Shale gas industry adds Tom Ridge to its lobbying stable

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the lobbying arm of the natural gas drilling companies in Pennsylvania, announced yesterday that former PA governor and national homelands security director Tom Ridge will become a "strategic adviser" working for their interests.

What will Ridge be doing?

The official line from coalition president Kathryn Klaber:

"[He will] stress our industry's commitment to environmental and work-force safety and the positive and overwhelming economic benefits that responsible shale gas development continues to generate across the region."

Translation:

He'll use his political clout to:

     - Convince state legislators not to impose a tax on natural gas 

     - Keep the DEP from imposing overly burdensome/costly regulations on gas drilling

Ridge's name and stature also may help to reassure Joe and Jane Voter that the industry's controversial drilling method called hydrofracturing (fracking) won't destroy aquifers or kill fish in streams.

Related:
Marcellus Shale Coalition hires Ridge as adviser

Ridge to promote benefits of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania

Gov. Ridge Joins the Marcellus Shale Coalition as Strategic Advisor

Editorial: Shale's shill

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EPA proposes new coliform rule for public water systems
EPA's updated Toxics Release Inventory available online
Canadians challenge Deepwater Wind in Rhode Island
Will mysterious NJ entrant delay DE offshore wind?

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PADEP Secretary and 'Gasland' filmmaker trade jabs

PADEP's John Hangar

Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger says film director Josh Fox was dishonest in his presentation in the award-winning film ‘Gasland.’

Hanger says that the documentary “intentionally highlights mistakes that the industry made."

"Mr. Fox clearly has an advocacy position. He wants to shut down gas drilling. He presents only information that supports his goal,” Hangar said.

The DEP Secretary's remarks were reported today in The River Reporter, a weekly newspaper out of Narrowsburg, NY. The publication has been actively covering Marcellus Shale drilling activities in New York and Pennsylvania.

Filmmaker Josh Fox

Fox, a filmmaker who lives in Milanville, PA, a small hamlet in Wayne County, shot back:

“It is Mr. Hanger that is being dishonest—not ‘Gasland’—by ignoring the problems that drilling has caused all over the state and by attacking the film and the citizens who are voicing their severe contamination issues and health problems.

“Contamination is widespread and severe. It is not only in Dimock and Fort Worth; it is everywhere the industry goes,” he said.

Related:
Delaware board says no to ‘Gasland’
Gasland exposes a big fracking mess 
‘Gasland’ - Do the pictures tell the fracking story? 

Our most recent posts:
EPA proposes new coliform rule for public water systems
EPA's updated Toxics Release Inventory available online
Canadians challenge Deepwater Wind in Rhode Island
Will mysterious NJ entrant delay DE offshore wind?
Google searches and purchases big stake in green energy

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EPA proposes new coliform rule for public water systems

Public water system operators take note:  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing changes to its Total Coliform Rule that will may affect your operations.

The proposed revisions, published in the July 14 Federal Register, would revise the EPA's Total Coliform Rule (TCR), a national primary drinking water regulation which became effective in 1990. That rule set health goals (MCLGs) and legal limits (MCLs) for the presence of total coliform in drinking water. It also detailed the type and frequency of testing that water systems must undertake.

EPA says its proposed revisions are designed to protect public health by ensuring the integrity of the drinking water distribution system and monitoring for the presence of microbial contamination. The proposals, which are based on recommendations by a federal advisory committee, would:

• require public water systems that are vulnerable to microbial contamination to identify and fix problems, and
• establish criteria for systems to qualify for and stay on reduced monitoring, thereby providing incentives for improved water system operation.

Public information sessions on the proposed revisions will be held in Washington, Chicago and San Francisco. 

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Will mysterious NJ entrant delay DE offshore wind?
Google searches and purchases big stake in green energy
Even a cure hurts oystermen in the Gulf--and in NJ, too

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EPA's updated Toxics Release Inventory available online

The Environmental Protection Agency's latest data on industrial releases and transfers of toxic chemicals in the United States--and in your hometown--is now available online. It covers the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2009.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database contains environmental release and transfer data on nearly 650 chemicals and chemical categories reported to EPA by more than 21,000 industrial and other facilities. 

Using either of two online tools -- TRI Explorer or Envirofacts-- you can learn about releases and transfers of chemicals in your home town --or anywhere else in the U.S.

I tried Envirofacts and found it easy to use.  The amount of information in the database is amazing. You would expect information on major utilities and chemical and petroleum facilities, but you'll also find that the federal law can require submissions from your local gas station, auto body shop, and many other enterprises you might not expect, like schools and various commercial facilities. Envirofacts also includes a rich set of demographic and economic census data about the town you're searching.

Facilities must report their data by July 1^st of each year. Because the data is now submitted electronically, it is available for public inspection within weeks of the submission deadline.

What you'll find today represents more than 80 percent of the data expected to be reported for 2009. The   EPA says it will continue to process paper submissions, late submissions, and to resolve issues with the electronic submissions.  The agency will update the data in August and again in September.

The EPA says it encourages the public to review the TRI data while the agency conducts its own analysis, which will be published later this year.

What's your experience, as a business or individual, with the TRI reporting process? Does its value outweigh the time and cost of preparing and submitting the information?  How accurate do you find the data?  Does the information it makes available to anyone about specific facility locations (street addresses and aerial maps) pose an unwarranted security risk?  What else? Let us know.

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Even a cure hurts oystermen in the Gulf--and in NJ, too
Funding for Delaware River Basin conservation plan

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Canadians challenge Deepwater Wind in Rhode Island

A Canadian company that says it can provide Rhode Island with renewable power at a cheaper price than New Jersey-based Deepwater Wind is urging state regulators to stop their review of a long-term contract involving the offshore-wind developer, the Providence Journal reports today.

TransCanada Power has filed a motion to dismiss a case before the state Public Utilities Commission for a power-purchase agreement between National Grid, Rhode Island’s main electric utility, and Deepwater, the New Jersey company proposing an eight-turbine wind farm in waters off Block Island. The PUC will hold a hearing on the motion Tuesday morning.

TransCanada argues that the Rhode Island law governing renewable-power contracts violates the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution because it favors in-state projects. The law, enacted a year ago, discriminates against out-of-state energy producers and thereby restricts interstate commerce, says TransCanada.

See the full story: Deepwater deal opposed by rival firm

Deepwater Wind, which is based in Hoboken, NJ, has a 20-year agreement to sell to National Grid up to 28 megawatts of electricity to be generated by the 8 turbines it plans to install off Block Island. It also plans to build the larger-scale 106-turbine Rhode Island Sound Wind Farm in federal waters about 15 miles from nearest landfall, for which it will need to execute a separate power purchase agreement.

Deepwater also is partnering with PSEG Renewable Generation on a joint venture, Garden State Offshore Energy, a proposed 350 megawatt wind farm in New Jersey waters some 20 miles east of Avalon. 

Related stories:

R.I., Mass. agree on mutual site for offshore wind power

House passes Deepwater wind turbine legislation

Japanese company would supply cable to Deepwater Wind project 

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New Jersey-based wind-energy company looks westward

NRG Bluewater Wind, the company which is on track to construct the nation's first offshore wind-energy farm off the coast of Delaware (and is looking to install similar wind turbine clusters off New Jersey, Maryland and New York) is not focusing solely on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Muskegon Chronicle reports today that Mike O'Brien, the Hoboken, NJ-based company's Great Lakes Director, introduced Bluewater to Michigan business leaders at an offshore wind briefing last week at Grand Valley State University's Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center.

Scandia Offshore Wind -- a joint U.S.-Norwegian development company -- has proposed a  plan for wind turbines in Lake Michigan that has generated a well-organized and well-funded opposition group, the newspaper reports.

O'Brien seized the opportunity to note that Bluewater has a different "methodology" than Scandia and believes that 'stakeholder outreach' is the most important and critical factor in developing such a project. He added that, while Bluewater it has no specific site in its cross-hairs, it definitely is interested in developing in Michigan.

State legislators are working on on a bill, expected to be introduced in the fall, that will lay out regulatory rules for any wind-energy projects in Michigan waters. O'Brien said Bluewater will not propose specific projects until those rules have been established.
 
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Funding for Delaware River Basin conservation plan

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Study reveals tainted groundwater in northern Delaware

Tainted groundwater is spreading across thousands of acres in northern Delaware and has reached the Potomac Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to people across much of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.

In some areas of the upper Potomac near Delaware City and New Castle, concentrations of benzene, vinyl chloride and chlorinated benzene are so high that exposure poses an immediate health threat. Elevated levels of these industrial byproducts significantly increase the risks of cancer. Sustained exposure could kill.

These two, powerful paragraphs are the introduction to a must-read environmental news series launched yesterday by the (Wilmington, DE) News Journal. It's based on a year-long investigation by the newspaper that uncovered "a damning history of corporate mistakes and lax government oversight, especially in the corridor bordered by the Delaware River, DuPont Highway and the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal."

The newspaper says its report is based on thousands of pages of corporate documents, consultant reports, hydrology and geology studies, well-water monitoring reports and ecological tests on fish and plants. The majority of the documents, it says, were gathered through state and federal Freedom of Information Act requests and most have never been distributed to the public.

The opening story, Delaware Drinking Water at Risk, provides this backdrop to the report.

Northern Delaware is home to some of the worst chemical dumping grounds in America, a legacy of broken promises and corporate misdeeds. Regulators working for Delaware and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have long claimed that the deep clay layers above the aquifer protected it from the foul waters discharged by chemical and petroleum manufacturers.

"Those assurances have proved false.

The protective layer over the aquifer, scientists now say, is full of holes.

To prevent a public health disaster, the state has banned public use of groundwater under or near the Delaware City petrochemical complex.

Toxic pollutants, though, are now moving near the edge of that containment zone, outside the properties of Metachem, Occidental Chemical, Formosa Plastics and the Delaware City Refinery, and toward schools and houses.

One plume of chemicals has traveled a mile south of the refinery's main production area and has seeped 190 feet into the earth.

We recommend that you read the entire series. It's going to ruffle corporate and political feathers. Good journalism does that. It takes time, talent, experience, money, commitment and political courage to produce such an investigative report.  Like all valuable news series, the News-Journal's contains sidebar stories, photos and graphs that expand the reader's understanding of the problem and point to possible solutions.

As daily newspapers shrink in number, size and resources, reporting like this is less frequently seen. It may be a fact of current economic life, but it's regrettable.  An informed public needs efforts like these.

There are some who cheer the demise of newspapers. Bloggers, pundits and  'citizen journalist' will fill the void, they say. 

We say: Don't count on it.  Long live feisty, independent newspapers like the News Journal.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the opinion box below.  If one is not visible, click on the tiny 'comments' line below to activate it.




Related story:
Taxpayers stuck with $100 million mess
The abandoned Metachem plant is the most polluted site in the petrochemical complex near Delaware City. Based on government promises that poisoned soils and groundwater could be cleaned, taxpayers have already spent more than $100 million at Metachem. (News Journal photo by Fred Comegys)

Related story:
Drinking water filtering strongly recommended
Richard F. Davis, a former state representative and a DuPont Co. chemist, relies on a whole-house filter in his Mariners Watch neighborhood. “It’s impossible to know
where all the water comes from.”
(News Journal photo by Jennifer Corbett)



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Will mysterious NJ entrant delay DE offshore wind?

Bluewater Wind has done much of the heavy lifting needed to put itself and the state of Delaware at the head of a pack of developers and states hoping to build the first wind energy farm off the Atlantic coast.

The company helped steer a funding law through the Delaware legislature, negotiated agreements with the state's largest utility and others to buy the power its ocean turbines will generate, and is nearing the final hurdle--winning a federal lease for the site it has chosen 11 miles off Delaware's coast.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a mysterious rival from New Jersey has appeared and is seeking to win a federal lease for its own wind farm at the very same location. 

What makes it a mystery is the fact that Occidental Development & Equities LLC, of Bayonne, N.J. has managed to shield virtually all details about itself other than its name.

Occidental was one of five developers that filed in 2008 to build a wind farm off New Jersey's coast, but it was rejected for funding by the state's Board of Public Utilities. In the New Jersey case, it also managed to keep its vital statistics out of public view.  

Based on that track record and Bluewater Wind's long head start, the mysterious stranger does not appear to pose much of a danger to Bluewater Wind as a competitor, but it could delay the federal review and approval process--especially at a time when the federal focus is on offshore gas drilling.

Everyone loves a mystery. Is Occidental a serious wind energy developer?  If not, what game is it playing? 

Use the opinion box below to share what you know--or suspect. If one isn't visible, click on the tiny 'comment' line below to activate it.

Related:
Bluewater faces competition for lease from secretive firm
Md., Del. govs ask feds to join wind energy pact

DE gets authority from EPA for offshore wind permitting
Legislation puffs up NJ’s offshore wind prospects
Feds give green light to first offshore wind farm

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Google searches and purchases big stake in green energy

Lots of corporations talk a good green game, but Google, the internet information giant, is using its checkbook to make environmental news.

The Guardian reported today that :

"Google is officially in the green energy business. The search giant announced on Tuesday that its Google Energy subsidiary signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy. Google will begin buying 114 megawatts of electricity from an Iowa wind farm on July 30.
Google, of course, cannot directly use the clean green energy generated by the wind farm; that power goes into the local grid. So Google Energy will sell the power on the regional spot market, where utilities and electricity retailers go to buy power when demand spikes and they have a shortfall. Google will use the revenue from spot market sales to buy renewable energy certificates (RECs) which will offset its greenhouse gas emissions.

Many companies buy RECs in an attempt to be carbon neutral, obtaining them from third-party brokers. But by purchasing RECs directly tied to the renewable energy it is also buying, Google is getting a bigger bang for its buck.

"By contracting to purchase so much energy for so long, we're giving the developer of the wind farm financial certainty to build additional clean energy projects," Urs Hoelzle, Google's senior vice president for operations, wrote on a blog post Tuesday.

"The inability of renewable energy developers to obtain financing has been a significant inhibitor to the expansion of renewable energy," he added. "We've been excited about this deal because taking 114 megawatts of wind power off the market for so long means producers have the incentive and means to build more renewable energy capacity for other customers."

In a statement on its site, Google also noted that its motivations for signing long-term renewable energy contracts are not entirely altruistic.

"Through the long term purchase of renewable energy at a predetermined price, we're partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices," the company stated. "This is a case where buying green makes business sense."

NextEra Energy Resources, the company that will supply Google with its wind power, is itself an alternative energy success story, having expanded its wind fleet from fewer than 500 megawatts a decade ago to more than 7,600 megawatts--the largest wind fleet in North America today.

NextEra hs more than 9,000 wind turbines in operation at 77 wind farms in 17 states and Canada. It boasts that the wind energy it generated in 2009 was he equivalent of removing some 2.4 million cars from the road.

Google's green energy purchase will come from NextEra's Story II Wind Energy Center in operation in Story and Hardin counties in Iowa. The company says in a news release that it has "nearly 700 wind turbines in operation in Iowa with a nameplate capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts that are capable of generating enough power to serve more than 250,000 average homes."

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Solar and biofuel bills clear NJ environment committee
Bill hiking spill liability to $1B advances in NJ
Bill would hike New Jersey Spill Fund liability 

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Even a cure hurts oystermen in the Gulf--and in NJ, too

A discouraging but instructive story in today's Wall Street Journal relates how:

"In April, soon after the oil spill started, Louisiana officials started opening gates along the levees of the Mississippi River, letting massive amounts of river water pour through man-made channels and into coastal marshes. It was a gambit—similar to opening a fire hose—to keep the encroaching oil at bay.

"By most accounts, the strategy succeeded in minimizing the amount of oil that entered the fertile and lucrative estuaries. But oyster farmers and scientists say it appears to have had one major side effect: the deaths of large numbers of oysters, water-filterers whose simplicity and sensitivity makes them early indicators of environmental influences that ultimately could hit other marsh dwellers too."

The men and women who make their living from the Gulf just can't catch a break.

Oystermen in New Jersey--and an environmental organization there, too--are sharing in the painful consequences of the BP oil rig disaster.

The state's $790 million oyster, clam and mussel harvest faces a possible shutdown by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which contends that New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services failed to conduct adequate inspections in 2008 and 2009 at plants that process the mollusks hauled in by small, commercial fishing operations.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) also failed to conduct mandated patrols of polluted coastal waters to guard against the poaching and illegal sale of contaminated mollusks, federal authorities said.

If the FDA doesn't see a marked improvement in both, it threatens to shut down the state's harvest.

The NY/NJ Baykeeper has spent more than $100,000 to build oyster reefs in Raritan Bay to test whether the waters have become clean enough for oysters to survive again in North Jersey.  Now, it's been ordered by the DEP to remove the oysters.

What's the connection between Gulf oysters and those harvested in New Jersey?

It has to do with the widespread media attention given to the Gulf contamination which, in turn, heightened public concern over the health of oysters served in restaurants everywhere.

The (Bergen) Record reported on Sunday that:

"In June, the DEP banned cultivation of commercial shellfish in polluted state waters for research purposes, saying the reefs could be targeted by poachers. If the contaminated shellfish got into commercial circulation, and someone got sick, it could create a major public relations nightmare for the state's $790 million commercial shell-fishing industry, which is based in the cleaner waters of southern New Jersey, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin has said. "

The North Jersey reefs are about 80 feet long by 80 feet wide and lie in water up to 10 feet deep. The Baykeeper group had to use heavy machinery, work boats and scuba divers to get the reefs into place, and will likely need the same resources to remove them.

The Baykeeper organization originally objected to the DEP order and sought the aid of some in the state Legislature to overturn it. On Friday, Baykeeper executive director Debbie Mans said that her organization will comply with the removal order, but she added:

"We're disheartened the DEP would single out an environmental group in such a public and vicious manner.  We do think they're just using our program to hide the larger issue of deficiencies in their statewide patrols of polluted waters for poachers."

Amazing, isn't it, how a single management decision on the deck of an oil rig could damage not only the lives of so many residents of the Gulf but also people and economies far away. 

Related stories:

Fresh Water Aimed at Oil Kills Oysters

Oyster industry faces shutdown if federal health requirements not met

Oyster reef will be removed 

Our most recent posts:
Funding for Delaware River Basin conservation plan
Solar and biofuel bills clear NJ environment committee
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Bill would hike New Jersey Spill Fund liability 
Another Rendell insider jumps to shale gas industry

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Funding for Delaware River Basin conservation plan

  

Bombay Hook/Delaware Today



The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has awarded The Nature Conservancy a $450,000 grant to fund a comprehensive conservation plan for the Delaware River Basin.

The project is a joint effort involving The Nature Conservancy’s Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Eastern New York chapters, the Natural Lands Trust, and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced the grant award on Wednesday, July 14.

The Delaware River Basin and its surrounding watershed represent one of the most intact freshwater systems in the region. Freshwater systems are inextricably linked to the lands that surround them, and the adverse impacts of threats including development, pollution, and climate change have taken a toll on the health of the Basin.

However, many areas of the basin remain in good condition, and opportunities exist to conserve high quality habitats and restore those that have been degraded, said Andrew Manus, director of Conservation Programs for The Nature Conservancy of Delaware.

The Delaware Basin Restoration Initiative will identify opportunities to protect and improve water quality and habitat, as well as provide a blueprint for the region’s conservation organizations and agencies to implement components of the plan.


The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that preserves and restores our nation’s native wildlife species and habitats. Created by Congress in 1984, NFWF directs public conservation dollars to the most pressing environmental needs and matches those investments with private funds. The Foundation’s method is simple and effective: we work with a full complement of individuals, foundations, government agencies, nonprofits, and corporations to identify and fund the nation’s most intractable conservation challenges.

For full story see: Delaware River to benefit from environmental grant

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Solar and biofuel bills clear NJ environment committee

The New Jersey Senate Energy and Environment Committee yesterday approved bills that expand siting opportunities for solar-energy facilities and promote state use of biofuels.

Senator Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic County) said there are roughly 80 old landfills in Pinelands region towns where local governments do not have the money to properly cap the facilities. His bill, S-2126, would allow solar-energy developers to overcome existing Pinelands restrictions and erect solar arrays on the site of any closed landfill or quarry. 

Whelan said the towns could use revenues generated by the energy facilities to help pay the cost of capping the facilities. The bill also permits similar installations at closed landfills and quarries outside the Pinelands.

The environment committee also released twin bills S-1413 (Smith) and A-1052 (Quijano/Cryan/Chivakula) that require state entities to purchase biofuels in place of fossil fuels when it is "reasonable, prudent and cost effective to do so."

The bill was amended to define "biofuel" as "liquid or gaseous fuels produced from organic sources such as sustainably grown and harvested crops including native noninvasive energy crops, agricultural residues, non-recycled organic waste including waste cooking oil, grease and food wastes, sewage and algae." 

The amended bill defines 'energy crops' as those "grown exclusively for energy production, including switchgrass and poplar."

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Bill hiking spill liability to $1B advances in NJ

Reacting to the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a  New Jersey legislative committee yesterday released  a bill (S-2108) that would increase the state Spill Fund’s current liability cap of $50 million to $1 billion.  The measure was amended to also increase the per-vessel cap from $1,200  to $3,000 per gross ton.

However, after hearing testimony from petroleum and chemical industry lobbyists objecting to the 20-fold increase for on-shore spills, bill sponsor Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) agreed to consider floor amendments that would increase the cap to some yet undermined level for on-land spills while leaving unchanged the bill’s $1 billion cap for off-shore spills.

New Jersey Petroleum Council Executive Director James Benton told members of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee that the current $50 million cap had been sufficient for all spills at petroleum facilities since the Spill Fund was instituted in 1976 and that an oil tanker spill in the Delaware River that totaled $100 million was covered by the shipping company’s insurance carrier and did not require the use of Spill Fund money.

Smith said that while major corporations may be able to cover cleanups in excess of the law’s current $50 million liability cap, he was concerned about a potential $350 million spill at a mom-and-pop-sized facility.  “This bill is designed to cover that situation,” he said.

New Jersey Chemistry Council Executive Director Hal Bozarth questioned whether the more than 300 chemical and pharmaceutical companies also covered by the state Spill Fund law would be able to find insurance carriers willing to provide coverage for spills with a $1 billion cap—and at what cost.  He said that pollution premiums currently run between 8 and 15 percent of the liability exposure.

A representative of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which supports the legislation, agreed to the committee’s request that the department research the history of Spill Fund payouts and make a recommendation as to a new liability level for on-shore spills.

The New Jersey Audubon Society and the New Jersey Sierra Club registered their support for the legislation.

Related:
 Congress moves to lift oil spill liability cap

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Bill would hike New Jersey Spill Fund liability

Are New Jersey’s onshore petroleum and chemical industries about to be punished for BP’s disastrous oil rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico?   

That’s how some may view S-2108, legislation that will be taken up on Thursday in Trenton by the Senate Energy and Environment Committee. 

Sponsored by committee chairman Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the bill would raise the state Spill Fund’s liability limit for hazardous substances spills from the current $50 million to a new maximum of $1 billion.

Hal Bozarth, the Chemistry Council of New Jersey’s executive director, said the bill would “ increase taxes and fees on hundreds of New Jersey facilities, significantly affecting industry jobs.”

New Jersey’s Spill Compensation and Control Act, which has been in effect for  30 years, covers the owners and operators of large petroleum and chemical facilities. They support the fund through an annual tax which is based on  the amount of hazardous substances they manufacture, store or transport. 

The law was enacted to cover spills at existing facilities and the cleanup of hazardous discharges at abandoned sites whose former owners have gone out of business.

Jim Benton, executive director of the New Jersey Petroleum Council, notes that the Gulf spill liability issue is already being debated in Congress where legislation would impose a $1 billion liability cap on oil companies.  

Benton questioned the appropriateness of grafting the same limit onto the New Jersey spill act, where he says the current $50 million limit has proven sufficient and where spills have historically been limited to facility sites.

He said his members were “concerned about the bill’s impact on our energy supplies and our onshore facilities in New Jersey.”

Benton concedes that the legislation does not directly raise the Spill Fund tax on refineries but noted that affected companies would be required to support higher reserves to accommodate their increased legal liability.

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Another Rendell insider jumps to shale gas industry

A third member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's administration has taken a job with the natural gas industry which is ramping up drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale while fighting tougher environmental regulations and a state tax on natural gas.

Read the details in today's issue of EnviroPolitics.

Get today's issue and a complimentary 30-trial subscription

Other hot environmental news stories in today's edition:

Pennsylvania's DEP releases a report on the June 3-4 well blowout...
Hearings open today on controversial plans to dredge the Delaware River...
NJ fishermen caught up in a tightening net of government regulation...

...and over a dozen more! 

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ETS looking to score a 1.8 on its solar energy project

       

The organization that tests just how bright college-bound students are just got a bit brighter itself with the installation of a 1.8 megawatt solar energy system.

Educational Testing Service and SunPower Corp. have announced that the installation of a solar system on the roofs of ETS's Lord and Messick halls in Princeton, NJ and Z Building in nearby Ewing, NJ will be complete next month.

According to a joint press release, “the T5 Solar Roof Tile is the solar industry's first non-penetrating rooftop product that combines a high-efficiency SunPower solar panel, frame and mounting system into a single pre-engineered unit.

“The systems at ETS were financed through a SunPower power purchase agreement with Wells Fargo Bank. Under the agreement, ETS will host the systems and buy the electricity from SunPower at prices below retail rates, providing not-for-profit ETS with a long-term hedge against rising power prices with no initial capital investment. Wells Fargo owns the solar renewable energy credits and environmental benefits associated with the systems.”

ETS expects that the 1.8-megawatt installation will generate the equivalent of 10 percent of current electricity demand at the sites, delivering $1.5 million in cost savings over the next 20 years.

Several miles north of the ETS facilities, in South Brunswick, NJ, Sun Power Corp is installing a 4.1 megawatt solar roof system at Dow Jones' corporate offices on Route 1.

That system will comprise a rooftop installation with 522 kW capacity and 3.6 MW of elevated solar panels installed above parking areas. Once completed next year, this system is likely to produce the equivalent of 15% of the present electricity requirements for Dow Jones’s 200-acre campus.
 
The project is partially financed by means of the Solar Loan Program of PSE&G, through which PSE&G provides loans meant for solar energy.


Our most recent posts:
Pennsylvania builders get permit extension relief  
NJDEP consolidating some PO box numbers 
EPA transport rule targets deep cuts in SO2, NOx New York sued over Long Island Sound pollution  Legislation puffs up NJ’s offshore wind prospects

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Pennsylvania builders get permit extension relief

 

A building permit extension bill, designed to help Pennsylvania’s struggling homebuilders survive the continuing economic downturn, has been signed into law by Governor Ed Rendell.

The Pennsylvania Permit Extension Act gives developers who have already lined up just about any kind of state or local permit--building, water, sewer or road--until July 2, 2013 to break ground on the project without having to secure a new permit.

In seeking passage of the legislation, developers argued that the economy has put many projects on hold due to a lack of consumer demand or diminished access to financing.  As a result, permits acquired before or since the downturn have been expiring.

They warned that, if developers and landowners lost their permits and were forced to reapply when the economy recovers, construction projects would be further delayed.

Pennsylvania lawmakers may also have taken some cues from neighboring New Jersey where a law, enacted two years ago, extended existing permits through July 1, 2010.  The Legislature recently extended that period until Dec. 31, 2012.

Environmental organizations in both states opposed the legislation.

Related: 
Pa. permit extension law comes to builders’ rescue

Our most recent posts:
NJDEP consolidating some PO box numbers 
EPA transport rule targets deep cuts in SO2, NOx
New York sued over Long Island Sound pollution 
Legislation puffs up NJ’s offshore wind prospects
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Upcoming ‘Gasland’ screenings in NY & PA

 
Gasland, the documentary film that’s focused public attention on environmental and public health problems associated with the improper application of natural gas ‘fracking’ techniques,
will be shown  at the times and locations listed below:

July 8th @ 7:00pm, Hancock, NY
The Old Capitol Theater
170 East Front Street
Hancock, NY 13783

July 9th @ 7:00pm, Honesdale, PA
Parish House of the Grace Episcopal Church
Church Street and 9th Street
Honesdale, PA 18431

July 10th @ 1:30pm, Lower Bucks County, PA
Yardley-Makefield Free Library
1080 Edgewood Road
Yardley, PA 19067

July 12th @ 6:00pm, Sullivan County, PA
Sullivan County High School

July 15th @ 7:30pm, Bethlehem, PA
Whitaker Lab at Lehigh University
27 Memorial Drive West
Bethlehem, PA 18105

HBO plans to re-broadcast GASLAND over the next two years.
Click here for the full schedule.  The film also is available on HBO on Demand.

Have you seen Gasland?  Did you find it to be believable and instructive or biased?  Based on your viewing, do you think
New York and Pennsylvania lawmakers should impose a moratorium on the drilling technique until the EPA completes its upcoming study?  Or can state environmental regulators handle the task of overseeing its use?  Use the comment box below to share your opinions with other readers.  If the box isn’t visible, activate it by clicking on the tiny ‘comments’ link.      

Related:
Natural Gas as Panacea? This prof’s not so sure 
Shale gas drilling controversy no longer local 
What’s in fracking fluid? Wyoming wants to know  
Lawmakers in NY and PA weigh a gas-drilling moratorium 
Fracking the Marcellus Shale: Disaster ahead? 
Don't worry, shale gas will rock your world

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NJ to axe deadwood commissions & boards

The New Jersey Legislature is moving to eliminate a total of 41 boards, commissions, committees, councils, and task forces that have “served their purpose, been inactive for years, no longer have a role to fulfill, have completed their work, have not been convened for a long period of time, or were never organized.”

S-1997, sponsored by Senators Jim Whelan and Fred Madden, puts on the legislative chopping block a list of entities identified in the April 19, 2010 report of the Lieutenant Governor’s Red Tape Review Group. 

The bill would  eliminate the:

Agent Orange Commission 
Camden Financial Review Board 
Christopher Columbus Quincentennial Observance Commission     
Commission on Early Childhood Education
Commission to Study Sex Discrimination in the Statutes     
Committee to Review the State Commission of Investigation     
Corporation Business Tax Study Commission 
Crime Prevention Advisory Committee 
Delaware & Raritan Canal Transportation Safety Study Commiss.  
Drug Utilization Review Council 
Environment Advisory Task Force 
Ergonomics in Education Study Commission 
Fisheries Information and Develop. Center Coordinating Board 
Governor’s Air and Space Medal Nominating Committee     
Hospital Care Payment Commission 
Jewish Heritage Trail Study Commission 
Managed Care Task Force 
New Jersey Citizens' Clean Elections Commission 
New Jersey Commemorative Coin Design Commission 
New Jersey Health Data Commission 
New Jersey Obesity Prevention Task Force
New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Museum Commission     
New Jersey Uniform Securities Law Study Commission 
Parents’ Education Program Advisory Committee
Police Paperwork Reduction Task Force
Pollution Prevention Advisory Board 
Prepaid Higher Education Expense Board 
Property Tax Convention Task Force 
Recreational Sports and Leisure Activities Liability Study Comm.
Regional Intergovernmental Transportation Coordinating Study Commission 
Right to Know Advisory Council
School Construction Review Commission 
State Board of Public Movers and Warehousemen 
State Commission on Drunk Driving 
State Revenue Forecasting Advisory Commission 
State Review Board on Driver Education 
Task Force on New Jersey History 
Task Force on Workplace Violence 
Task Force to Study Attendance in Public Schools
The Trustees of the New Jersey School of the Arts 
World Language Instruction Committee

Our most recent posts:
NJDEP consolidating some PO box numbers 
EPA transport rule targets deep cuts in SO2, NOx
New York sued over Long Island Sound pollution 
Legislation puffs up NJ’s offshore wind prospects
Natural Gas as Panacea? This prof’s not so sure 

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