WolfeNotes.com

Before going to last week’s Pompton Lakes Real Community Advisory Group (CAG) meeting on the Dupont cleanup, I decided to go early, take a hike, and take a look at NJ reservoir levels, which DEP data show are below average for this time of year.

During that tour, I came across one of the crime scenes created by the Tennessee Gas Pipeline project around Lake Lookover (you remember what that looked like, if not see: This is What Gas Pipeline Construction Looks Like (Part 1 of 2) for photos taken during construction.)

I’m still working on a post about rather shocking developments at the PL CAG meeting, so for today, I thought I’d just post a few photos of Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s DEP approved “restoration”.

What kind of habitat value is this? Can Audubon tell me what bird species this supports?

[Note: a clever reader responds that this supports critical habitat for the PVC Piping Plover! hahahaha!]

Compacted soils and exposed rock not likely to support native vegetation, and will worsen runoff, erosion, and water quality. How does this not permanently impair hiking & recreational use?

looking east – only narrow portion of ROW *replanted. Reminds me of a cemetery (10/6/14)

same deal looking west across Lake Lookover  (10/6/14)

new pump station – lots of new hard packed surface, new trees not native and dead and dying (10/6/14)

scrawny new trees, not watered or maintained, dead and dying (10/6/14)

“The facts are in. The evidence is clear.” 

Time To Choose and Act

No Time For Moderation

People’s Climate March, NYC (9/21/14)

[Updated]

I wrote recently in frustration to question the NJ environmental community’s failure to capitalize on the People’s Climate March and organize in support of an important and radical climate change bill that would require purchase of 80% renewable power by 2050, with enforceable steps along the way.

I almost hoped to get angry emails from environmental leaders slamming me that I got the story all wrong – that environmental groups had issue action alerts, held press conferences, conducted public events and generated thousands of calls to legislators in support of the bill.

Sadly, my hope was misplaced.

But environmentalists were not alone – in writing that post, I left out the failure of leadership by NJ scientists and other NJ based technical and policy experts and institutions.

It is way past the time to dodge the policy issues and hide behind professional conventions or institutional taboos about participating in “politics”  – it is no longer acceptable to put “reputation” or career or business interests above telling the truth: all people of good faith who have expertise or moral support to offer need to speak out publicly.

As I’ve written before, scientists should be organizing their professional communities, prioritizing climate action, and getting out of their comfortable research and academic silos to engage in the political and policy process to educate policymakers and media.

Reflecting this moral imperative, climate scientists played a visible supportive role at the People’s Climate March.

NJ is home of major climate science and policy institutes, including Princeton & Rutgers Universities and the Union of Concerned Scientists; well endowed philanthropic foundations; and new policy outfits like Climate Central and 350.org. – and of course, the State Climatologist, who has an important media megaphone that can inform and shape debate, especially on things like extreme weather.

[Update: sorry, I didn’t know that Climate Central had abdicated responsibility by design:

Climate Central is not an advocacy organization. We do not lobby, and we do not support any specific legislation, policy or bill.  –

Heck, actually telling the American people what the science means and what’s going is dangerous – it might piss off the big Foundations and corporations that fund the work  – end update]

There are also many private sector scientific and policy experts who realize the gravity of the situation.

But none of them showed up in Trenton last week to support this legislation or have spoken out publicly thus far.

They simply must do so – and very visibly and loudly join the policy debate.

I’ll close by letting Naomi Klein’s words, from her superb recent book This changes everything, put a finer point on it (boldface emphases mine, italics in original):

… I am not asking anyone to take my word on the science; I think that all of us should take the word of 97 percent of climate scientists and their countless peer-reviewed articles, as well as every national academy of science in the world, not to mention establishment institutions like the World Bank and International Energy Agency, all of which are telling us that we are headed towards catastrophic levels of warming. Nor am I suggesting that the kind of equity-based responses to climate change that I favor are inevitable results of the science.

What I am saying is that the science forces us to choose how we want to respond. If we stay on the road we are on, we will get the big corporate, big military, big engineering response to climate change – the world of a tiny group of big corporate winners and armies of locked-out losers … Or we can choose to heed climate change’s planetary wake-up call and change course, steer away not just from the emissions cliff but from the logic that brought us careening to that precipice. Because what the “moderates” constantly trying to reframe climate action as something more palatable are really asking us is: How can we create change so that the people responsible for the crisis do not feel threatened by the solutions?  How, they ask, do you reassure members of a panicked megalomaniacal elite that they are still masters of the universe, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

The answer is: you don’t. You make sure you have enough people on your side to change the balance of power and take on those responsible, knowing that true populist movements always draw from both the left and the right. And rather than twisting yourself in knots trying to appease a lethal worldview, you set out deliberately to strengthen those values. (“egalitarian” and “communitarian” as the cultural condition studies cited here describe them) that are currently being vindicated, rather than refuted, by laws of nature. (@ page 59)

Amen Sister!

Did The “Eco-Goats” Break the Camel’s Back?

We are pleased to report that WalMart – one of the world’s most environmentally unsustainable corporations that is hostile to labor and local merchants – has dramatically slashed funding for NJ based greenscam promotions.

PEER criticized WalMart funding in this national report last year:

GREEN-WASHING NEW JERSEY STYLE – Wal-Mart Funds Christie-Touted “Sustainability” Plan as Green Programs Gutted

Here at Wolfenotes, we blasted WalMart and Sustainable NJ in multiple posts, and called on NJ’s environmental leaders to repudiate those tactics and refuse WalMart funding:

• WalMart Gives Over $1 Million To Christie Administration’s “Sustainability” Initiative
• Walmart CEO Forced Out – Does Sustainable NJ Have At Least The Ethical Standards of the WalMart Board?
• NJ Spotlight Cheerleads For Sustainable NJ – Ignores Walmart and South Jersey Gas Scandals
• Doubling Down on WalMart – Ethical Free Falling

Our source tells us that Walmart refused to fund the Sustainable NJ Small Grants Program this year and dramatically reduced other funding to Sustainable NJ by 66%, slashing a $450,000 contribution to just $150,000.

We are pleased to take some credit for this.

We repeat our challenge to SNJ and NJ environmental leaders to repudiate WalMart funding and greenscam tactics.

Let’s hope that next year that that funding goes to zero.

Weeks after The People’s Climate March, the most aggressive climate bill ever heard in NJ is ignored

Focus on fundraising, feel good gestures, & destructive diversions

A Tale of Milkweed, Mitigation, and Money

On September 21, 2014, I joined over 300,000 people in New York for the People’s Climate March.

Prior to the march, astute critics had raised strategic questions about how the march was organized. I must say that I sympathized with those arguments, but attended anyway.

Regardless, I’m sure tens of thousands of the marchers were from NJ.

NJ environmental groups did great organizing work to promote the march and turned out their memberships.

The march was well covered in virtually all NJ press.

But, when the march was over, what happened?

Was all that people power and enthusiasm and street heat organized and translated and channeled into meaningful action?

Was the press corps given impetus to write more aggressive climate stories?

Were the fossil corporations and their lobbyists running scared?

Were regulators and legislators emboldened and given cover to resist corporate lobbying?

Tragically, the first test of those questions reveals a big and across the board NO!

Let me explain.

On Thursday October 9, the Senate Environment Committee considered the most important climate change legislation since the 2007 Global Warming Response Act (GWRA).

But contrary to the GWRA, this bill had teeth (see S2444) and would establish the most aggressive and enforceable renewable energy requirements in the world. 

The bill would mandate that 80% of NJ’s electric energy be provided by renewable sources by 2050, along a pathway defined by mandatory annual milestones along the way to that 2050 goal.

Current voluntary off shore wind goal of 1,100 megawatts would be quadrupled to 4,500 and made mandatory. Solar capacity would be radically ramped up to almost 14% of total electric sold in the state by 2030.

By doing so, the bill would radically transform the electric power sector, provide huge real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and serve as a national model.

So, what happened? Listen to the hearing here yourself.

Environmentalists, for the most part, didn’t even show up. Sierra Club and NJ Environmental Federation were the only groups to testify on the bill – all the others were AWOL, even though I saw some environmental lobbyists in the legislative annex building.

Guess they were too busy with the new environmental activism, which means  (and this is a real list of well publicized events, rattled off the top of my head, in just the last month or so – you can’t make this stuff up):

planting milkweed; keeping NJ highway medians safe for pretty flowers; writing corporate Foundation grant applications; hosting fundraisers; burning and logging forests; planting bushes alongside electric powerlines and gas pipelines; meeting with Corporate Stewardship Councils; taking Walmart and energy company grants; buying expensive “eco-goats”; writing propaganda Op-Eds promoting theft of billions of dollars of environmental funds; selling sustainable rain barrels and compact fluorescent bulbs; holding road rally’s with highly polluting cars; conducting cultural carnivals; planting flowers at the local shopping center hardware stores; pubcrawls; expensive eco-tours; seafood  festivals; picking up litter; certifying voluntary local feel good measures; promoting state funded greenscam projects (e.g. beach replenishment for birds, dredge spoil disposal in wetlands, and stormwater detention basins in Barnegat Bay)  in exchange for State DEP and federal grants……….

I could go on, but I won’t – and all the organizations out there know exactly who you are, I don’t have to name names here.

[Update: 7/26/15 – here are a few more examples to add to the list above:

• Elusive Monarch draws a crowd for Butterfly Day
• Cataloging animals, plants along NJ waterways in preparation for oil spill

There are many different types of diversionary tacts, e.g. I forgot to include stuff like corporate sponsored research that also diverts from real issues, like Dupont’s funding of NJ Audubon in Delaware Bay with the Orwellian title – Clear Into The Future.  or PSEG ROW habitat restoration.~~~ end update]

The environmentalists that did show up gave tepid support or weak testimony that had no effect on legislators and was dismissed by press. They almost seemed afraid to mention the phrase “climate change”.

BPU Ratepayer Advocate (AKA “Dr. No”) continued the drumbeat on their singular and narrow focus – which lacks economic credibility- on the alleged high costs and ratepayer burdens, while ignoring the climate crisis, the social costs of carbon, along with the benefits and avoided costs of renewables.

The media didn’t even show up – the only story was a pile of one sided energy industry dominated propaganda.

The industry lobbyists did not flinch from making the most reactionary, false, and misleading fossil fuel arguments, including lies about renewable power and the situation in Germany.

[Update: In another bill heard (see S2420 [1R]), solar advocates had to beg to request an increase of the current 2.5% cap on net metering to just 4% of commercial electric sales. Most NJ solar is from net metered projects. That groveling by the solar industry itself showed the absolute veto power the utilities have over real expansion of renewables. Current law allows the utilities to petition BPU to prohibit ANY ADDITIONAL RENEWABLES generating power to the grid that exceed the cap. Imagine that. Utilities have almost veto power over market entry to eliminate competition from even CHEAPER renewables. That is absurd. Yet NO ONE even questioned why utilities and BPU should have this power or why there should even be any cap. So called Ratepayer advocate had nothing to say about this anti-competitive costly monopoly abuse.

In another amazingly revealing example, Chairman Smith pointed to the millions of square feet of warehouse rooftops that could be solar powered. As each industry witnesses testified, Smith demanded to know WHY there was no solar on those warehouse rooftops. Finally, Fred DeSanti, a solar lobbyists, had the balls to tell him because the 2012 Solar Act that Smith himself sponsored puts strict caps on the amount of installed solar. The NJ legislators – preferring “stability” in the solar market which relies os SREC’s  over rapid and significant expansion of solar capacity –  imposed strict caps on the amount of solar that can be installed! Holy moly! Legislation is blocking the expansion of solar! And is was Smith’s own bill that was blocking warehouse rooftop solar! – end update]

The legislators were cowed (e.g. before there day was even over, the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Smith was running away from there in-state local content requirements, a key to a NJ job creation strategy.)

And there was not one – not one – mention of the People’s Climate March as changing anything.

So tell me, please, what the fuck is wrong with the NJ Envrionmental Community?

If the renewable energy bill is ever reposted for another hearing, there needs to be a rally with 5,000 people on the State House steps before the hearing.

[PS – I must admit that I stole the main portion of my headline from this superb NJ Spotlight article: What’s Wrong with Chris Christie’s Government?]

Dredged Sediments Disposed Along Hershfield Park River Banks

Pompton Lakes Ordered to Stop Un-permitted Dredging & Disposal

Wanaque River along Hershfield Park, Pomtpon Lakes NJ (Source: Ed Meakem)

They have been mutilating acres and acres of T&E habitat, dredging illegally  – all in total violation of their permit. ~~~ Ross Kushner, Pequannock River Coalition

[Updates below]

Ed Meakem, my friend and former Councilman in Pompton Lakes, sent me some amazing photos on Tuesday of what looked like a mismanaged or illegal dredging and disposal operation in the Wanaque River and along the banks in Hershfield Park (see above and below).

It reminded me of the Bull’s Islands fiasco along the Delaware River a few years back.

Source: Ed Meakem

So I immediately referred the matter to US EPA Region 2 and requested that they conduct an inspection and take appropriate enforcement action.

I was very disturbed by EPA’s initial rapid reply  later that afternoon of Oct. 7 – EPA wrote:

On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) from the Superfund Program in Edison, NJ called the Borough of Pompton Lakes and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regarding the excavating in the Lake in Hershfield Park.

Mr. Kevin Boyle, Pompton Lakes Borough Administrator, explained to the OSC that the dredging work is part of a river control project for the Wanaque River in conjunction with the NJDEP under a $250,000 NJDEP grant.  The project encompasses Pompton Lakes, Riverdale and Pequannock Townships, and Pompton Lakes is the lead agency for the project.

A NJDEP permit for the work has been granted (NJDEP is the permit holder) and the NJDEP contacts are John Moyle and John Ritchey with the Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control.  NJDEP had an inspector at the Site last week to check that proper sediment control measures are being taken and ensure the protection of the endangered species and the ecosystem.

Mr. Boyle also informed the OSC that all information regarding this project is public and that a public meeting had been held.  The project was approved by the Towns involved.  Mr. Boyle invited anyone interested about the project to call him at 973-835-0143 x239 (or the Borough Engineer) for more information.

So I immediately challenged EPA’s handing of the matter – I wrote:

But I am pleased now to note that, last night, EPA advised that their initial inquiry relied on inaccurate information, and that in fact, the dredging and disposal operation are not permitted by DEP. EPA wrote:

Good Evening Mr. Wolfe,

Following your complaint on the afternoon of October 7, the EPA forwarded your complaint concerning dredging work in the Pequannock River in Pompton Lakes, NJ, to the NJDEP.  The NJDEP indicated to the EPA that Pompton Lakes believed they were working under a permit issued by NJDEP which my response to you below was based on.

Late this afternoon we were informed that while Pompton Lakes is working in the same general area, the NJDEP does not believe that this particular location was approved for dredging.  The NJDEP Division of Land Use Regulation is in the process of reviewing the permit file.  In the meantime, Pompton Lakes has instructed its contractor to stop work and stabilize the area.  It is EPA’s understanding that a meeting will be held shortly between Pompton Lakes and the NJDEP permitting group to discuss the need for this activity, and if necessary, permit options.

Have a nice evening,

George

We will try to get more information on the permit and enforcement issues and justifications for this project.

We are particularly interested in whether samples were taken of the dredged sediments and what the results of that sampling are.

But in the meantime, at a minimum, it looks like Pompton Lakes Borough Administrator, the contractor, and DEP have some explaining to do.

Let’s hope that the media holds them accountable.

[Update #1: Watch the Pompton Lakes Boro engineer spin in response to residents’ questions. Note how his story conflicts with EPA’s above.]

[Update #2 -10/13/14 – Ross Kushner of the Pequannock River Coalition has been working on this for some time. Ross sent me this photo and note:

Source: Ross Kusher, PRC – date and location unknown

Bill,

I have been complaining about Pompton Lake’s river work for over a year. They have been mutilating acres and acres of T&E habitat, dredging illegally  – all in total violation of their permit.

The DEP flat out refuses to do anything about it (see email below).  Worse, the NJ environmental community has turned a blind eye to it, despite my repeated requests for help. Like the Ringwood superfund problems, nobody but me seems to give a crap. VERY frustrating.