WolfeNotes.com

Tornado sunsets always make me smile (gotta hit the links).

The view, out my front porch

Listen

We headed straight south in a sundown light
Highway 61 through the Delta night
We shared the backroads with cardsharks and grifters
Tent show evangelists and Luke the Drifter

What is lost, what is missing
What's been gone way too long

We had dreams when the night was young
We were believers when the night was young
We could change the world, stop the war
Never seen nothing like this before
But that was back when the night was young

The sign reads God bless America guns and ammo
I'm not sure that's what He means
Sign reads repent the end is near
I'm not sure that's what we need

Get your heart beating in the right direction
That's when you make a real connection

We had dreams when the night was young
We were believers when the night was young
We could change the world, stop the war
Never seen nothing like this before
That was back when the night was young

Now Andy Warhol's in the hotel lobby
He's waiting for the late night muse
But she won't be back before morning
She's gone downtown to hear some blues
Like the sun rising out of the sea
It's how you embrace the mystery

We had dreams when the night was young
We were believers when the night was young
We could change the world, stop the war
Never seen nothing like this before
But that was back when the night was...

We had dreams when the night was young
We were believers when the night was young
We could change the world, stop the war
Never seen nothing like this before
But that was way back when the night was young
~~~ Robbie Robertson (2011)

Warning: Dismantling in Progress

Despite the fact that I’ve been designated persona non grata by DEP Commissioner Bob Martin, I thought I’d spend a brief moment revisiting a few problems at our DEP with respect to science, standards, and policy, as we learn that 2 scientists are leaving the DEP global warming program for positions at Rutgers.

First off, the DEP global warming program was dismantled a while ago.

Upon creation by the (toothless) Global Warming Response Act, that program was formerly housed in the Office of Climate Change in the Division of Policy, Planning and Science.

DEP Commissioner Bob Martin took the following steps to dismantle the program (Martin is playing to the crowd of Republicans seeking to repeal the Global Warming Response Act , the radical global warming deniers):

• abolished the Division of Policy, Planning, and Science;
• buried the Office of Climate Change in the air quality permit program;
• zeroed the budget and diverted RGGI funds;
• fired the Director Jeanne Herb [Update: A Mercer County Chamber of Commerce hack was installed in her place and directed to promote economic development]; and
• eliminated the Office of Policy and Planning that was created to develop policy and integrate science in various DEP silo based permit programs (full disclosure: I was involved in creating and worked in that Office from its creation in 2002 – 2004).

Is it any wonder why a competent scientist would leave under those circumstances?

Second, moving right along to the issue of science at DEP.

Under DEP Commisisoner Bob Martin’s vision, the external Science Advisory Board (SAB) has displaced DEP science.

This displacement effectively ends DEP regulatory standards development. That implements Governor Christie’s Executive Order #2, to provide “immediate regulatory relief” and defer adopting stricter NJ state standards in lieu of reliance on weaker federal standards.

Members of the SAB are biased and the SAB has blatent conflicts of interest among several members.

Martin has directed the SAB to get directly involved in regulatory and policy issues.

That is a gross violation of both former Commisisoner Lisa Jackson’s policy memorandum, Commissioner Mauriello’s Administrative Order that established the SAB and Martin’s own Administrative Order that continued it and selected members.

Under Jackson’s policy, Mauriello’s Order, and Martin’s AO’s, the SAB is strictly prohibited from getting involved in regulatory and policy issues.

That restriction was put in place to avoid politicization of the science, to protect the integrity of the regulatory programs, and to provide safeguards to limit the inherent bias and conflicts of interest of some members of the SAB.

Third, on the standards front, Commissioner Martin has imposed a defacto moratorium on regulatory standards development (for drinking water, soil, surface water, groundwater, ecological, septic density).

Martin is weakening current standards by transforming them to unenforceable guidance. The Site Remediation program’s technical standards and vapor intrusion indoor air standards were the first examples of implementation of that policy.

Martin has prohibited the Drinking Water Quality Institute from meeting – they historically met quarterly and now haven’t met in almost a year.

Dupont and Hal Bozarth just love that.

DEP has lost hundreds of experienced professionals to attrition and retirement. They have not been replaced and there is no plan in place to preserve the institutional integrity of DEP as the Department hemorhages experienced experts. Chaos reigns.

This is how the Republicans roll – and it implements Christie’s game plan:

• deregulate and privatize
• disparage government
• defund government
• disable government, and
• then use the resulting dysfunction as the justification to dismantle government.

With virtually no credible factual support, NJ Governor Christie repeatedly has claimed that the alleged high cost of energy harms NJ’s economy and drives business locations to other states.

On that basis, Christie has structured his entire energy and environmental policies to promote the narrow goals of energy cost reduction and regulatory relief.

But PSEG reports that their NJ electric rates are BELOW the regional average (see chart on page 23); that they benefit from a favorable regulatory environment (chart on page 59) and are “well positioned to succeed under numerous [regulatory] outcomes” (chart on page 13.)

Recently, some of Christie’s misleading claims and flawed premises have begun to be exposed as false.

But yesterday, we heard an even more bizarre fact free energy policy claim by the Christie Administration, this time about alleged subsidies to solar.

Ken Sheehan, Chief Counsel, NJ Board of Public Utilities, chats with lobbyist following Senate testimony

In testimony to the Senate Environment Committee (you can listen here), Ken Sheehan, Chief Counsel at the NJ Board of Public Utilities, announced the Administration’s concern that (this is a direct verbatim quote)

the level of subsidies to solar is too high

Chairman Smith then interjected and asked Sheehan how much the alleged excessive solar subsidies are.

Sheehan was unable to provide a factual response. It was an embarassing moment, and another new low in public policy.

It is simply incredible that a high public official could make such as sweeping claim on an issue of this significance and yet have no factual support for it. 

Smith then said that the cost to support solar energy amounted to $3 per household per year (that’s less than a penny a day). Sheehan did not object to or refute that claim by Smith.

Governor Christie apparently finds that too much.