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Massive Loophole Explicitly Allows New Fossil Power Plants To Be Built

Existing Fossil Power And Fossil Imports Can Continue Operating Forever

The Bill Will Not Reduce ANY Greenhouse Gas Emissions

“You will never hear the Chemistry Council saying anything bad about the DEP. ” ~~~ Dennis Hart, Executive Director of NJ Chemistry Council (3/4/24 testimony to the NJ Senate Environment Committee on SCR 11)

Back in January when Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR 11 was posted for Committee consideration, I wrote Chairman Smith the sponsor to request amendments to make the bill actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prevent construction of new fossil plants, and phase out existing fossil (see the email to Smith below).

I knew Smith was not serious when neither he nor environmental groups expressed support or even replied to my suggested amendments.

There was no media coverage either.

But now, after an even lame SCR 11 was gutted, its safe for the media to cover the issue.

(the amendments were not even drafted when they were approved and still are not posted on the OLS website. Smith is over heard on live mike saying he just wants to get the bill out of committee, even though the amendments technically did not exist.)

I got a belly laugh but was not surprised to read today’s NJ Spotlight report that Smith had gutted his own lame bill: (NJ Spotlight)

But [fossil industry] critics argued the ban could threaten the reliability of the power grid, especially at a time when the state is moving to intermittent sources like offshore wind and solar energy. To an extent, Smith agreed, noting the bill was amended to allow new peaking gas-power plants, which often come online quickly during times when power demand strains the grid’s capacity to provide electricity. 

 A loophole that large swallows the entire SCR 11. Why even pass the bill if a loophole defeats the core sole purpose of the legislation?

I sense that NJ Spotlight reporter Tom Johnson had a smile on his face and enjoyed the humiliation served up to new Sierra Club Director Anjuli Busot-Ramos, who – just like DEP Commissioner LaTourette and NJ Spotlight editors – fails to understand the difference between misinformation and disinformation: (NJ Spotlight)

Both Ramos and Pringle also objected to putting the issue before voters, predicting a multimillion-dollar campaign by the fossil fuel industry to sway voters against the ban. “Our fear is we won’t be able to compete,’’ she said. “We don’t have millions of dollars to combat the misinformation.’’ 

Note how Pringle and Ramos rightly criticize the fossil industry but give Chairman Smith a pass for gutting his own bill in response to their criticism.

Remarkably, despite the fact that an already lame SCR 11 was competently gutted and will do nothing at all to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, un-named environmental groups still supported it!: (NJ Spotlight)

Several other environmental groups backed the resolution, however.

Now I have to listen to the testimony and be sure to name these idiots.

[Update: As I suspected, the corrupt cheerleaders at NJ League of Conservation Voters SUPPORTED this sham (at time: 1:10:00)

Dave Pringle’s opposition to the bill was based on economics, not climate science. He expressed a reliance on market forces to stop the construction of new power plants. Total Neoliberal BS – let the market solve the problem. He also opposed the bill because he was afraid he would lose the public debate and the voters would defeat the ballot question. He might be right that the fossil industry would spend millions on a disinformation campaign, but he revealed a disdain for the intelligence of the voters and no trust in democracy. And no confidence in his ability to win a public debate. What a tool.

Ms. Ramos’s testimony was even worse. She began with the outrageous claim that as a former DEP employee she could tell the Chairman that DEP has “great regulations on air toxics”. She then supported “clean hydrogen”. She misled about the impact of the new EJ law on permit renewals and modifications by implying that the EJ law could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air toxics – she failed to note that the law did nothing to change current DEP air toxics standards, methods, technical manuals, cumulative risk standards, risks management, or air permitting regulations and that the law prohibits DEP from denying renewals and modifications of current permits.

Doug O’Malley was a no show and no other climate or environmental groups even testified.  ~~~ end update]

In the meantime, check out my request for amendment below.

Murphy DEP Commissioner’s Pushback To Legislators Not Quite What’s Its Been Portrayed To Be

LaTourette Letter Loaded With Gaslighting, Straw Men, and Legal Loopholes

Reality is the exact opposite of the impression created by DEP Commissioner LaTourette and media cheerleaders

Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
‘Cause as soon as this ferry boat docks
And I’m headed to the church
To play Bingo, fleece me with the gamblers’ flocks. ~~~ Song For Sharon (Joni Mitchell, 1975)

Friends of Liberty State Park, as well as NJ media, have been spiking the ball at the 20 yard line, celebrating Murphy DEP Commissioner LaTourette’s letter to Legislative leaders on Liberty State Park development.

Here is Friends’ of Liberty State Park take:

-1/29/24 NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette great 12-page Revitalization Update response to the heads of the assembly and senate who wrote a letter critical of the Revitalization process based on misinformation from lobbyists of Fireman who wants public input only to the Fireman-dominated task force proposals and not from the DEP’s professional park planning consultants’ proposals.

Here is NJ media:

1-31-24 Star Ledger Editorial   “N.J. pols cave to a billionaire (cont.)”  …this is yet another warning that a plutocrat’s ability to reach into the highest echelons of state government is a serious and dangerous thing, even if it is only used to get a meeting cancelled so that he can rethink his strategy for hijacking the process.

1-31-24 TV PBS Spotlight News piece by David Cruz “Another clash over LSP revitalization”

1-30-24 Star Ledger Editorial “Lawmakers who should know better dance to Fireman’s tune” “LaTourette,who seems to have Gov. Murphy’s support, is an intrepid administrator…has laid out a blueprint that is ecologically sound, physically alluring, and welcoming to all – he is especially proud of carving out a whopping 60 acres for active recreation — and he has vowed to protect our state’s greatest open space from commercial predators.”

1/28/24 The Jersey Journal by Mark Koosau “N.J. legislative leaders unhappy with DEP’s direction on Liberty State Park revitalization plan” The letter, full of shameful misinformation that denies science, ignores the DEP’s pledge of 60 acres of LSP active recreation, and ignores Jersey City’s primary responsibility of creating and renovating sports facilities, shows how easy it is for billionaire Paul Fireman’s lobbyists to manipulate legislative leaders for his goal of deciding LSP’s future. This is another billionaire, Fireman power grab as he wants the public to only give input to proposals coming from this travesty task force created by his non-protection law and dominated by his front groups and other surrogates, and he wants to end the DEP’s responsible and fair plan of public input to DEP consultants’ recommendations.

1/16/24 The Jersey Journal by Mark Koosau “Nonprofit says kids need more ballfields at Liberty State Park, but it spent $1 million on salaries, lawyers, lobbyist and ads.”

5/28/23 The Star Ledger Editorial “Liberty State Park: The good guys finally won”
“The ultimate vision of a pristine urban oasis – protected from garish development, political dithering, and billionaire hubris
took a giant step closer to reality last week, when a massive plan to revitalize LSP was announced by the DEP
The glorious blueprint comes largely from the imagination of Shawn LaTourette, the tireless DEP commissioner who engineered a brillant plan for ecological restoration while adding an enormous array of recreational spaces – all as he withstood relentless pressure from moneyed interests.”

DEP Commissioner LaTouurette an “Intrepid administrator”? Or a gaslighting corporate lawyer shark? The Star Ledger praises “LaTourette’s vision” for LSP. Sorry Commissioner, you are no  Olmsted.

And no, the good guys have not won – at least not yet – and signals look doubtful for victory.

I hate to rain on their parade, but they all didn’t read LaTourette’s letter closely. He’s a crafty former corporate lawyer and uses words with precision in a way that can easily mislead the public and the media crowd, who focus on narrative and spin instead of substance.

So, here is where the LaTourette letter not only keeps the door open for corporate commercial development and Trenton political pay to play schemes, but actually legitimizes ethical conflicts of interest in the deliberations and planning of the DEP Task Force.

Here’s the legal loophole (page 3, my emphasis):

“DEP similarly recognizes that no uses of state lands can be dedicated for PURELY revenue generating purposes”

Did you get that? It’s a straw man: no one is advocating development for “purely” revenue generating purposes. The developments all would provide recreational and other public benefits, in addition to “revenue generation”.

Here’s the green light for ethical corruption, open conflicts of interest, and an open door for private interests to intrude on the Task Force’ public planning: (page 5, emphasis mine)

DEP expects that Task Force members will seek to aid DEP in achieving balance among competing public needs and that Task Force members will not only base their advice to DEP on those public comments with which Task Force members individually agree, or upon positions with which they may agree by virtue of their other personal, professional, or political affiliations outside of the Task Force.

Political affiliations outside the Task Force? Say what?

DEP is affirmatively stating that it’s OK for private interests to form the basis of recommendations and that conflicts of interest are OK too.

Here’ the opportunity for Legislators and Trenton politics to over-ride DEP and public demands, regardless of the planning process recommendations (at page 5, emphasis mine):

Resulting recommendations from the planning process will be presented to Legislators and the NJ Commission on Capital Budgeting and Planning consistent with standard practice for potential capital investments by the State.

Regardless of what the DEP Task Force recommends, the law is flexible and Trenton politics will determine the outcome.

And that reality is the exact opposite of the impression created by DEP Commissioner LaTourette and media cheerleaders.

And the context for all this has been completely ignored: ie. Governor Murphy just signed into law a bill that created a Statewide Parks Foundation that institutionalizes the exact corrupt private interest and influence created by billionaire Paul Fireman to lobby for Liberty State Park development, see:

• NJ Gov. Murphy Just Corporatized State Parks And Forests – Liberty State Park Targeted By Lame Duck Stealth Amendments

[Update –  a reader just sent me this quote of the day (Politico), which confirms my analysis:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’m forgetting what that is.” — Gov. Phil Murphy on his radio program Tuesday night when asked why he doesn’t support the Liberty State Park Protection Act.

DEP Settles For Just $78,775 and 112 Acres Of Wetlands Restoration At Duke Farms’ Private Property

DEP Settlement Implements Mike Catania’s Corporate Green Ponzi Scheme

(Caption: This is Mike Catania’s  Model, taken from an annual Report by his organization, CRI)

Unlike the recent controversial sweetheart settlement with BASF for Natural Resource Damages (NRD) at the notorious Ciba-Geigy Superfund site in Toms River, in the DEP’s most recent corporate sweetheart deal with American Cyanamid at their Superfund Site along the Raritan River, there was no self congratulatory press release issued by DEP, and no environmental groups cheerleading to provide green cover.

Amazingly, DEP just proposed a draft NRD Settlement with American Cyanamid for ….. wait for it ….. $78,775 and 112 Acres Of Wetlands Restoration.

Read the DEP Public Notice and the DEP Proposed Draft Settlement Agreement and Appendices which identify the “restoration projects”.

The public comment period is open for 60 days after the December 18, 2023 NJ Register Notice. It is telling and outrageous that DEP issued this settlement not only quietly, but during the Holidays and over New Years.

Almost all of this “restoration” is located UPRIVER from the Cyanamid site (e.g. impossible to restore downriver damages) and it is being conducted on PRIVATE PROPERTY on billionaire Duke Farms Foundation land.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The American Cyanamid site is huge, 435 acres, heavily contaminated, and located on the flood prone banks of the Raritan River.

According to DEP:

The contamination at the Site was allegedly caused as a result of waste storage and disposal impoundments at the Site that contain or contained hazardous substances, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and/or metals. Investigations also found hazardous substances, including VOCs, SVOCs, polychlorinated biphenyls, and metals in soils at the Site, and that the groundwater underlying the Site contains metals and VOCs, such as benzene, chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. This contamination led the United States Environmental Protection Agency to add the American Cyanamid Site to the National Priorities List of Superfund Sites in 1983.

I have not read the NOAA NRD damage assessment documents yet, but there can be no doubt that there has been off site release and migration of toxic pollutants to the Raritan River that has resulted in the poisoning and lost use of wildlife (fish and birds), aquatic biota and ecosystems, groundwater, and river sediments (including perhaps drinking water supplies).

So how is it possible that DEP can settle for peanuts for decades of this massive toxic assault on the Raritan River?

Once again, there is no information at all provided by DEP in the public notice or the draft Settlement agreement.

There is no document published by DEP that provides a science based assessment of natural resource damages or the economic value of these damaged resources or the nexus between the NRD damages and the restoration plan or how the public will be compensated fully for those damages.

Adding insult to injury, the settlement is part of a longtime corporate scam by Mike Catania, formerly head of Duke Farms (see:

• Green Ponzi Scheme

This is another in an outrageous pattern of negligent enforcement of the DEP’s NRD powers as Trustee of the State’s natural resources.

This is exactly what one might expect from a former corporate lawyer who represented corporate polluters in successful legal challenges of DEP NRD claims and has refused to disclose that fact and recuse from DEP decision-making in NRD cases.

Forget it Jake, its Chinatown.

Spotlight Presents “Environmental Agenda” Against Backdrop Of Billionaire’s Golf Course At Liberty State Park

I choked on my beer as I watched this NJ Spotlight News coverage of a Trenton press conference by NJ League of Conservation Voters releasing their “environmental agenda”.

Look at the visual backdrop above – it’s a golf course! And not just any golf course: if I’m not mistaken it’s billionaire Paul Fireman’s Liberty National Golf Course.

Do the editors there have a very dark sense of humor?

Were they just poking fun at Ed Potosnak and the corrupt sell- out fraudsters at NJ League Of Conservation Voters? (a specific post is forthcoming on their compromised and corrupt “environmental agenda”).

Spotlight recently reported on the huge controversy surrounding billionaire Paul Fireman’s corrupt campaign to develop a golf course and commercial facilities at the iconic Liberty State Park, the crown jewel of NJ parks system.

So were they just mocking NJ LCV and Gov. Murphy and his DEP Commissioner?

I doubt that, because Spotlight and all NJ media have failed to report on the bill Gov. Murphy just signed into law – (P.L.2023, c.256) that actually institutionalizes EXACTLY the corrupt private Foundation model crafted by billionaire Fireman to develop Liberty State Park.

How can media possibly ignore Gov. Murphy’s remarkable hypocrisy? (or dishonesty).

Little Awareness Of The Looming Threats Of The Likely Confluence Of The US Supreme Court’s Rejection of the “Chevron” Doctrine And The Trump-Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025″

“the end of the environmental movement – and protection – as we have known it”

A Series Of Dispatches From The Regulatory Policy Weeds

Project Introduction:

For the past 15 years, we’ve focused here primarily on NJ State level environmental, land use, and energy/climate policy, with a critical focus on DEP, the Governor, the Legislature, media, and environmental groups.

We’ve brought an insider’s expert understanding to those issues, and have striven to puncture the spin and falsehoods the Trenton crowd and their media enablers and corporate donors traffic in.

I’ve also woven in photos, including posting many landscape shots from the last 7 year long epic western roadtrip.

I recently ended that awesome roadtrip and settled down in Philadelphia, a drastic change I’m still reeling from.

In my floundering and recalibration, I’ve been rethinking what I’m doing with my life, including the writing here at Wolfenotes.

I’ve been searching for a new project and thinking of shifting focus.

It’s pretty hard to justify my small bore focus at a time when the world is literally burning, ecosystems are collapsing, the Biden administration is pursuing a proxy war in Ukraine and supporting a genocide in Gaza, and Trump has captured the Republican Party and is likely to be re-elected in November.

A Trump re-election would consolidate power and institutionalize at the federal level what amounts to the current fascist cultural forces and political climate. (If you think that’s Joe Biden partisan Democratic Party spin or hyperbole, listen to this and visit the academically curated website: New Fascism Syllabus’ “Interrogating The Present”:

•  The Year Ahead and the New Fascism Syllabus

But not many people realize that behind Trump’s buffoonery and fascist rhetoric lies not only expanding movements by White Christian Nationalists and heavily armed militia’s, but competent law firms, think tanks, and corporate financial and political power and scientific, legal, and policy expertise.

The latter factions – not generally recognized as “Trumpers” or identified as part of the Trump electoral base – have put their cards on the table and outlined exactly what they would do with federal power in a Trump second term. They did this in a Report recently issued by The Heritage Foundation, the libertarian, right wing, corporate think tank.

A second Trump administration would not be a repeat of the bumbling, incoherent, and incompetent Trump first term.

The Heritage Foundation Report is aptly titled “Project 2025″ – it would be a demolition project, something I very broadly overviewed in this post:

• The Right Wing’s New Long Game Plan – “Project 2025″ – The Powell Memo 2.0

(more about that later)

At the same time that the Heritage Foundation has crafted the radical policy agenda for the next Trump administration, the US Supreme Court is laying the legal doctrine and foundation to enable this radical agenda to be realized.

The Supreme Court is poised to reverse a longstanding but little understood judicial doctrine known as “Chevron deference”, a doctrine that interprets and applies the Constitution’s fundamental structure and forms the backbone of administrative law and virtually all government regulation of corporate power and interventions in market decisions. (They already set the stage last year by striking down an EPA climate regulation in West Virginia v. EPA, which included a new radical “Major Questions” doctrine. More about all that later).

So, we have three massive and radical right wing projects simultaneously converging:

1) a Trump re-election, backed by billionaire and corporate money and his heavily armed and violence prone base;

2) a radical new doctrine of administrative law supported by a radical right wing corporate super majority on the US Supreme Court; and

3) a competently crafted radical corporate policy agenda which is explicitly designed to end civil service, install loyal political hacks in positions of power, politicize science, and dismantle the administrative state.

Bill Neil, my good friend, a true organic public intellectual and writer – I urge you to go and read his work over at Substack – suggested that the combination of these forces would result in “the end of the environmental movement – and protection – as we have known it” (I stole Bill’s title, with his OK).

More broadly, I’ve warned that it would result in the “dismantling of the administrative state”.

This convergence comes at a time when the climate catastrophe, accelerating and expanding ecological collapse, and rising inequality, homelessness, economic opportunity, and diminishing health and social welfare are creating a culture of despair that requires a massively reenergized government project, beyond even Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal.

So just at the time when the problems become insurmountable without a competent and robust government initiative, the political and legal reality are stripping government of the capacity to respond.

It will be the objective of this project to break all this down and to try to explain exactly what this means for daily life.

I’ll do that with a post every week or so that drills down on the details of both Chevron doctrine and Project 2025, and links them to changes in not only public policy and regulation, but impacts on daily life.

The implications of a Trump second term are terrifying and I see little public awareness, media coverage, climate and environmental group understanding and substantive engagement, or political appetite to respond to this slow motion train-wreck that is rapidly accelerating.

I see no one connecting these obvious dots.

We will work to try to change that.

[Update #1: 1/27/24 – Some progress here (Jeff St. Clair at CounterPunch)

+ The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” policy brief for the Department of the Interior calls for reinstating oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, expanding the Willow project from three to five drilling well pads, and opening up nearly all of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil/gas leasing and development.

[Update #2 – 1/29/24 – more progress, but does not included “Project 2025″ and legal analysis is limited to Chevron, not the “Major Questions” doctrine:

• Koch Industries and the Attack on Regulation

[Update #3 – 2/2/24 – Paul Street’s piece today at CounterPunch mentions Project 2025.