted set?

Following it all online via your desktop or laptop? Or cellphone?

Or are you sneaking a sick day, staying in bed, and viewing it all on your HD flat screen?

If you're in the mood to witness history via non-traditional media, check out these two:

The Inauguration Will Be Televised — and Tweeted and Flickr’d

5 Best Ways to Watch the Obama Inauguration Online

Whatever you're planning, let us know. Click on the comment line below and tell us how you plan to watch (or listen to) the swearing-in of President Barack Obama--and other inaugural festivities.

Proposed NJ electric power line prompts PR clash

New Jersey's largest power company, PSE&G, is embroiled in a growing public relations battle with environmental groups and some local government leaders over the proposed Susquehanna-Roseland high-power transmission line which the company wants to erect between the Delaware Water Gap in Warren County and the town of Roseland in Essex County.

For months, both sides have been fighting to win public and government support for their respective positions, for and against the construction. PSE&G contends the lines are necessary to address deteriorating infrastructure and the region's growing energy demands. Opponents say the project would harm the environment and import ""dirty" electricity from coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania and other western states.

The combatants have clashed on the classic PR battlegrounds --in newspaper stories covering the controversy, in media events staged by opponents, in press releases, and in letters to the editor.

On Jan, 15, PSE&G opened a new PR front, with a paid advertorial Caution: Blackouts Ahead... which appeared on the opinion page of the state's largest daily newspaper, the (Newark) Star-Ledger. The piece summoned up a bleak picture of 1926-era power lines "staining to carry voltage" which, according to an industry expert, could "break and fall to the ground causing a potentially dangerous situation…" not to mention "permanent damage to transmission infrastructure and catastrophic power outages.”

An opponent group, Stop The Lines, fired back two days later, using the same newspaper's free, public blog section, NJ Voices. The opponents contended that the PSE&G piece was " deceptive, fear-mongering, and baseless."

On Jan 12, PSE&G formally applied to the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for permission to build the 45-mile, $650 million line. That immediately triggered protests from environmentalists who claimed the petition was an attempt by PSE&G to circumvent the process of seeking local approvals in each of the 15 towns affected by the project.

In addition to making its case before the BPU, the power company apparently also must win the approval of the state's Highlands Council which controls development in all environmentally sensitive areas of the New Jersey's northwest, including the power line's proposed pathway.

Getting the BPU to rule on the proposal could take up to a year, according to some estimates.

That virtually guarantees a lot more coalition-building, news conferences, press releases, paid adversorials, opinion poll contentions and op-ed submissions from both sides.

MORE:

PSE&G seeks permit for 45-mile power line through North Jersey

PSE&G will ask state for OK on power line proposal

PSE&G moves ahead on controversial power-line plan

"Power Points" Commentary - views of Ralph LaRossa & Scott Olson

Highlands Coalition takes action against PSE&G's power line plan

PSE&G tells Highlands panel of power line plans
Fredon house bought for power line project

PSE&G seeks OK to build new power line
PSE&G power line will hit Warren, Sussex, Morris and Essex counties
Susquehanna-Roseland: An electric reliability project

State asked to reject power project

PSE&G proposes routes for new power line

Stop the Lines!
PSEG video on its Susquehanna-Roseland project

Our previous posts:

High-voltage line before NJ Highlands Council

Jersey enviros look to topple power line proposal

Jackson promises to un-Bush the EPA

Photo: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

In testimony at her confirmation hearing today before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, EPA-Administrator nominee Lisa Jackson pledged that science, not politics, would guide future decisions at the agency.

“Science must be the backbone of what E.P.A. does,” Ms. Jackson said in her prepared opening statement. “If I am confirmed, I will administer with science as my guide. I understand the laws leave room for policy-makers to make policy judgments. But if I am confirmed, political appointees will not compromise the integrity of E.P.A.’s technical experts to advance particular regulatory outcomes.”

The former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, who had worked previously at the EPA, said that the Obama administration’s environmental priorities would focus on curbing global warming, reducing air pollution, cleaning up hazardous waste sites, regulating toxic chemicals and protecting water quality.

As the New York Times noted, Jackson's confirmation "appears on track" as "the ranking Republican on the committee, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a skeptic on global warming, called her 'accessible and reasonable' and said he planned to vote to confirm her."

Check out the initial stories on Jackson's testimony below. We'll update this post as others of note appear tomorrow.

Nominee signals big change for EPA (Washington Post)
Jackson Promises to Put Science First at E.P.A. (New York Times)
Jackson vows to take agency in new direction (Star-Ledger)
Jackson vows resolve at EPA helm (Bergen Record)
Jackson outlines aggressive agenda for EPA (Bergen Record)
EPA nominee vows to follow science (Philadelphia Inquirer)
EPA Pick… Bold Promises, Will She Keep Them? (Tort Deform)
A new Lisa on life (Grist)
Obama choices widely hailed (Treehugger)

For our earlier coverage of the Jackson nomination and the controversy it stirred up among environmental organizations, see: Lisa Jackson's EPA confirmation hearing

Beating the nuclear drum in Pennsylvania

In an effort to get Pennsylvania legislators and voters to warm up to nuclear power, a group calling itself The Pennsylvania Energy Alliance yesterday released the results of a poll claiming that 57 percent of those questioned somewhat or strongly agreed that nuclear power will reduce the effects of global warming.

Eighty-two percent somewhat or strongly agreed that it is reliable, and just over 66 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that nuclear power is safe, according to Terry Madonna, an independent pollster and professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.

Did the poll include questions about the safety of handling or disposing of spent nuclear rods? If so, we didn't see any responses in the Alliance's news release.

The Alliance is funded by Exelon Corp., which operates 10 nuclear power stations across the country. Members of the Alliance include:

- Pete Duncan and Dave Hess, former secretaries of the DEP

- Forrest J. Remick, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering at Penn State

- James MacVay and William Lynch, former Adjutants General and commanders of the PA National Guard

- Dr. Ivory Nelson, President of Lincoln University

- Dr. Steven King, Director, Division of Health Physics and Radiation Safety Officer, Hershey Medical Center

- Former Governor Mark S. Schweiker

- Terry Peck, Business Manager, UA Local 520 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union

- The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry

Alliance members must have been heartened to learn that Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Department of Energy supported building at least some new nuclear energy plants in response to questions during his confirmation hearing yesterday.

MORE:
Coalition announces nuclear power support
New Statewide Coalition Formed to Promote Nuclear Energy
Nuclear reactor owners rush to extend licenses

Lisa Jackson's EPA confirmation hearing

Here are some of the latest national news stories and blog posts on EPA Administrator nominee Lisa Jackson, whose confirmation hearing will be held in Washington tomorrow at 10 a.m.(Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009) before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Faulted By Environmentalists, EPA Nominee Has Fans In US Senate (CNN Money)

Lisa P. Jackson (New York Times profiles of Obama cabinet selections)

Senate Environment Committee gets rolling in 111th Congress (Grist)

Obama chooses moderate to head EPA (DC Progressive Examiner)

Transparency Concerns Raised about EPA Nominee (OMB Watch)

Key Questions for Lisa Jackson, Nominee for EPA Administrator (Heritage Foundation)
Why Some Enviros Hate Obama's EPA Pick (Mother Jones)

Our previous posts on Mrs. Jackson's nomination can be found at:

Hearings for NJ, PA environmental regulators

Lisa (Lightning Rod) Jackson has New Jersey enviros crackling

Daily Kos weighs in on Jackson-EPA debate

NJ's Lisa Jackson may get top EPA job

We will update this post should additional stories become available today and will cover Mrs. Jackson's confirmation hearing in a future post.

Hearings for NJ, PA environmental regulators

Lisa Jackson's confirmation may travel a smooth path, John Hager's a rocky road.

President-elect Barack Obama wants the U.S. Senate to confirm his nomination of New Jersey's former DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Governor Ed Rendell wants the senate in the Keystone State to confirm his nomination of John Hanger as secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection.

Jackson will get her Senate hearing this week in Washington and is expected to be confirmed without much difficulty. She has the support of the state's two U.S. Senators, the governor, and all of New Jersey's major environmental organizations.

Jackson is likely to face some questions about her performance at the DEP, however, based on allegations made by several former department employees and the leader of a wetlands organization in Edison that she wasn't tough enough on enforcement issues.

Hanger, a former state PUC commissioner, was nominated by Rendell, a Democrat, in August and has been serving as Acting DEP Secretary while waiting for the Senate to consider his nomination. He will make his case for the position before the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee at a date expected to be announced soon.

His road to confirmation is likely to be far rockier than his former environmental colleague on the opposite side of the Delaware.

That's due to the fact that, after leaving the PUC, Hanger served as an aggressive advocate on environmental issues for the statewide organization, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (Penn Future).

In that role, he didn't win many friends in the business community and crossed swords, more than occasionally, with several legislators. The most notable of them happens to be Mary Jo White, the powerful Republican chairwoman of the committee that now controls the future of his nomination.

When asked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about his prospects, Hanger said:

"I don't hold grudges. I respect those who come into the public arena and fiercely make their points. That's what democracy is all about."

Do Senator White and her Republican colleagues share the same philosophy?

Time will tell.

MORE:

Jackson's EPA bid has support of many state environmentalists

Rendell seeking Senate confirmation of Cabinet nominees

Nominee to head state DEP faces many challenges
State business leaders wary of DEP nominee

Ten Questions the Senate Should Ask Lisa Jackson
NJ Sierra Club - Lisa Jackson Great Choice to Lead EPA
Environment New Jersey Hails Obama’s Historic Pick
Daily Kos weighs in on Jackson-EPA debate
NJ's Lisa Jackson may get top EPA job

NJ's Global Warming Plan: Round One of Six

Did you know that New Jersey is creating a comprehensive standards manual for green buildings, to be made available in mid-2010?

You do now. And you can thank Joe Basralian, the scrivener behind the Green Politics New Jersey blog who dug out this nugget as he sat through hours of testimony Tuesday at the first of six public hearings on the state's Draft Global Warming Response Act Recommendation Report.

The Draft Global what, you ask? Basically it's the first stab at a nuts and bolts plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey by 20 percent by 2020 and by a total of 80 percent by 2050. Those reductions are required by a law (the Global Warming response Act) passed by the Legislature in the Summer of 2007.

Fundamentally, state lawmakers said: "Get the levels down " but didn't say how. The DEP has been working on a plan to do just that, along with a number of "stakeholders" (utilities, business organizations, environmentalists, lobbyists, academicians and a few regular folks thrown in for good measure).

They produced a draft plan on how to get there. Now, theoretically, it's "the public's" turn to review the document and add its learned opinion to the process.

What really happens, of course, is that the media ignores it (these public hearings are really long and, unless you're a policy wonk, often mind-numbingly boring).

The "public" (more worried about potential layoff notices and the Giants' chances of getting back to the Super Bowl) also ignores it (and probably would still ignore it if the media covered it).

Those who do show up to offer opinions are roughly an expanded version of the "stakeholder" cast who fashioned the original version before its Broadway run.

Which brings us back to Joe Basralian, who is not a trained reporter (or he'd be back at the state house re-writing news release handouts).

Joe was there to listen to people who offered their opinions on how energy-efficient buildings might help to reduce global-warming gases. He was there because he honesty cares about this stuff and wants others to know about it too.

In his blog post, Highlights from Stakeholder Meeting #1: NJ Global Warming Report - Green Buildings, Basralian modestly admits that his report doesn't cover everything that was said (when did you ever hear a journalist admit that?) but he hopes that we'll "find the timeliness helpful."

Helpful? Hell, Joe, if it hadn't been for you we wouldn't know anything about the hearing.

So what's up next? The state's website offers the following schedule:

Friday, January 9: Terrestrial Sequestration and Agriculture - 9 AM to 12 PM in Department of Environmental Protection's Public Hearing Room.

Monday, January 12 - Transportation (vehicles. fuels and infrastructure) - from 9 AM to 12 PM in the Department of Environmental Protection's Public Hearing Room.

Wednesday, Jan. 14 -Land Use/Transportation Planning - 1 to 4 PM in the Department of Transportation's multi-purpose room located on the first floor of 1035 Parkway Avenue in Trenton.

Friday, January 16 - Non-CO2 Highly Warming Gases - 9 to Noon in the Department of Environmental Protection's Public Hearing Room.

Make-up hearing originally scheduled for January 7 but canceled by weather - Industry, EGUs, Waste and Water - time and location to be determined.

What's an EGU, by the way? Is it a relative of the emu, or something as disgusting as it sounds?

I honestly don't know, but I'm sure Joe will explain it to us if he's still attending (and hasn't gone mad) by the sixth round.

More time to comment on PSE&G power line

The New Jersey Highlands Council has extended the public comment period to January 30, 2009 on PSE&G's proposed Susquehanna-Roseland 500 kv Transmission Line.

The Council says it expects to review the draft Consistency Determination for the project at its regularly scheduled meeting to be held at 4 p.m. on February 26, 2008.

For more information, see the public notice on the Commission's website at: http://www.highlands.state.nj.us/njhighlands/implementation/project/pseg_public_notice_2.pdf

More information about the proposed project can be found at:
http://www.highlands.state.nj.us/njhighlands/implementation/project/

Our previous post on the proposal is: High-voltage line before NJ Highlands Council

Lisa (Lightning Rod) Jackson has New Jersey enviros crackling

As New Jersey's former Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner Lisa Jackson awaits congressional hearings on her nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the media debate over her qualifications for the job has been renewed--this time by the respected environmental blog, Grist.

In a post entitled, The Lisa of Our Concern, Grist's D.C.-based political reporter, Kate Sheppard, yesterday revisited the arguments pro and con Jackson's nomination, most which previously appeared in our Dec. 15, 2008 post Daily Kos weighs in on Jackson-EPA debate.

Jackson's supporters in New Jersey include the state's largest and most politically active environmental organizations, i.e. the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey Sierra Club and Environment New Jersey.

Her principal public detractors are Robert Spiegel, pictured at left, the executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, and Bill Wolfe who has made a career out of flogging the DEP since he left it's employ some years ago.

Wolfe, at right, authors a blog in the Star-Ledger's New Jersey Voices pages, and if his criticism of Jackson irritated the mainline environmental groups before, they'll really be miffed today after reading him opine:

"I am a Jackson critic. But in judging the credibility of the Jackson praise, readers must consider how environmental leaders criticize Jackson policy privately, versus what they say publicly in the press."

Two more recent critics include another Star-Ledger blogger, John Bury, and Joe Morris, director of the environmental cleanup project at the Interfaith Community Organization, which Grist's Sheppard describes as "a small group that has worked on environmental-justice and remediation efforts."

Criticism from small groups considered "outsiders" by the state's big enviro organizations isn't likely to cause any serious damage to Jackson's nomination, but it must be a source of embarrassment to her and to Governor Corzine.


NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittle, who is accustomed to being the last word on environmental issues in the state media, sounded more perturbed than anyone else in the Grist post when he said:

"A lot of these people who are saying these negative things don't even work in Trenton and they don't even work on these issues. That's what I find ... very aggravating."

Sheppard characterized the split as "between those who work on energy and climate policy in the state's capital and those who work on toxic cleanups at the local level."

That's an accurate assessment. But it doesn't make the public spat any less unusual--even in New Jersey where political infighting is a major league spectator sport.

MORE:

Ten Questions the Senate Should Ask Lisa Jackson
NJ Sierra Club - Lisa Jackson Great Choice to Lead EPA
Environment New Jersey Hails President-Elect Obama’s Historic Pick
Daily Kos weighs in on Jackson-EPA debate

NJ's Lisa Jackson may get top EPA job

Care to add your opinion? Do so by clicking on the "comment" line below.

Delaware's off-shore wind park inches ahead

Bluewater Wind's plan to erect 66 turbines some 11 miles east of Rehoboth Beach hasn't reached the construction stage yet but the company has selected a site for a onshore facility for maintenance employees.

Rob Propes, the company's Delaware project director, told the Sussex County Council that the facility would be built in that county. He said it would include four or five boat slips to get workers to the wind farm to monitor the turbines daily and to get there in a hurry if something breaks. The wind farm's operations center could be built on that site, or at a separate one, Propes said.

The wind park's first turbines are expected to be constructed by 2012. Some 400-500 workers may be involved during the project's three-year construction phase. After that, as many as 60 workers will be employed in operations and maintenance. The wind farm will generate as much as 200 megawatts of electricity at any given hour for Delmarva Power -- enough to power 50,000 homes.