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Who Put The “Poison Pill” Cap To Kill Renewables In Nuke Bailiout Bill?

February 26th, 2018 No comments

Nuclear Blackmail – Renewable Murder – Climate Suicide

Will the sponsor of the renewable cap amendment please raise your hand?

[Update: 2/27/18 – Unexpectedly, the bill was held, a huge short term victory. Read NJ Spotlight story.

But we got confirmation that the assholes from NJ LCV signed off on the poison pill provision.

These people are dangerously incompetent and corrupt too.

Here’s the confirmation, by none other than that lying sack of shit Ed Potosnak, who just raised his hand. Thanks to NJ Spotlight for reporting that:

“We are better off at looking at everything together,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. He opposes any move to separate the nuclear and green initiatives.

“It’s the wrong way. They tried it back earlier this winter and it got held up,” Potosnak said. “With some time, I think folks can get it right.”

“Looking at everything together” provides cover for a billion dollar nuke bailout and also includes a poison pill that would kill renewable energy.

Also keep in mind that Gov. Murphy’s DEP Deputy Commissioner Debbie Mans was or maybe still is on the NJ LCV Board. (We assume she has since resigned that NJ LCV post and filed an ethics review recusal request to DEP’s Ethics Officer under basic ethics requirements). Not only did NJ LCV endorse Murphy and spent over $335,000 to get him elected, but it is possible that Mans lobbied Potosnak to support the bill – or that Potosnak is just blindly supporting the Murphy administration.

Potosnak is so bad, even the “2% Man” Tom Gilbert opposed the bill:

We need the right policies in place to move New Jersey toward an affordable, efficient clean-energy future, and this legislation fails to do that,” said Tom Gilbert, campaign director for ReThink Energy NJ.

Potosnak: What an incompetent, dangerous, and dishonest asshole.  ~~~ end update]

[Update #2 – a well informed reader sent me a note to suggest additional corruption that I left out regarding NJ LCV conflicts of interest. It seems that several members of the Board of NJ LCV have financial and/or program ties to PSEG. We will elaborate as soon as supporting links are available. Debbie Mans is still listed on the website as Chair of the Board, so either she hasn’t resigned or NJ LCV is so obliviously arrogant that they feel no need to revise the webpage. ~~~ end update]

Senate President Sweeney has posted the multi-billion dollar nuclear bailout bill for full Senate vote – and likely approval – today, (see: S877 SCS – with an Orwellian title on the Senate Board list: “Energy efficiency prog.-estab.”) 

In addition to a huge and unnecessary nuclear bailout, passage of the bill would severely limit the ability of renewable energy to expand, and thereby undermine Gov. Murphy’s stated goal of 100% renewables (by the year 2050? or 2030?).

Just do the math: if 40% of NJ’s electric power if generated by nuclear, how can we ever reach 100% renewable power?

In addition to basic math, the economic and ratepayer costs of the nuke bailout would indirectly kill renewable energy, economically and politically.

A billion dollar nuke bailout would divert capital investment away from renewables in order to maintain PSEG’s aging nuclear fleet.

A billion dollar nuke bailout would deplete the finite political ability to force ratepayers to shoulder the full cost of electric power. Ratepayers will be unable to afford and balk at paying for BOTH billion dollar programs. BPU would never approve ratepayer increases to pay for both.

But those two renewable energy killers are indirect and apparently not sufficient for the greedy PSEG nuclear maniacs and Senator Sweeney and Gov. Murphy.

The current version of the bill contains a cap that would kill the necessary expansion of renewable energy, Section 6.d.(2) provides::

Notwithstanding the requirements of this paragraph, the board shall ensure that the cost to ratepayers of the Class I renewable energy requirement imposed pursuant to this subsection, shall be capped so that the cost to customers of satisfying the requirement shall not exceed seven percent of the Statewide average residential customer bill for energy year 2019, energy year 2020, and energy year 2021, respectively, and shall not exceed five percent of the Statewide average residential customer bill in any year thereafter.  The board shall take any steps necessary to meet the cap on the cost to customers including, but not limited to, adjusting the Class I renewable portfolio standard requirement pursuant to this subsection.

Those caps – 7 and 5% – are nuclear blackmail. (and they would function very much like the “cost test” in the Offshore Wind Act, which was to provide a basis and political cover for BPU to block wind. That cost test was a scheme of Sweeney and former Gov. Christie.)

They would be the death knell for renewable energy in NJ and make it impossible to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the Global Warming Response Act, which will require major investment and larger ratepayer increases to pay for them.

The cap is obviously a ploy to negotiate and a bargaining chip. It amounts to a gun to the head of legislators by PSEG: approve our nuke bailout or we will kill renewables.

So who drafted these cap amendments and had them inserted into the bill? Who signed off on them?

No one is taking credit for them.

A reliable Trenton source told me that the amendments to create a cap were reviewed and approved by Gov. Murphy’s Office and certain members of the “environmental community”, including NRDC, EDF, NJ LCV and Rethink Energy NJ.

Senator Sweeney has suggested that they were part of negotiations with Gov. Murphy’s office.

The authors of the cap need to be held accountable for them.

Media must force Senate President Sweeney, Gov. Murphy and the environmental groups to take a public position of the amendments that would create the cap.

The nuke bailout bill must be stopped, at all costs.

Taking out the cap does not make the bill acceptable. We don’t negotiate with terrorists.

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NJ Spotlight Prints False PennEast Pipeline Ad Regarding Regulatory Approval

February 26th, 2018 No comments

Failure to cover issue compounds false ad

It’s called lying by material omission

Screen Shot 2018-02-26 at 8.46.21 AM

[Update – NJ Spotlight reply below]

NJ Spotlight is running the ad above today by the PennEast pipeline. (view it online)

The ad is false and highly misleading. PennEast has not been “approved”.

If that ad were presented in certain forums, it would trigger enforcement sanctions (e.g. for misleading investors – SEC) – or be evidence of fraud:

The elements of a cause of action for fraud are: (1) that a material representation was made; (2) the representation was false; (3) when the representation was made, the speaker knew it was false or made it recklessly without any knowledge of the truth and as a positive assertion; (4) the speaker made the representation with the intent that the other party should act upon it; (5) the party acted in reliance on the representation; and (6) the party thereby suffered injury.

PennEast has not received the most critical approval it must secure – a regulatory approval that has been used by the States of New York and Connecticut to kill pipelines just like PennEast.

That approval is the federal Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certificate (401 WQC), which must be issued by NJ DEP.

A 2006 US Supreme Court decision, S. D. Warren v. Maine Board of Environmental Protectionupheld and stressed the power of State’s under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The Court found Section 401 part of an “essential scheme” to protect State interests (emphases mine):

State certifications under §401 are essential in the scheme to preserve state authority to address the broad range of pollution, as Senator Muskie explained on the floor when what is now §401 was first proposed:

“No polluter will be able to hide behind a Federal license or permit as an excuse for a violation of water quality standard[s]. No polluter will be able to make major investments in facilities under a Federal license or permit without providing assurance that the facility will comply with water quality standards. No State water pollution control agency will be confronted with a fait accompli by an industry that has built a plant without consideration of water quality requirements.” 116 Cong. Rec. 8984 (1970).

These are the very reasons that Congress provided the States with power to enforce “any other appropriate requirement of State law,” 33 U. S. C. §1341(d), by imposing conditions on federal licenses for activities that may result in a discharge, ibid.

That 401 WQC State regulatory review is currently ongoing at NJ DEP, which makes the PennEast false “approved” ad even more troubling.

Curiously, despite numerous posts on the 401 WQC here and several emails to NJ Spotlight environmental reporters Jon Hurdle and Tom Johnson, I have been unable to convince Spotlight to cover the issue.

The very little coverage Spotlight has provided related to the 401 WQC has not been accurate, and I have emailed them to explain the errors.

I just emailed Spotlight editor Lee Keough to advise her that false advertising compounds their failure to cover the 401 WQC issue, which I find deeply disturbing.

I will send Lee this post with a request that she take the ad down.

NJ Spotlight should be covering critical issues in the public interest, based on facts and law, not accepting false advertising from private corporate entities like PennEast that it is covering.

[End note: let’s briefly explore those legal elements of fraud:

1. the ad’s term “approved” and the implications of regulatory “approval” clearly are a “material representation”;

2.  the material representation is clearly false by omission; NJ DEP has not issued approvals;

3. the PennEast representative that wrote and paid for the false ad “knew it was false or made it recklessly without any knowledge of the truth and as a positive assertion” – that is obvious from the facts of the PennEast NJ DEP review process ad the public opposition to same.

4. proving intent by PennEast that Spotlight readers of the false ad would act on it is more complex. But clearly, if the public thinks that PennEast has been “approved” they would be far less likely to continue opposition to a “done deal” or fait accompli.

5. Some members of the public are likely to act in reliance on the false ad and abandon opposition to the pipeline. Less public opposition makes government approvals more likely.

6. The public would suffer if the opposition wanes and the pipeline is approved.

The elements of fraud are either obvious or very likely to be found in PennEast’s own corporate documents. Legal discovery process would open that can of worms.  ~~~ end note.]

[Update: Here is NJ Spotlight editor Lee Keough’s response – can she possibly be that naive?

Bill:

It has been approved by FERC and if you click on the ad, that’s what they say. We’ve written multiple times that it still needs final approval DRBC and the state.  Lee

Failure by PennEast to disclose material facts while using identical terms that imply material falsehoods (i.e. using the term “approved”) is clearly a dishonest tactic intended to deceive readers. PennEast has significant interests in creating a false public impression that they have received all necessary approvals, if only to deflate and divert the opponents.

Similarly, NJ Spotlight’s claim that they’ve “written multiple times” about the 401 WQC issue is flat out false.

Yes, they have written about the pipeline “still needs final DRBC approval and the state” several times, but that coverage was as vague, uniformed, and unhelpful as Lee’s use of language in her reply to me above.

What does “the state” mean? Who at the state? what approval? what are the NJ science, legal, and policy issues? What have other state’s done? What does the US Supreme Court say? How would that law apply to NJ Surface Water Quality Standards and all the C1 streams that would be crossed by the pipeline?

NJ Spotlight’s editor can’t be precise?

Lee Keogh is following the same flawed approach used by Rethink Energy NJ – ambiguous use of language to dodge the issues. Weasel words politicians love.

Spotlight wrote about the WQC issue once, and the story was not well done. They had multiple opportunities to write about the issue and never did – not once. ~~~ end update]

[Update #2 – an astute reader notes: “It’s false Even under FERC it is only a conditional approval ,they do not have  final approval.” ~~~ end update]

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Senator Sweeney’s Block On The Confirmation of Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner Prolongs Gov. Christie’s Anti-Environmental Policy

February 23rd, 2018 No comments

Acting DEP Commissioner McCabe Sandbagged by Christie Holdovers

Unable to appoint management team & begin policy reforms

Sweeney holds McCabe hostage – is he seeking policy concessions?

Senator Sweeney on Senate floor. He knows how to pressure DEP on behalf of polluters & developers.

Senator Sweeney on Senate floor. He knows how to pressure DEP on behalf of polluters & developers.

[Update: Here is DEP website for McCabe DEP’s “organizational chart”

This document is currently being updated. Please check back at a later date.
Thank you.

[Update in text below]

Senate President Sweeney is blocking the confirmation of, among others, Gov. Murphy’s nominee for DEP Commissioner, Catherine McCabe.

It is almost March, and the Senate Judiciary Committee still has not set a date for McCabe’s confirmation hearing and Sweeney has not scheduled a full Senate confirmation vote.

The inability of McCabe to secure Senate confirmation has a series of negative consequences.

Historically in deference to the Constitutional power of Senate oversight via the confirmation process, the Acting DEP Commissioner will not exercise bold leadership or initiate major policy changes until confirmed.

First of all, as a result, McCabe has been unable to appoint her senior management team and initiate the arduous process of reversing 8 full years of Gov. Christie’s policy and regulatory rollbacks (i.e see: Forty Policy Questions For Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner’s Senate Confirmation Hearing.

McCabe also has been unable to appoint her own management team and purge Gov. Christie and Bob Martin’s installation of incompetent corporate hacks in senior management positions. And there was a lot of collaboration with the Martin regime’s “cultural change” program by DEP middle managers that will need to be purged as well, perhaps down to at least the Division Director level, lower in some individual cases.

The DEP is a huge and complex regulatory institution, so it will take considerable leadership and persistent efforts to turn the ship of state around.

In addition, McCabe can expect strong pushback from powerful economic forces, as well as the leadership of her own party, as she seeks to “claw back” the Christie giveaways (e.g. see: Sweeney and Christie-Crats Throw Pinelands Legacy Under the Bus)

Already there are signs that Christie holdovers have sandbagged Acting Commissioner McCabe.

For example, the very first press release McCabe issued upon taking office was an ill advised move to double down on a terrible trifecta: Gov. Christie’s climate denying shore engineering, dredged material disposal, and luxury boat subsidy policies (see: DEP LAUNCHES PROJECT TO REPAIR BEACHES ON LONG BEACH ISLAND USING MATERIALS DREDGED TO MAKE LITTLE EGG INLET CHANNEL SAFE (not to mention the personnel issues involved).

Even worse, McCabe apparently relied on Christie holdovers in the discredited DEP press office to spin the release of the DEP’s annual fish consumption advisories, transforming the historic public health focus of those advisories into a sham effort to claim reductions in toxic chemicals and improvements in “ecological conditions” (see: NJ Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner – A Woman – Downplays Health Risks To Women and Children From Eating Toxic Fish.

[Note: Or, McCabe, in downplaying toxic fish risks, could have been trying to avoid pissing off Sweeney, whose (oil soaked) District sits on the banks of the Delaware River (where advisories were “eased”) and includes Sweeney’s polluter and fossil friends, particularly Dupont, the largest toxic polluter to the river, who owns billions of dollars in cleanup and NRD liability that DEP could pull the trigger on. ~~~ end note]

The lack of Senate confirmation also has political – as well as policy implications.

That political intimidation by Sweeney could explain the timid and ill-advised selection of Deputy Commissioner Debbie Mans (see: Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe Makes Her First Move – A Mis-Step)

In that sense, Sweeney – who is no friend of the Gov’s Murphy’s energy or environmental  policies (especially on wind) and a supporter of many of Gov. Christie’s “regulatory relief” policies is holding the sword of confirmation over McCabe’s head and likely seeking political commitments or policy moderation from McCabe behind the scenes. He has a dirty history.

Sweeney needs to be told by progressive and pro-environmental Democrats to back off and schedule McCabe’s confirmation hearing and Senate vote and get behind Gov. Murphy’s energy and environmental policies.

[Update: a reader and longtime Trenton activist just sent me a note that laid out the political games being played by Gov. Murphy’s Office on the nuke bailout bill. Basically, as I suspected, the Gov. Office has frozen out the progressives and is using corporate tools NRDC, EDF, NJ LCV and Rethink Energy NJ for cover for a sellout to PSEG. Murphy is listening to National groups and dissing the local NJ state groups.

The Gov.’s Office and Acting DEP Commissioner McCabe might want to consult former Commissioner Brad Campbell, who relied on NRDC for his disastrous “Big Map” initiative, which was his Waterloo. See NY Times story (6/26/05) for all that “These Days, A Commissioner Is Under Siege” ~~~ end update]

Maybe Democrats can get around to doing that after they end the Sweeney madness on the nuclear subsidies and poison pill for renewable energy he is trying to ram through the legislature, see: IN SIXTH ITERATION, NUCLEAR SUBSIDY BILL CLEARS COMMITTEE

Sweeney is sabotaging Gov. Murphy’s energy, environmental and even tax policies, remarkably in a partnership with NJ’s ALEC Chairman,  right wing Republican Senator Oroho.

Enough is enough. Get in his face!

yours truly (R) gets in Sweeney's face in his District (Earth Day, 2005)

yours truly (R) gets in Sweeney’s face in his District (Earth Day, 2005)

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NJ Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner – A Woman – Downplays Health Risks To Women and Children From Eating Toxic Fish

February 21st, 2018 No comments

Women and Children First?

Rosy DEP Press Release Claims Have No Scientific Basis

The Christie Administration’s DEP press office was notorious for spinning and, at times, flat out false statements. After 8 years, their credibility was at an all time low in all quarters.

Yesterday, the Murphy DEP press office – still staffed by Gov. Christie’s holdovers – issued a highly misleading press release headlining the “good news” – check out the headline:

NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE EASE CONSUMPTION ADVISORIES FOR
CERTAIN FISH CAUGHT IN LOWER DELAWARE RIVER AND DELAWARE BAY

REVISIONS REFLECT DECLINE IN PERSISTENT CONTAMINANTS SUCH AS PCBS AND PESTICIDES IN THE WATERBODIES

The public’s takeaway from this press release can only mean 2 things (both false and/or not supported by science and data):

1) the fact that the DEP is “easing” consumption advisories must mean that fish are less dangerous to eat

2) there has been a “decline in persistent contaminants” in NJ waterbodies

But the misleading nature of the DEP press release is not limited to the headline.

The DEP makes this claim in the opening paragraph:

The Department of Environmental Protection has eased consumption advisories on certain fish species caught in the lower Delaware River and Delaware Bay, an indication of improving ecological conditions as levels of contaminants decline, Acting Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe announced today.

 “These changes reflect an ongoing trend in which contaminants from past pollution such as PCBs and pesticides continues to decline,” Acting Commissioner McCabe said.

I call bullshit on that.

For some USGS, NJ DEP and other science that refutes McCabe’s DEP’s spin, see: More Dual Sexed Fish Documented In NJ Rivers. If you read only one thing in that post, make sure you read this letter from there NJ Chemistry Council to NJ DEP, thanking them for abandoning proposed strict surface water quality standards for persistent toxic  chemicals, known as “wildlife criteria” (READ LETTER!)

The basis for the DEP press release claims are scientifically ludicrous. The DEP did not even attempt to support those press release claims with data or science, either in thee press release or the body of the advisory document.

The DEP “eased” consumption advisories based on short term and slight changes in [unpublished and likely not peer reviewed] limited fish tissue sampling data for a very limited set of chemical contaminants and fish species (some of which migrate beyond NJ waters) in a very limited geographic range. This is not statistically significant or methodologically representative data.

It is ABSURD and a lie to use that kind of sparse data to make a broad statement about trends in water quality and “ecological conditions” (which are defined to include all species of plants and animals (i.e. “biota”), sediments, and water quality for all chemicals of concern.)

Historically, the annual DEP fish consumption advisories have been limited in focus to public health. Here is the text from the DEP 2017 advisory document -not the spun press release -as an example of that:

Health Effects from Consumption of Contaminated Fish and Crabs General Advice

Exposure to low levels of some contaminants in the environment may have long lasting health effects on people. Mercury, PCBs and dioxins are among the major contaminants found in some New Jersey fish in portions of the state. These contaminants can be especially harmful to women of childbearing age, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Trace amounts of these contaminants may remain in your body for a period of time after eating. Should you become pregnant during this time, these contaminants can be passed along to your fetus, potentially affecting the development of the nervous system. Children are also at risk of developmental and neurological problems if exposed to these chemicals. (@ page 2)

According to the DEP Advisory document, striped bass, American eel, bluefish, lobster – statewide – are “DO NOT EAT” for sensitive populations, defined as:

High Risk Individuals: Includes infants, children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and women of childbearing age.

Those kind of warnings should have been the headline and opening for DEP’s press release, not lies about “easing” advisories and “improving ecological conditions”.

So much for Gov. Murphy’s policy priority of “putting women first”.

Historically, the DEP fish consumption advisories have not been designed or  intended to make science based statements about the “ecological conditions” of NJ waters or trends in state water water quality.

The proper scientific forum for those issues is the DEP’s Clean Water Act’s Section 305 Water Quality Report (or DRBC toxics criteria or TMDL documents).

Commissioner McCabe is a lawyer and experienced regulator, and must know this.

McCabe is actually spinning and misleading the public worse than her predecessor, Bob Martin, a man with no legal, scientific, or environmental training or experience.

We’re deeply disappointed that a female DEP Commissioner would downplay health risks to women and children, while spinning the science to mislead the public.

Thankfully, veteran reporter Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight did not get spun and wrote a good story, despite DEP’s misleading release, see:  NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE EASE ADVISORIES ON CERTAIN FISH –  Action indicates drop in contamination, but some shellfish and other fish should be avoided, especially by women of childbearing age

But why on earth is Jeff Tittel essentially pulling his punches and supporting DEP’s spin?

“For the first time, we are seeing where some fish advisories are being eased,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, “however, we have a long way to go. There is still some fish that we cannot eat.”

If the Christie/Martin DEP press office pulled this kind of stunt he would have blasted it as spin.

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Climate Accountability In An Age of Lies And Craven Self Promotion

February 18th, 2018 No comments

[Update below]

A wonderful essay by my friend Bill Neil, formerly Director of Conservation at NJ Audubon (before NJA became a corporate consulting firm and partner with Donald Trump) on proposed Maryland legislation to protect forests and their role in climate change prompted me to post this brief note (see  Maryland’s 1991 Forest Conservation Act, as contained in the bills HB 766 and SB 610.)

Relatedly, in response to a current proposed NJ Audubon plan to log Sparta Mountain in NJ’s Highlands Preservation Area, 2 years ago I wrote: Christie DEP Highlands Logging Plans Would Reduce The Forest’s Carbon Storage Capacity and Worsen Climate Change

That post was ignored by activists and NJ media.

Since then, Eric Stiles of NJ Audubon –  who spent the last 8 years seeking private foundation, billionaire, Christie DEP and corporate funding for logging schemes in the Highlands under the false scientific justification of creating “young forest habitat” – has dodged all that accountability and is now apparently the sole media “green” spokesperson at NJ Spotlight for forests and climate change risks.

The reason? Stiles sees money for that: in the current spin cycle to get behind NJ Gov. Murphy, Stiles sees money because forest carbon sequestration funds are coming as a result of NJ rejoining RGGI. [See Update below for specific details]

NJ Spotlight recently reported:

“In the Christie era, climate science was a four-letter word,’’ argued Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. Christie pulled New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate effort to reduce pollution from power plants. New Jersey will rejoin the program, according to Murphy.

“Climate change is really the overarching issue,’’ said Eric Stiles, president and CEO of New Jersey Audubon. “When you look at the top-tier threat to humans, wildlife, and habitat of New Jersey, it’s climate change.’’

WTF?

NJ Audubon not only ignored climate change in their logging schemes, they made the problem worse. As I wrote: 

It is well known that the Christie Administration is irresponsibly outright hostile to any plans or programs to address climate change, and instead has actively promoted new fossil fueled gas plants and pipelines across the state, while suing to block the Obama EPA Clean Power Plan climate initiative.

But here’s an aspect of that climate negligence that has gotten no attention: reducing the ability of NJ’s forests to store carbon.

The controversial proposed DEP logging plan for Sparta Mountain is not NJ Audubon’s or DEP’s first logging operation.

Highlands forests are under assault from the State agency directed by the Highlands Act to preserve them.

Getting virtually no attention are the facts that NJ Audubon also logs Newark watershed lands (see page 43) and DEP has proposed logging not only at Sparta Mountain but in Weldon Brook WMA and Mahlon Dickerson Reservation.

Some think that Hamburg Mountain is next in line for logging.

The cumulative effects of these logging operations – on forest health, water resources, ecosystems, wildlife habitat, recreation, or climate change – have not been considered by the DEP. Not at all. No consideration. (read the complete post)

Accountability, where the hell is it?

Stiles is now a media source and a hero – why is that?

[Update – 2/19/18 – Apologies to readers for a serious omission. The reality is actually worse than my original post above would suggest.

Specifically, when the RGGI legislation was undergoing legislative deliberation, most of the environmental community was working hard and very publicly to make RGGI as strong as possible and to prevent the bill from being hijacked by Senator Sweeney on behalf of big oil (which it ultimately was, resulting in editorial boards and most NJ environmental groups to OPPOSE the final version of RGGI, see: Lame Global Warming Bill Goes to Governor.)

But two groups, NJ Audubon and American Littoral Society were working quietly behind the scenes NOT on strengthening the RGGI bill, but on seeking special amendments to essentially earmark RGGI revenues to their organizations and pet projects. 

Specifically, NJA and ALS met quietly with NJ DEP Director of Policy & Planning Jeanne Herb to secure earmarks of RGGI funds for carbon sequestration.

DEP supported these amendments and deceptively conveyed them to the Legislature as DEP amendments – thus disguising the special interests NJA and ALS behind them and essentially laundering special interest earmarks.

Here they are: (see Section 7.b.(4))

(4) Ten percent [of RGGI revenues] shall be allocated to the department to support programs that enhance the stewardship and restoration of the State’s forests and tidal marshes that provide important opportunities to sequester or reduce greenhouse gases.

NJ Audubon was the ONLY group in NJ doing “forest stewardship and restoration”.

ALS was the only group working on “tidal marsh” restoration.

This 10% was an earmark to those groups.

Now that RGGI will be restored, NJA and ALS will receive those funds – which amount to about $4.5 million per year.

Keep in mind that these same to two groups did nothing to make RGGI better, but cynically and opportunistically merely used it as a funding vehicle for their own organizations.

Since then, both groups have done virtually nothing on climate change – Audubon’s logging actually made things worse – while both groups received funding and worked cooperatively with the Christie Administration to provide political cover to DEP rollbacks.

I found it outrageous and totally unacceptable that they now will milk even more public funds from a Democratic administration.

 

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