WolfeNotes.com

Former Gov. Christie’s BPU President Steps Down – Avoids Ethics Review

Resignation submitted just days after petition for removal

Just days after we filed a formal request with NJ Gov. Murphy’s Attorney General, the State Ethics Commission, and formal petition to BPU to remove BPU Commissioner Richard Mroz for gross conflicts of interest, NJ Spotlight reports today that Mroz submitted his resignation, see:

• MROZ TO STEP DOWN AT BPU, FREES MURPHY TO SLOT IN DEMOCRAT AT AGENCY

By resigning, Mroz avoids an embarrassing ethics review and potential removal.

[Note: Mroz previously dodged these issues when the Legislature turned a blind eye, see:  Legislators Asked To Probe BPU Sweetheart Deal For BL England Power Plant]

Mroz issued the standard resignation letter which not surprisingly makes no reference to the pending ethics review or the propriety of his role as a former fossil energy lobbyists and lawyer. According to NJ Spotlight, Mroz’s resignation letter stated:

Mroz cited his accomplishments in the letter. “We advanced emerging technologies, renewable energy and invested in energy efficiency,” he wrote. “And we made decisions balancing the interests of the companies we regulate, ensured reliable and resilient services, all while ensuring that customers pay reasonable rates.”

President Trump’s economic advisor Gary Cohen resigned with a similar familiar cover story, just days after he lost a tariff fight and Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

So, we understand why Mroz dodged the ethics challenge and issued the standard “nothing to see here” cover story.

But we can not understand why NJ Spotlight bought Mroz’s spin and even provided a sham cover story excuse – suggesting that the Mroz resignation came in the context of:

Ironically, his resignation has been made public at a time of heightened criticism of the utilities’ responses to the latest storm, a nor’easter.

NJ Spotlight reporter Tom Johnson surely knows that is bullshit and had nothing to do with Mroz’s reason for resigning.

Given that I’m a critic of Spotlight – specifically on the issue of Mroz – of course, Spotlight ignored our ethics petition and never reported on Mroz’s gross conflicts, which we first raised publicly long ago, way back in September 2015,  see:

• Sham Energy Markets Governed By Energy Industry Lobbyists

Our ethics review petition and removal request came just days after we criticized NJ Gov. Murphy for a lack of resolve, failure to appoint his own people, and exercise leadership to rein in Mroz’s partisan attacks, see:

• It’s March 1st – Do You Know Where Gov. Murphy’s Environmental Team Is?

We’ll take credit for this one, despite being ignored once again by NJ media.

But our readers know that they frequently get the right story and often way before mainstream NJ media and NJ Spotlight gets around to it.

We take no prisoners and don’t negotiate with climate terrorists!

[End Note: couldn’t resist posting this apt classic comment from a friend and reader:

Reminds me of wizard of Oz with the vaporization of the wicked witch  when Dorothy threw water on her.

DEP Assistant Commissioner Who Cut Deal Went To Work For Trump Campaign

Trump Blames “Partner” NJ Audubon for Violations

[Update below]

In a superb investigative piece – that I helped with but had little influence on – today Propublica reports on exactly how corrupt politics, lax regulation, gross revolving door abuses, and an AWOL press corps combine to undermine regulatory enforcement of environmental laws, read the whole thing:

• The Six Stages of Trump’s Resistance

Unfortunately, while these are difficult and complex issues to report on, the narrative focus on Trump and detailed reporting leaves out crucial environmental, natural resource, and policy context – while glossing over current controversies regarding DEP’s “Forest “Stewardship” and actively distorting the enforceability of DEP’s program- and it downplays or misses some critical implications of the facts the story documents.

First of all, while it is well known, the story fails to even mention NJ Governor Chris Christie. Christie was a close Trump advisor during the DEP enforcement sellout, and later head of Trump’s Transition Team.

Second, not only is the Trump – Christie relationship ignored, so are Gov. Christie’s “regulatory relief”, “red tape” and “voluntary compliance” enforcement policies, as well as Christie DEP Commissioner Bob Martin’s “culture change” anti-regulatory agenda.

These Christie – Martin policies are what explain exactly how and why Trump succeeded in frustrating DEP enforcement and got a sweetheart deal.

Third, Propublica reports the facts, but missed (or got  spun) on the implications of DEP Commissioner Martin’s personal involvement.

Clearly unhappy about the situation, Trump got personally involved. In October 2012, he called DEP Commissioner Robert Martin to discuss the matter. What Trump said is unknown, but a letter that Martin sent him afterwards alluded to the discussion: “The location of this golf course with respect to the availability of water supply is very challenging,” Martin wrote Trump. The commissioner urged him to fulfill the conditions spelled out in the water permit. “That may be the best way for you to manage through the costs of this project,” Martin wrote.

Having seemingly not gotten what he wanted, Trump chose to ignore the restrictions. For five consecutive years starting in 2011, Trump National Colts Neck blew past its annual water limits. “Once he was caught going over, it’s not like he stopped and waited until he got more allocation,” said Timothy Anfuso, township planner for Colts Neck. “He kept using the water the whole time.”

Martin’s personal involvement in a routine wetlands violation is extremely unusual, highly improper, and devastating evidence that politics drove DEP’s lax enforcement response (as badly, or worse than the egregious revolving door abuse Propublica documents).

Fourth, Propublica downplays and buries the lead on an extraordinarily egregious example of revolving door abuse.

The DEP Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement that handled the case went to work for the Trump campaign!

On April 9, Russo, Trump’s environmental consultant, met with John Giordano, the agency’s assistant commissioner for compliance and enforcement, who had overseen both matters since his appointment two years earlier.

The logjam finally came unstuck. Russo promised to take steps to “alleviate” the agency’s “compliance concerns” at both Trump National properties, according to a “Dear Ed” letter summarizing the meeting that Giordano sent afterwards. “The Department appreciates your willingness to voluntarily undertake these actions thereby making an adversarial relationship unnecessary,” Giordano wrote. “I look forward to continuing this cooperative relationship as the most efficient and effective means to address the Department’s concerns.” …

A few months later, in August 2016, Giordano left DEP to join the Trump campaign. He then became deputy general counsel to the presidential transition committee and later joined an administration “landing team” at the U.S. Energy Department. Giordano then went to work at a Philadelphia law firm and was subsequently considered for appointment as a U.S. attorney for the region, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Revolving door abuse doesn’t get any worse than that – and Giordano served under the Christie- Martin “regulatory relief” and “culture change” regime.

Fifth, the story fails to mention the highly sensitive environmental context.  The Bedminster wetlands and stream encroachment violations occurred in the environmentally sensitive Highlands Region. The Colts Neck water allocation violations occurred in a region with serious groundwater deficits in Monmouth County. Both these sensitivities raise the significance of Trump’s various violations of environmental regulations that protect wetlands, stream buffers and groundwater supplies and justify stiffer fines and more aggressive enforcement response by DEP.

Sixth, the Propublica reporter relied on former high level DEP sources (ironically, I recommended them). That could be what explains what amounts to uncritical acceptance of DEP claims – here’s just one of several:

The Trump Organization received annual notices of its violations, warning of “substantial monetary penalties” — up to $50,000 per day per offense. In theory, that meant the organization could’ve been fined millions (though “cooperative” violators would unlikely face fines of that magnitude, according to the DEP, since the agency’s goal is to bring violators back into compliance and restore any damage).

Seventh, the story ignores the green cover provided by the NJ Audubon – Trump partnership.

How is it possible – at a time when we were exposing the corrupt nature of that partnership (we broke the story in March 2016) and demanding that NJ Audubon repudiate it – that NJ media, the Clinton Democrats, NJ environmental groups, and the national political media either knew nothing about all this or said nothing publicly about it? How could no-one in DEP leak this story?

Consider that at the same time NJ Audubon was “partnering” with Donald Trump, they were involved in a DEP enforcement case for cutting down trees and destroying wetlands under a sham forest management plan. At the time, Trump was running for President. Textbook GREEN COVER

Now let’s highlight the good stuff.

1. As I’ve written many times and many subjects, the NJ press corps again was AWOL:

Both disputes were resolved during his presidential campaign and went unnoticed in the press.

2. Propublica cites my friend, recently deceased investigative reporter Wayne Barrett:

Trump deployed those tactics again and again in his titanic real estate battles in New York, and his mega-dollar fights over casinos in New Jersey, according to Wayne Barrett’s biography, “Trump: The Deals and the Downfall.”

3. Enforcement of environmental laws by DEP was weak – particularly during the Christie Administration:

In the end, Trump paid just a fraction of the penalties that state law allows [$147,000].

4. DEP regulators are frequently “captured” by regulated corporations, often with the intent of seeking high paid jobs in exchange for lax oversight and sweetheart deal:

… the key regulator, who helped negotiate the generous terms, signed on to a job in the Trump campaign.

5. DEP enforcement policy provides incentives to violate NJ’s environmental regulations and invites abuses. The so called “self disclosure immunity” policy was never intended to be used in cases of significant environmental damage of highly sensitive natural resources, as was the case here:

On May 29, 2009, Edward Russo, then Trump’s environmental consultant, “self-reported” damage to 4.34 acres of wetlands, open waters and wetland transition areas. In doing so, the Trump Organization was seeking forgiveness under a DEP policy that allows as much as a 100 percent reduction in fines for offenders who voluntarily disclose violations “in a timely manner” and correct them promptly.

6. It pays to lie and DEP fails to increase enforcement sanctions for lying to DEP regulators:

It didn’t help that Trump’s representatives sometimes dissembled. In August 2009, for example, a state inspector discovered that trees had “suspiciously” been removed from protected wooded wetland corridors near eight Bedminster golf holes — coincidentally, just where it would be necessary to allow golfers to play through.

7 Even DEP’s own scientist admit that wetlands mitigation and restoration don’t work!. For many years, DEP has failed to strengthen DEP wetlands regulations and enforcement policies to reflect this scientific fact.

8. We’ve repeatedly urged NJ Audubon too abandon their partnership with Trump and that so called DEP approved NJ Audubon “mitigation” and “restoration”, “Forest Stewardship” and creation of certain bird habitat is a sham.

Here’s another reason to do so – Trump blamed them for the violations:

Time kept slipping away and by 2013, Trump’s consultants made a new attempt to avoid responsibility, this time by shifting blame. They fingered two improbable culprits, according to a chronology later prepared by the state: the New Jersey Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Trump’s team insisted, in a May 2013 meeting, that considerable environmental damage had occurred at the direction of those institutions, which were collaborating with Trump to create grassland bird habitat on the property.

Remarkably, NJ Audubon refused to comment on the record for this story.

I told the Propublica reporter that John Parke, who was NJ Audubon’s staffer involved in the project that DEP found violations, is a forester by training who is not sensitive to environmental regulatory compliance and had abused DEP regulations in several controversial NJ Audubon logging projects.

Will NJ Audubon CEO Eric Stiles sit back and let a national story suggest that hi partnership with Trump contributed to environmental abuses and Trump blamed his organization for act?

[Update – here is the comment I posted in the story:

Good reporting, but the NJ specific political context and policy aspects are weak.

Readers should know that NJ Audubon formally partnered with Trump at the Bedminster Golf course, that this course is located in the water supply watershed and highly protected NJ Highlands region, this warrants far more aggressive DEP enforcement, and that Gov. Christie’s personal relationship with Trump and his anti-regulatory policies and his unqualified corporate consultant installed DEP Commissioner Bob Martin are what led to this kind of corrupt deal.

Additionally, the reporting misrepresent DEP enforcement policies (e.g. self disclosure immunity) and the severe problems with loopholes in DEP wetlands and stream buffer regulations awithbrespect to DEP approved “Forest Management Plans”. Those issues are controversial right now in NJ Audubon sponsored logging plans for forests in the Nj Highlands region (google “Sparta mountain wildlife among,metn area”).

I explained this all to the reporter, but none of it was included in the story.

Find the backstory and policy issues at my website wolfenotes.com

Former Fossil Industry Lobbyists Is Sabotaging Murphy Renewable Energy Goals

Role As Fossil Energy Lobbyists Creates Gross Conflicts of Interest

Today we filed a petition with NJ Gov. Murphy’s Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal to remove BPU Commissioner Richard Mroz for gross conflicts of interest and a continuing pattern of conduct that evidences political partisanship and a lack of required objectivity, impartiality, and independence.

The petition also was filed with the State Ethics Commission pursuant to 52:13D-12 et seq, which provides these Legislative findings

The Legislature finds and declares:

(a) In our representative form of government, it is essential that the conduct of public officials and employees shall hold the respect and confidence of the people. Public officials must, therefore, avoid conduct which is in violation of their public trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that such trust is being violated.

The petition was also filed with BPU President Fiordaliso:

The Board is considered a quasi-judicial body, meaning that it functions similar to a court or judge. Anyone may file a petition (or a request for action) asking the Board to consider a matter within its jurisdiction

Commissioner Mroz has both the appearance of and actual conflicts of interest (i.e. meets the ethics standard of “a justifiable impression among the public”), is biased in favor of fossil energy and against renewable energy, fails to recognize the science of and act upon climate change, and lacks independent judgment and impartiality required to fulfill his quasi-judicial role as a BPU Commissioner in accordance with NJ law, including the Administrative Procedure Act, State Ethics Act, and BPU’s enabling authority.

BPU Commissioners must have no relationship to regulated entities:

48:2-8. Connection with public utilities or governmental office prohibited

No member or employee of the board shall have any official or professional relation or connection with, or hold any stock or securities in, any public utility as herein defined, operating within this State, or hold any other office of profit or trust under the government of this State or of the United States.

The NJ Supreme Court has highlighted the importance of impartiality and objectivity in quasi-judicial regulatory deliberations:

The primary reason for establishing the Office of Administrative Law was “to bring impartiality and objectivity to agency hearings and ultimately to achieve higher levels of fairness in administrative adjudications.” Horn, 85 N.J. at 650, quoted in N.J. Civil Service, 88 N.J. at 609. Through the OAL, the Legislature intended to provide “a new system of administrative adjudication, promoting justice through uniformity and independence.”

We argue that Mroz has engaged in a pattern of conduct that fails to comply with his legal obligations in a manner that evidences bias and lack of impartiality and objectivity. Based on recent public statements regarding development of offshore wind (see NJ Spotlight, 3/1/18), Mroz persists in a biased and partisan fashion.

Mroz can not remedy his bias and conflicts via case-by-case recusals and therefore must be removed.

Commissioner Mroz served as former Gov. Christie’s BPU President and aggressively pushed a series of controversial fossil fueled pipelines and gas power plants through the BPU approval process.

He presided over BPU approvals that provided special favors to politically connected fossil fuel projects represented by the notorious criminal law firm Wolff & Samson, including subsidies, exemptions from various special charges, and secret “confidentiality agreements”, all contrary to the public interest and benefiting his former industry colleagues he represented as a lobbyist.

Mroz was a loyal Christie Lieutenant, who justified these fossil approvals as part of Gov. Christie’s Energy Master Plan, while virtually ignoring climate change and the greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals established by the NJ Legislature in the Global Warming Response Act and more specifically by NJSA 48:3-87 Environmental disclosure requirements; standards; rules.

(2)By July 1, 2009, the board shall adopt, pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), a greenhouse gas emissions portfolio standard to mitigate leakage or another regulatory mechanism to mitigate leakage applicable to all electric power suppliers and basic generation service providers that provide electricity to customers within the State.

Mroz also failed to implement the mandatory requirements of the Off Shore Wind Act, PL 2010, c.57:

Mroz also destabilized the solar industry during his BPU leadership.

Mroz is former gas industry lobbyist. He has a gross conflict of interest and has abused ethical norms by failing to disclose his conflicts and recuse himself from BPU decisions that benefit his former legal and lobby clients and members and associates at NJ Energy Coalition.

Specifically, Mr. Mroz was a founder, lobbyist, and senior advisor to the NJ Energy Coalition. 

Here is how Ed Salmon, the current Chairman NJ Energy Coalition describes the founding in testimony to the NJ Senate:

In August 2007, my partner Richard Mroz and I launched a new statewide organization – The New Jersey Energy Coalition. The Coalition’s focus is to provide a reliable third-party voice in the discussion on New Jersey’s energy needs. The Coalition was very involved in the New Jersey Energy Master Plan and has provided discussion and educational initiatives on energy conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, generation needs, and transmission challenges, to name a few.

Here is the 2007 launch press coverage – note that specific existing corporate energy facilities are mentioned, so the Coalition was far more than some generic “reliable third party voice”. They represented specific corporate interests and continue to do so. The Link to then existing NJEC is dead

Here are just some of the members of the NJ Energy Coalition, which include the law firm that represented South Jersey Gas and corporate interests in the Pinelands pipeline and BL England battles, including pipeline and natural gas companies that regularly appear before BPU and economically benefit from BPU approvals:

Cozen O’Connor: Cozen O’Connor is one of the top law firms in the country, employing over 600 attorneys in cities spanning two continents. This international firm has practices in litigation, business law and government relations.

New Jersey Natural Gas: New Jersey Natural Gas is a New Jersey Resources company dedicated to providing safe, reliable, and competitively priced natural gas services including transportation, distribution, and asset management.

NJ Petroleum Council: The New Jersey Petroleum Council is a state council of the American Petroleum Institute, that helps companies follow the status of regulatory and legislative issues impacting the oil and natural gas industries.

Orange & Rockland: Orange and Rockland is a gas utility headquartered in New York, and with its two subsidiaries serves over 750,000 people in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

PennEast Pipeline Company: PennEast Pipeline Company is made up of six companies; AGL Resources, NJR Pipeline Company, PSE&G Power, South Jersey Industries, Spectra Energy, and UGL Industries. The company has plans to create the PennEast Pipeline that will provide customers with savings due to the reduced price of the transportation and the cost of natural gas.

Public Service Enterprise Group: Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company headquartered in New Jersey, and one of the ten largest electric companies in the U.S. PSEG’s principal subsidiaries are: Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), PSEG Power and PSEG Energy Holdings.

RC Cape May Holdings: RC Cape May Holdings is an entity formed by Rockland Capital, Energy Investors Funds and other investors in order to acquire the BL England Power Station.

South Jersey Gas: South Jersey Gas serves customers in 112 municipalities spanning over 2,500 square miles, or one-third of the geographic area of New Jersey. This service area includes all of Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties and parts of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties. The majority of new home construction on their mains choose to heat with natural gas.

Here is Mr. Mroz’s BPU bio: note boldface:

Before becoming President of the NJBPU he worked in private practice as a lawyer and lobbyist as Managing Director of Archer Public Affairs in Trenton, New Jersey and Of Counsel to Archer & Greiner P.C., in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Here is how Archer Public Affairs describes their work (emphasis mine):

 HELPED ENERGY CO. SUCCESSFULLY RESPOND TO CRUDE OIL SPILL CRISIS

• Represented energy company regarding multi-million gallon crude oil spill at a refinery, a high-profile event because fumes reached neighborhoods for miles around.
• Served as liaison between the company and state government regulators.
• Conducted numerous conversations, conferences and correspondence with ground-level regulatory staff and high-level elected and appointed officials, keeping them apprised of issues and progress, and relaying information to the client as needed.
• Cleanup and state inspection went smoothly; government officials appreciated easy access to updates and information.
• Importantly, about a month before the spill, the firm had arranged a meet-and-greet with state officials, a recent contact that helped immeasurably during the emergent situation.

Here is “Sourcewatch” database on the NJ Energy Coalition which cites the group’s website:

Leadership

From the group’s website: [16]

• Dr. Edward H. Salmon, chairman – He also founded Salmon Ventures, “a strategic consulting firm based in New Jersey.”
• Richard S. Mroz, senior advisor – He “served as Chief Counsel to Governor Christie Todd-Whitman and was responsible for legislative affairs, negotiating the state budget, and advising the Governor and legal and policy matters. He also served as the Governor’s counsel and liaison for the state’s largest independent authorities including the Turnpike Authority, Water Supply Authority and New Jersey and the Environmental Infrastructure Trust.”

We urge our former colleagues in the NJ public interest community to join in our petition or file their own.

Christie Holdovers Now Openly Sandbagging Murphy’s Policy Commitments

No appointments in place at DEP, Highlands and Pinelands

Senator Sweeney’s Mole as Chief of Staff at DEP

What the hell is going on?

One way President Trump is radically dismantling government is by failure to make appointments to fill vacancies at key federal agencies: see NPR, “Hollow government by design” (a variant of Grover Norquist’s strategy of drowning government in the bathtub) and by appointing incompetent, unqualified, ideological hacks, and/or industry lobbyists to key policy positions (think EPA’s Scott Pruitt).

[Update 3/7/18 – Echoing the point I made above, today Propublica released this bombshell on Trump appointments, see:  Meet the Hundreds of Officials Trump Has Quietly Installed Across the Government , Fine minds do think alike, but some get ignored. ~~~ end update]

Something similar but not quite as extreme is happening in NJ due to inaction by Gov. Murphy.

He seems unwilling or incapable of getting his own people (or good people) in office and purging Gov. Christie’s holdovers who are sabotaging his agenda.

NJ Spotlight reports today that Gov. Christie’s BPU President and former fossil energy industry lobbyist Richard Mroz and patronage BPU appointment Dianne Solomon are openly sabotaging Gov. Murphy’s renewable energy commitments on wind.

[Clarification: a reader notes that BPU Commissioners enjoy 6 years terms and Mroz and Solomon have at least a year to go – thus Murphy can’t replace them. But that doesn’t absolve Murphy for DEP or Highlands or Pinelands inaction, or agreeing to Sweeney’s aid as DEP Chief of Staff, or not moderating Mroz & Solomon’s overtly partisan attacks. All are signs of weakness or lack of resolve. In contrast, I never recall Democratic appointee go along to get along Joe Fiordaliso attacking Gov. Christie policies. Or Democrat Commissioner Chivukula. Dems roll over again and again.]

Mroz threw an economic monkey-wrench into Murphy’s wind policy – the same rationale he used to kill  wind for 8 years. Spotlight reported:

BPU Commissioner Richard Mroz cautioned about those costs.

“As of this day, we have no foundation to know what offshore wind will cost,” said Mroz, who during a stint as agency president under Christie took no action to push the technology forward, nor the regulations to finance the offshore wind farms. “In the future, we will confront very tough decisions to make.”

Republican Solomon – wife of Lee Solomon, Gov. Christie’s climate denying first BPU President  and NJ Supreme Court pick– piled on: (Spotlight)

Fellow BPU Commissioner Diane Solomon agreed. Referring to offshore wind, Solomon, a fellow Republican, said: “It must be economically competitive and benefit ratepayers. It’s prudent to move ahead cautiously.”

And we predicted that Gov. Murphy’s BPU President, go along to get along “Pipeline Joe” Fiordaliso, would not be a leader at BPU. Latest evidence: check out this equivocation that inspires zero confidence in BPU’s ability to deliver on Gov. Murphy’s commitments:(Spotlight)

I believe we have a moral obligation to mitigate the effects of climate, change,” Fiordaliso said. “Will we be successful? I don’t know, but we won’t be if we don’t try.”

No timeframe

But Fiordaliso declined to project a timeframe for how long it would take to develop the regulations, nor the strategic plan for offshore wind.

What the hell is going on?

That open sandbagging and flaccid “leadership” prompted me to followup on a prior post about Senator Sweeney’s block on confirmation of Murphy’s DEP Commissioner, and McCabe’s own first mis-step in selection of her Deputy Commissioner .

The current reality is actually worse than I imagined.

I)  Let’s first look at DEP

Aside from Deputy Commissioner mis-step, Acting Commissioner McCabe’s only other personnel decision was installing Eric Wachter as Chief of Staff Government/Legislative Affairs. That’s actually worse than Debbie Mans.

Mr. Wachter is a policy lightweight – he has zero environmental science, law, or policy background or advocacy experience.

He was an administrative gopher and loyal paper pusher for Lisa Jackson at DEP and US EPA.

Worse, Wachter is a Sweeney mole. As Insider NJ reported on August 29, 2017:

Senator Sweeney also announced the hiring of Eric Wachter as a Deputy Executive Director in the Senate Majority Office.

“Eric brings experience at both the state and federal levels to the position and has the knowledge and background to hit the ground running. I know he will make a great addition to the Senate Majority Office staff and am pleased to have him join our team,” said Senator Sweeney.

…  Wachter earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from the University of Notre Dame.

In addition to two bad personnel decisions, Acting Commissioner McCabe has not named her own management team.

There also are several Christie Administration “regulatory relief” policy Offices and political patronage appointees of “culture change” Bob Martin that remain at McCabe’s DEP, including: (these are just a few of the political appointees. And Bob Martin’s entire DEP management team and many lower level loyalists are still in place):

1) Bob Bostock – a former Christie Whitman hack and still head of Murphy DEP Commissioner’s Communications Office.

2)  Lawrence Hajna – still spinning the science and downplaying risks at Murphy DEP Press Office

3) Raymond S. Papperman – Martin patronage appointment and still working in McCabe’s Commissioner’s Office.

4) Bob Martin’s Office of Economic Analysis, headed by Director Ben Witherell, still advocating Martin’s policy that DEP’s mission includes promotion of economic development and Christie’s cost benefit analysis policy under EO#2.

There have been no public statements or mention of any DEP reform priorities or new policy initiatives.

II)  Let’s Look At Executive Orders

Worse, while Gov. Murphy has found the time to issue a series of hollow symbolic Executive Orders on promoting wind (just sandbagged by his BPU!), rejoining a lame RGGI – with a rhetorical EJ policy too – and another that establishes a Council on Economic Advisors that elevates the role of economics and undermines DEP’s role in climate, energy and water resource infrastructure policy, there are several really bad Executive Orders by Governor Christie that remain in place, including Executive Order #2 (“regulatory relief”; cost benefit analysis, and federal consistency policies) and Executive Order #3 (slash “job killing red tape”).

III)  Don’t Forget Appointment Powers – MIA at the Highlands and Pinelands

Finally, there has been no action by Gov. Murphy to deal with Gov. Christie’s horrible appointments at the Highlands Council and Pinelands Commission, including removal and replacement of Executive Directors Wittenberg and Nordstrom.

Like I said: What the hell is going on?

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.