WolfeNotes.com

Palin Echoes Whitman: “Wasilla is open for business.”

AP Photo/Al Grillo

I prefer to write my own stuff and am extremely reluctant to simply pass on the work of others. But, I write about the environment and sometimes a story or quote is so good – particularly on a critical issue – that I feel compelled to pass it on. In this case, with many stories about how over-development is destroying water quality here in NJ, the environmental issues resonate as well (see: More Bad News on Water Pollution http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/09/more_bad_news_on_water_polluti.html
In addition to similar environmental problems, amazingly, Governor Palin has taken a slogan from our own NJ Governor Whitman:
“But while Mayor Stein tried to impose some reason on Wasilla’s helter-skelter development, and its growing pressures on Mat-Su Valley’s environmental treasures, when Sarah Palin took his place, she quickly announced, “Wasilla is open for business.”
So here goes – just another in an escalating series of McCain/Palin lies:
“Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans “have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we’ve got up here and we want to protect that, so we’re gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don’t want development if there’s going to be that threat to harming our environment.”
But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.
“Sarah’s legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth,” said Patty Stoll, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher who once worked in the same school with Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. “The truth is, Wasilla is just plain ugly, it’s not a pleasant place to live. It’s not thought out. And that’s a shame.
“Sarah fouled her own nest, and I can’t understand why. I hate to think it was simply greed or ambition.”
Among the environmental casualties of Wasilla’s frenzied development was Palin’s own front yard, Lake Lucille. The lake was listed as “impaired” in 1994 by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and it still carries that grim label. State environmental officials say that leaching sewer lines and fertilizer runoff caused an explosion of plant growth in the lake, which sucked the oxygen out of the water and led to periodic fish kills.

[…]
“I try to avoid driving to Wasilla so I won’t get depressed,” added the official, who asked for his name to be withheld, to avoid Palin’s “wrath.”
“You get visually mugged when you drive through there. I take the long way, through the back roads, just to avoid it.”

Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodruff hears the same lament about her town all the time. “Everywhere in Alaska, you hear people say, ‘We don’t want to be another Wasilla.’ We’re not just the state’s meth capital, we’re the ugly box-store capital. Was Sarah a good steward of this beautiful valley? No. I think it comes from her lack of experience and awareness of other places, how other cities try to preserve what makes them attractive and livable.
“The frontier mentality has prevailed for so long in Mat-Su Valley — the feeling that ‘you’re not going to tell me what to do with my land,‘” added Woodruff. “That’s fine as long as you have endless open space. But when you start to fill in as a city, you can end up with a sprawling mess. With million-dollar homes next to gravel pits — and dead lakes.”

Read the complete story here: Sarah Palin’s dead lake
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/19/palin/
[Update: looks like words out on Sarah:

One Salem County enforcement action does not accurately reflect the bigger air pollution picture
I just received the below DEP press release – last week, I wrote about major new DEP air pollution rules that would impact this same Salem County coal power plant, plus almost 200 other major sources across the entire state. See: DEP cracks down on air polluters – Dirty coal, industry, and power plants http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/dep_cracks_down_on_dirty_coal.html

The Conectiv Deepwater Generating Station, located next to the Delaware Memorial Bridge in PennsvilleBill Wolfe

Could that timing be a coincidence, or is DEP seeking to divert attention from the bigger picture?
With respect to that bigger picture, I guess DEP would prefer to talk about one relatively minor enforcement action, and not these inconvenient facts:
1) scores of NJ power plants that are violating the Clean Air Act; or
2) the entire state of NJ is not in compliance with Clean Air Act standards; or
3) DEP has consistently blamed out of state pollution for NJ’s problems; or
4) DEP has consistently claimed (falsely) that NJ industries are strictly regulated, when in fact over 100 major sources don’t meet federal RACT standards, or
5) there are severe public health impacts associated with failure to enforce these standards on NJ polluters.
By failing to publicize this major new rule proposal and instead issuing today’s press release, DEP seems to be trying to limit the focus on enforcement action at this one plant. The DEP enforcement action was issued for violation of acid gas limits, not for other pollutants NOx, SOx, mercury, many other “hazardous air pollutants”, or green house gas limits DEP has failed to establish. (despite having regulatory authority to do so since 2004). But we don’t have just one rotten apple – the whole barrel has problems:
And Just in case DEP claims there is no relationship between today’s enforcement action and the proposed new RACT rules – this excerpt from the rule proposal connects the dots:
“The proposed rules would cause Conectiv to install reasonably available control technology at its Deepwater coal-fired boiler and incorporate standards that are consistent with the updated air pollution controls that have already been required at other New Jersey coal-fired boilers. The fact that these standards have already been used extensively at facilities in New Jersey underscores the fact that these technologies are reasonably available. Promulgating maximum allowable emission rates in rules for all existing coal-fired boilers serving EGUs meets the requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act and communicates to other states the emission rates that New Jersey considers reasonable for existing EGUs with respect to ozone nonattainment, PM2.5 nonattainment, and control of regional haze.”
(see age 10 of http://www.nj.gov/dep/rules/proposals/080408a.pdf
From: “depnews depnews”
Date: September 18, 2008 10:30:28 AM EDT
To:
Subject: DEP Release: Conective Enforcement Action
Reply-To: do_not_reply@highpoint.state.nj.us
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sept. 18, 2008
Contact: Elaine Makatura (609) 292-2994
Lawrence Hajna (609) 984-1795
CONECTIV POWER PLANT IN SALEM COUNTY FACES $5.3 MILLION FINE, PERMIT LOSS FOR ONGOING DISCHARGES OF HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANT
(08/47) TRENTON – The Conectiv Deepwater Generating Station in Salem County faces $5.3 million in fines and the loss of a permit needed to operate its primary generator as the result of its continued failure to address excessive emissions of a hazardous air pollutant, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson announced today.
“We are imposing these stiff sanctions because this company has been repeatedly recalcitrant when told to correct this problem,” Commissioner Jackson said. “Compliance is DEP’s first priority here and elsewhere.”
Between December 2007 and April 2008, Conectiv ignored DEP orders to resolve problems with excessive emissions of hydrogen chloride from the boiler for the primary generator at the power plant, located in Pennsville adjacent to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The violations and penalties are detailed in an Administrative Order of Revocation and Notice of Civil Penalty Assessment issued against Newark, Del.-based Conectiv. The order specifically cites the company for exceeding the rate of emissions allowed in its permit on 106 days during this period. The company has taken no steps to correct the problem.
The DEP has ordered Conectiv to adhere to the hydrogen chloride limits in its permit or face revocation of the operating permit for the boiler effective Oct. 21. Operation of the unit after that date will result in additional penalties. Conectiv must conduct additional stack tests for hydrogen chloride within 45 days of receipt of the administrative order.
Coal is the primary fuel source for the boiler. When burned, coal releases chloride that combines with hydrogen in the air. The hydrogen chloride that results can mix with moisture in the air to form hydrochloric acid aerosol, a respiratory irritant.
Installation of state-of-the-art pollution controls for acid gases would resolve the hydrogen chloride problem. Conectiv has the right to request a hearing before the Office of Administrative Law.
For a copy of the order, go to: http://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2008/conectiv.pdf
End Note: Don’t be fooled by DEP’s press release headline use of “Hazardous air pollutant” with respect to HCl, which tends to exaggerate both the actual risks of HCl and the aggressiveness of DEP’s enforcement of clean air and HAP standards. First of all, NJ – statewide – exceeds EPA cancer risk benchmarks for 19 far more significant “hazardous air pollutants” than HCl, as well as ozone and fine particulates (PM 2.5). This enforcement action must be taken in that context – here is source for HCL risks:
“However, HCl is fairly short-lived in the atmosphere (one to five days)since it is very soluble and reacts readily with ammonia (NH3) or alkaline cations such as Ca or K to form chloride salts. Therefore, even though the mass of HCl emitted may be substantial, the actual impacts of these emissions may not be significant. For example, data from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) National Trends Network (Figure 1-1) deposition monitoring network over the years indicates that chloride ion deposition is strongly influenced by sea salts, rather than
simply point sources of HCl emissions (NADP/NTN 1998). This is in contrast to sulfate deposition, for example, which clearly shows point source influences (Figure 1-2).
EPA did not identify exceedances of any HCl health-based standards in the health risk studies reported in the Utility HAP Report (EPA 1998). Further, although the amount of HCl emitted from coal-fired units is greater than any other HAP emitted, the Utility HAP Report indicates that the associated risk of impact to health and the environment for HCl is relatively low. The World Health Organization concluded in a review of HCl that there are no mutagenic, carcinogenic, or teratogenic effects related to HCl (EPA 1998). However, EPA acknowledged that HCl and HF may contribute to acid deposition and to fine particulate matter and visibility issues, to some degree. EPA identified several areas of additional research that the Agency suggested could assist in developing a better understanding of the impacts of HCl and HF emissions from utilities.
Source: Maryland DEP: http://esm.versar.com/pprp/hcl/pprp-118pdf.pdf

Free market ideology led to meltdown
[Update: The NY Times wrote a killer article validating my assessment – see October 8, 2008 story:
“THE RECKONING
Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09greenspan.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin
As anyone who has seen the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” and rooted for Jimmy Stewart’s (George Bailey) fight to save the local Savings and Loan and middle class homeowners of Bedford Falls from the greedy and predatory Mr. Potter knows intuitively, one of the key New Deal reforms enacted in the wake of the Great Depression was the institutional separation of commercial banking from speculative banking/investment and the creation of strict regulatory oversight of Wall Street.
Ever since then, radical free market “deregulation” advocates and the Republican party have sought repeal of those New Deal reforms.
With the ascendence of the Reagan Administration, they have been very successful.
The current Wall Street meltdown is directly related to free market ideology, “deregulation”, and repeal and of New Deal laws and programs designed to prevent exactly the problems we now see on Wall Street.
“The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and included banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation. … Provisions [of Glass-Steagall] that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act signed by President Bill Clinton.”
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act
I surely am no expert in financial regulation so am reluctant to attempt to write my own essay, but this is the best analysis I’ve seen of this issue – the article is strongly recommended. Here’s the lede paragraph:
“Free-market extremists brought us this needless economic collapse. Here’s a rundown of the mistakes we’ve made and the reforms we need now.
“The current carnage on Wall Street, with dire spillover effects on Main Street, is the result of a failed ideology — the idea that financial markets could regulate themselves. Serial deregulation fed on itself. Deliberate repeal of regulations became entangled with failure to carry out laws still on the books. Corruption mingled with simple incompetence. And though the ideology was largely Republican, it was abetted by Wall Street Democrats.”
Source: Only a Roosevelt-Scale Counterrevolution Can Prevent Great Depression II
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/99241/
{Update: first of many regulatory interventions:
Securities regulators put temporary ban on short selling
by The Associated Press
Friday September 19, 2008, 6:16 AM
Federal securities regulators, in an effort to boost investor confidence in the face of a market crisis, took the dramatic step today of temporarily banning the trading practice of betting against financial stocks.
The move, announced on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, will temporarily ban what is called short selling of nearly 800 financial stocks.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/securities_regulators_put_temp.html

Let me make an important point by way of comparison. I fudged the Cheney hypothetical slightly to fit NJ, and names have not been changed to protect the innocent.
Suppose Dick Cheney called his energy industry cronies and lobbyists to serve on an “Energy Reform Task Force”. Suppose, after public criticism, Cheney appointed a few token environmentalists to provide some balance and cover. Suppose that Task Force meetings were closed to the public and the Task Force given free reign to probe the EPA bureaucracy, including the EPA staff and management that regulate the energy industry. This includes access to EPA staff with current ongoing regulation (i.e. permit review) of a Task Force member company.
Then suppose this “Task Force” issued a “Report” that ignored global warming and told an historical fairy tale that over-regulation, EPA bureaucracy, and lawsuits by radical environmental obstructionist were the causes of the high cost of energy (e.g. by blocking refinery expansion and drilling/leases for oil/gas reserves off shore and on public lands).
Suppose the “Task Force” noted a 25% cut in EPA staff, lack of scientific expertise at EPA, and pervasive politicization of EPA decisions – but took no steps to fix those problems, instead recommending that EPA must “do less with less”, while relying on “outside help” of energy consultants to issue EPA permits.
Environmental groups would be denouncing the Task Force and holding press conferences leading to front page NY TImes and Washington Post news, no?
Well, the same thing has just occurred here in NJ and it has fallen under the media radar. I would think this would be even more newsworthy given the purported pro-environmental stance of the Corzine administration, as opposed to the obviously anti-environmental Bush/Cheney regime.
Read all about it below – just insert “Lisa Jackson” for “Dick Cheney” and “developers” for the “energy industry”:
Business Report to DEP: “Do Less With Less”
Do you want less environmental protection?
“In this time of fiscal crisis, the challenge before the DEP is to … consider doing less with less”
Permit Efficiency Task Force Report to DEP – see: http://www.nj.gov/dep/permittf/docs/final_report_8_7_08.pdf
Today, – over a month late – DEP released the long awaited Report of the “Permit Efficiency Task Force”.
In anticipation of the release of this Report, on August 6, 2008, the day before the Report was due, I wrote this:
Controversial DEP Task Force Report Due
Stage Set – Deadline for Industry dominated Report tomorrow
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/controversial_dep_reform_task.html

Bill WolfeLisa P. Jackson, DEP Commissioner

Back in March, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson issued an Order creating the “Permit Efficiency Task Force”. Jackson directed the Task Force to issue recommendations on ways to streamline DEP permit programs. Task Force members read like a who’s who list of pro-development Trenton insiders with a long history in NJ environmental politics. (for the 19 original members, see: http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/08_25_3_task_force_membership.pdf
After our criticism of the business dominated composition, Jackson expanded the 19 member body to include 3 environmental group representatives. The reader of the Task Force Report would not be aware of this history, because only the final 24 member body is presented.
Read the full story, with links to documents here:
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/09/business_dominated_task_force.html

Do you want less environmental protection?
“In this time of fiscal crisis, the challenge before the DEP is to … consider doing less with less”
Permit Efficiency Task Force Report to DEP – see: http://www.nj.gov/dep/permittf/docs/final_report_8_7_08.pdf

Bill WolfeLisa P. Jackson, DEP Commissioner

Today, – over a month late – DEP released the long awaited Report of the “Permit Efficiency Task Force”.
In anticipation of the release of this Report, on August 6, 2008, the day before the Report was due, I wrote this:
Controversial DEP Task Force Report Due
Stage Set – Deadline for Industry dominated Report tomorrow
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/controversial_dep_reform_task.html
Back in March, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson issued an Order creating the “Permit Efficiency Task Force”. Jackson directed the Task Force to issue recommendations on ways to streamline DEP permit programs. Task Force members read like a who’s who list of pro-development Trenton insiders with a long history in NJ environmental politics. (for the 19 original members, see: http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/08_25_3_task_force_membership.pdf
After our criticism of the business dominated composition, Jackson expanded the 19 member body to include 3 environmental group representatives. The reader of the Task Force Report would not be aware of this history, because only the final 24 member body is presented.
But our other criticisms were ignored, so, given the state of the economy, I was expecting a really bad Report.
But, it looks like the lobbyists who wrote the report were slick enough to dodge all the minefields, but yet at the same time they identified numerous major problems at DEP.
The public would be shocked to learn of some of the major problems the Task Force identified, but did not propose any solutions for. Perhaps this is due to the lack of technical expertise amongst the Task Force members:
1. Severe staff and budget cuts
The Task Force Report acknowledges that severe staff and budget cuts at DEP have hampered their ability to protect the environment:
“During the past two decades, despite an increasing number of rules and regulations, with a corresponding increase in responsibilities and workload, DEP staff levels have been reduced by more than 1,000 employees – about 25 percent. Further reductions are continuing to take place as of this writing.”
2. Erosion of science
The Task Force documented that DEP’s once nationally prominent scientific capabilities have been eroded:
“In the course of Task Force deliberations, two issues arose which were outside the charge of the Administrative Order but which directly impact the efficiency of the DEP. The first is the quality of science and research that provides the underpinning of the policies, guidance, directives and regulations of the DEP. Through the first two decades of the DEP’s history, the Office of Science and Research was one of the most highly regarded programs in the country. However, during the past two decades, budget cuts and reorganizations have undercut the quality of the program. While the Office still does excellent work, the staff simply cannot keep up with the breadth and scope of DEP needs.”

3. Pervasive politcal influence on decisions
The Task Force admitted that DEP is pressured by lobbyists and decisions are often politicized:
“In the absence of a process to establish DEP permit review priorities, individuals and representatives of various constituencies frequently seek to establish preferences in permit review schedules. Such activities are rarely transparent to the public and can add to inefficiencies in the permitting process.”
4. Bureaucratic silos
The Task Force documented that single purpose programs operate in “silo’s”
“The second issue, which has been mentioned in several places in the report, concerns the sometimes overlapping, conflicting and too often overly complex maze of regulations governing the workings of the DEP. As with many governmental bureaucracies, little attention was paid over the years to the cumulative impact of new statutes and regulations.”
5. Failure to consider cumulative impacts
The environmental community has long called for DEP to develop enforceable science based standards to protect ecosystems from what are known as “cumulative impacts”. Instead of addressing this issue, the business dominated Task Force ignored the environment and complained about the cumulative impacts of regulations on the economy:
“Finally, while not a specific focus of the Task Force, there are instances in which the cumulative impact of nearly 40 years of statutes, executive and administrative orders, guidance documents and policy directives has been conflicting, overlapping and counterproductive regulations that have a troublesome impact on permitting efficiency.”
6. Sustainble development and global warming given short shrift
Jackson’s order purported to address sustainable development and global warming:
“b. The report of the Task Force shall also provide recommendations for operational, policy and regulatory changes at the department to provide incentives for and to advance sustainable development projects that contribute to achieving statewide greenhouse gas limits, economic growth opportunities in urban areas and meaningful affordable housing and that, as a result of their location and design, have little or no impact on public health and safety, the environment or natural resources;”
There simply are is no there there – There are no technical recommendations to satisfy this Jackson directive. This calls into serious question DEP’s commitment to sustainable development and global warming policies.
7. Public relations campaign
Instead of substantively addressing any of these complex scientific, legal and policy problems, the Task Force called for more spin over substance:
“On a parallel track during the first month following release of the report, the DEP should make it a priority to brief the executive office, legislative leaders, the regulated community, environmental groups and other community leaders on the details of the report and solicit their support for the effort and their ideas for implementation. The DEP also should carry out a public outreach program which includes media outlets and editorial boards.“
If you’ve read this far, you won the Wonk Award!
I will do a followup post explaining the Report in more detail.