WolfeNotes.com

Delaware River “Activists” and NJ Spotlight Mislead Readers On Risks Of Eating Fish

While Stunt Celebrates Self Serving Federal Funding, It Ignores Regulatory Reality

This is all part of a broad toxification of the environmental movement, which has taken a regressive turn toward collaboration with big business, wealthy donors and corporate-backed foundations. Green groups that embrace market-based initiatives, rather than stand up for sensible regulation and strict enforcement of environmental laws, are the ones that get lavish funding. ~~~ Christopher Ketcham, The Daily Beast

[Update below]

It’s hard to know where to begin to respond to today’s NJ Spotlight story on the Delaware River “Floatopia” event, see:

• Costumed advocates float the argument for more river cleanup

But let me begin by making it absolutely clear that I support political stunts. They can be great tactics to draw attention to problems and solutions, organize and expand the number of activists, and hold polluters and government regulators accountable.

But to be effective in making positive change, they need to focus on and leverage policy reality by targeting the sources of power and decision-making and making specific demands. They must avoid being an outlet for individual self expression, mis-focused attention, diversion that provides political cover, and grifting.

Unfortunately, the Delaware River “Floatopia” falls into the later category.

1. Here’s the misinformation:

Worse, it irresponsibly even generated misinformation about the safety of eating fish from the river:

Lion James, a fisherman and supporter of river-advocacy groups including Upstream Alliance, said he regularly eats catfish he catches in the river, and wants to spread the word that the river is a lot cleaner than it once was.

“It’s definitely clearer, there’s way less debris than I’ve seen in this water in the past,” said James, while fishing from his kayak away from the main Floatopia raft. “It doesn’t smell, and there’s less trash in the park. As an outdoorsman and a water sports enthusiast, you notice when a waterway is cleaner than it was before. You can always use this water as a metaphor for your backyard, so treat it like you would your own property.”

Still, he limits his consumption of freshwater fish because of lingering concerns about mercury. “This water has been cleaned up quite a bit so that eating the fish out of here, in moderation, it’s fine,” he said.

No, it is definitely not “fine” to “eat fish in moderation”. (see table above)

And the chemicals of concern and risks are not limited to “mercury”. (see below)

Not mentioned in the Spotlight story, here are the most recent (2021) NJ DEP fish consumption advisories (the table above for the lower Delaware is found on page 17):

2. Here’s the political cover:

Baugh said some of the federal money that’s newly available for improvements in infrastructure and pandemic relief should be used to fix or replace the combined sewer overflows, which continue to overflow into waterways and even streets in communities including Camden and Philadelphia. (NJ Spotlight)

Yes, CSO’s are a major problem. But, in addition to “federal money”, there is federal EPA and State DEP regulatory power that goes unmentioned.

So, what are DEP regulators doing about that with their regulatory powers? They are weakening clean water standards and issuing toothless CSO permits!

It is revealing that there is no Foundation or government funded events and activism on those issues. That fact tells you all you really need to know.

• When Elite Foundations Hijack The Agenda, There Are Consequences

Mr. Baugh is well meaning (although it appears he runs an organization that relies on Baugh family nepotism), but he doesn’t seem to know anything about regulations, like the toothless DEP CSO permits and a recent DEP “variance” proposal that would create a new giant loophole in clean water standards that apply to the Delaware River, thus letting polluters off the hook.

All these Foundation and government funded astro-turfed stunts and events and campaigns and even organizations are actually serving the interests of corporate polluters and providing cover and protecting political officials and regulators.

3. And here’s the grift:

“For the last 12 months there has been a flood of federal dollars flowing to the states that we think should be available to help solve some of these problems,” said Don Baugh, president of Upstream Alliance, a nonprofit that organizes the event. “There’s never been more federal monies available; we’ve never had an opportunity like this before.”

The “partners” for this project are beneficiaries of huge federal funds and Foundation grants –

Wm. Penn Foundation alone has invested $100 million in the Delaware River watershed.

They promote non-regulatory, voluntary, local, and market based initiatives: (Delaware River watershed)

The DRWI was designed and launched in the absence of any state or federally mandated watershed-wide requirement for restoration or protection of water quality. It is an NGO-led watershed protection program driven by the cumulative effort, strategic thinking, and vision of over 50 organizations…

And they openly acknowledge the top down Foundation money driven astro-turf nature of that initiative and its limited focus to non-point pollution (intentionally letting regulators and major corporate “point source” polluters off the hook) Delaware River watershed:

While the DRWI was conceived and designed in partnership with others as a William Penn Foundation grantmaking strategy, our hope is that, through the process of building and refining the Initiative with the input of dozens of participants and stakeholders, there is a framework of relationships and practice that will endure beyond our grantmaking that can methodically address nonpoint source pollution over time.

These groups lobby for federal funding for themselves:

36 Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund awards totaling $14 million, which includes $4.9 million in funds made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Of the 36 new or continuing conservation and restoration projects, thirteen will be completed by nine members of Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed.

All these groups focus on is the money.

And the Mayor of Camden agrees: (NJ Spotlight)

“It’s important for our community to understand what a great resource this is,” said Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, in a shoreline interview. “Not a lot of folks know that you can swim here at certain times of the year. One of my jobs is to get more funding for cleaning up our waterways so that all the time, the river can be a resource for our community.”

I want to make it clear that there’s no problem in seeking funding for cleaning up waterways – take a look at the correct way to do so, by integrating infrastructure funding with the regulatory implementation of the Clean Water Act.

But when those efforts are done in a way that intentionally ignores major problems; ignores regulatory solutions; diverts public, activist, and media attention; misinforms the public; and funds ineffective voluntary solutions and non-profit grifters; then there is.

End Notes:

1. I don’t know if Dupont still funds organizations not to work on issues involving the toxic messes they’ve created: see the Orwellian named “Clear Into The Future”

The world’s largest toxic corporate polluter, Dupont, also funds a Delaware Estuary program – with the Orwellian title “Clear Into The Future” – and a group mentioned in the NJ Spotlightcoverage.  Of course, Dupont does not fund science and regulation to hold them accountable for the toxic pollution of the river and bay.

2. These groups don’t do real local organizing and regulatory work, but they like to play the EJ card, see:

• The Open Space Equity Problems Are Deeper Than I Initially Imagined

3. Here’s another example of where elite Foundation funding, corporate interests, and “green” groups form a coalition that effectively promotes privatization and subsidies, while ignoring regulation and marginalizing critics and activists:

• Foundation Elites and Private Water Companies Hijack Lead In Drinking Water Issue

[Update: 9/2/22 – A fine and relevant excerpt from Jeffrey St. Clair’s column today:

a march or a demonstration of popular feeling amounts to “little more than an orgy of democratic emotion, an activist-themed street fair, a real-world analogue to Twitter hashtag campaigns: something that gives you a nice feeling, says you belong in a certain group, and is completely divorced from actual legislation and governance.” In other words, the public sphere, where politics is performed, has been largely emptied of content in terms of the exercise of power: as with fiction, it has become a forum for secular testimony, a baring-of-the-soul in the world-as-church. Politics as thus practiced is primarily an exercise in personal expressiveness.” (Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable)

NJ Audubon’s Collusion With Wall Street Billionaire Peter Kellogg Exposed

Creating “Young Forests” For Wildlife A “Bogus Argument”

[Update below]

Writer Christopher Ketcham, has a killer piece running today in The Daily Beast, see:

• Forests Are Being Destroyed and ‘Nature Lovers’ Are Helping

Ketcham grounds his story in an incredible historical irony, tracing the roots back to the ideas of Benton MacKaye:

In July 1921, Benton MacKaye, founder of regional planning and the visionary behind the Appalachian Trail, held a historic meeting with fellow preservationists in the remote New Jersey lodge that was to become Hudson Farm.

Dedicated to the protection of the nation’s last wild places, they were channeling the inchoate spirit of the coming age with a grand vision for the public domain that would advance the public interest and the democratic ideal on vast landscapes. …

The property on which this fateful meeting was held is now owned by the Wall Street billionaire Peter Kellogg. It’s a fitting fate for the old lodge where the AT was born, as MacKaye’s vision of preservation is increasingly captured, co-opted, and perverted by private corporate interests.

Lamenting the corruption of Mackaye’s vision, Ketcham pulls no punches and names names, in an awesome takedown of the corrupt model of “active forest management” – known as “Young Forests” – being deployed in NJ.

Ketcham cuts to the chase, and gets the story exactly right:

John Terborgh, one of the world’s premier conservation biologists, observes that there’s “no conservation reason for creating more early successional habitat.” Cutting trees to expand such habitat, he told me, “is a bogus argument, ginned up as an excuse for more logging. But the argument could work with a gullible public.”

In other words, logging-for-wildlife is based on junk science.

And yet, the bogus justifications are working to maximum effect at Sparta Mountain, home to 130 threatened, endangered and “special concern” species. Aided and abetted by state and federal agencies, loggers in this 3,500-acre parcel have been brandishing their chainsaws in an area specifically preserved at taxpayer expense for the benefit of wildlife.

And he also exposes the corruption that is driving this “bogus argument”:

NJ Audubon, along with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), various state hunting associations, and wealthy local sport-hunting boosters (including Kellogg), cooperated with logging interests under the cover of an insidious new model of management that emphasizes the chainsawing of healthy mature forests for the sake of creating an artificial young forest habitat. …

In recent years, NJ Audubon has enjoyed infusions of young forest funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture amounting to as much as $648,000….

New Jersey Audubon also received $330,000 from Kellogg, the Wall Street billionaire. Kellogg and his ilk have been frank as to what is wanted from this investment in conservation: decimate the public forests so that entitled elites can have an easier time killing animals for sport.

This “bogus argument” is particularly insidious, given the climate emergency:

And, as it does everywhere, logging at Sparta releases vast amounts of carbon stored in unfragmented forests, carbon that will not be re-absorbed for a century or more.

Finally, Ketcham humiliates recently departed former NJ Audubon CEO Eric Stiles, who institutionalized this corrupt practice at NJ Audubon:

Intriguingly, two decades ago, NJ Audubon offered a radically different perspective on protection of the state’s forested preserves.

“One of the most devastating causes of ecological degradation is fragmentation resulting from new developments and roads,” wrote NJ Audubon’s then-director Eric Stiles in a 2002 white paper. “Fragmented forest and wetland habitats have more predation, more parasitism, and less vertebrate diversity than intact habitats.”

What accounts for the astonishing about-face, such that today the group celebrates logging, roading, and forest fragmentation under the aegis of young forest chainsaw management?

Solaun says the reason is the usual one: money.

In conclusion, Ketcham notes that the corruption is not limited to NJ or forest management, but is national in scope and drives the entire environmental and climate movements:

This is all part of a broad toxification of the environmental movement, which has taken a regressive turn toward collaboration with big business, wealthy donors and corporate-backed foundations. Green groups that embrace market-based initiatives, rather than stand up for sensible regulation and strict enforcement of environmental laws, are the ones that get lavish funding.

Regular readers here and a small band of north Jersey Highlands forest advocates know this story very well, as I’ve been writing about it for over a decade and they have been in the trenches battling to preserve what’s left of NJ’s Highlands forests and landscapes.

I worked with Ketcham on this story, and was pleased that he reciprocated with a quote (and a link!):

According to Bill Wolfe, a former planner with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, logging-for-wildlife in the Sparta area has fragmented the forest with roads, disturbed soils and vegetation, reduced canopy cover, introduced invasive species, and has been “targeted not at scores of rare and threatened interior bird species, but a single species, the Golden Winged Warbler, that requires scrub/shrub habitat.”

But national exposure provided by The Daily Beast should generate strong pushback and help activists resist the ongoing corruption being legitimized by Senator Smith’s Forestry Task Force, where NJ Audubon is one of 4 Co-Chairs.

I’ll send it to Senator Smith and the Task Force now!

[End Note:  I would add three important points Ketcham left out:

1. The forests are protected by the NJ Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, the Highlands Regional Master Plan, and the NJ DEP Highlands regulations.

The Highlands (over 800,000 acres) represents a nationally leading regional land use planning and management model, and has some of the strongest regulatory protections in the country, including a minimum 88 acre density and 300 foot wide stream buffers in the forest preservation area, including prohibitions on extension of water and sewer infrastructure into the preservation area.

And while NJ Highlands forests don’t enjoy the “forever wild” constitutional protection of NY’s Adirondack Park forests, these are HUGE and warrant emphasis.

They also illustrate the implications of the corruption Ketcham exposes. It is vitally important to connect these dots.

The same conservation groups taking the money to advocate “bogus arguments” also actively undermine regulatory approaches in favor of corporate friendly voluntary and market based policies.

2. The next phase of funding this corruption will be so called “carbon sequestration” and carbon credit and trading markets.

NJ law allocates millions of dollars of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) revenues to carbon sequestration”.

Billionaire Peter Kellogg already has a carbon credit generating plan and participates in a private carbon trading market at Hudson Farm.

During a recent presentation to the Smith Forestry Task Force, DEP stated that they are developing carbon credit and trading schemes to promote sequestration.

Activists need to start opposing these shams NOW.

3. Kellogg also funded DEP and Conservation groups in a “retreat” (junket).

[Update – here’s my note to Senator Smith and his Forestry Task Force:

Dear Senator Smith and Forestry Task Force:

Given the ongoing deliberations of the Forestry Task Force, I thought this national story about NJ forestry policy would be of significant interest, see:

Forests Are Being Destroyed and ‘Nature Lovers’ Are Helping

https://www.thedailybeast.com/forests-are-being-destroyed-and-nature-lovers-are-helping?source=email&via=desktop

The article highlights the NJ roots of the vision of Benton MacKaye (regional planner and father of the Appalachian Trail), and laments and explains how that vision has been corrupted.

Sadly, the analysis transcends forestry policy and applies to virtually every aspect of climate and environmental policy.

Please take this information under advisement as you deliberate on forestry policies and legislative initiatives.

Respectfully,

Fortress Energy LNG Export Lawyers Playing The Inside DEP Regulatory Game

Climate and Environmental Justice Advocates Are Duped

The Public Will Be Shocked To Learn Of These DEP Policies

Exactly three (3) months ago, we warned about proposed Murphy DEP regulations that would promote the expansion of underground storage of fossil fuels in “caverns”, see:

• Murphy DEP Proposes New Rules To Expand Storage Of Natural Gas In Underground “Caverns” – Gibbstown “Cavern” On Former Dupont Site “Repurposed” To Store LNG Export Gas 

Today, better late than never, NJ Spotlight wrote about those DEP proposed rules, and they didn’t pull any punches with the headline, see:

• Fight on to limit underground storage caverns –  DEP rule change could allow oil and gas industry to expand

The Spotlight story starts off on the wrong foot, seemingly falling into exactly the trap we warned about:

I suspect that DEP will spin these rules as updating or modernizing outdated permits or regulations based on an ancient 1951 law. DEP will use the LNG restriction to obfuscate and divert.

But make no mistake, just the opposite is the case: in fact, the proposed rules effectively promote expansion of fossil infrastructure, protect existing permits, and continue a dangerous practice that should be banned.

But the the rest of the content of the story – although missing the point on some big issues (see below) – is unusually good as well.

I) Documenting Fossil Industry Influence

To their credit, NJ Spotlight reporter Andrew Lewis did his homework – real journalism instead of the typical he said/she said crap.

Mr. Lewis filed an OPRA request for the public comments on the DEP rule proposal. That provides the actual industry position, not the spin from their press releases and media people.

Just as we warned, Lewis was able to document that Fortress Energy, the corporation proposing the Delaware River LNG export facility in Gibbstown, is playing the DEP regulatory game behind the scenes.

Lewis absolutely nails it with this quote, that connects all the dots. BOOM!

While emails and calls to the Repauno Port & Rail Terminal went unanswered, NJ Spotlight News did receive, through an Open Public Records Act request, a copy of a public comment submitted on June 13 to the DEP by David Miller, an attorney for the law firm Giordano, Halleran & Cielsa, who was writing on behalf of Delaware River Partners LLC.

“The proposed Cavern Rules are the culmination of a considerable and concerted effort by Department staff and those in the regulated community to craft a protective and workable regulatory framework,” Miller wrote. “Given current market trends and international energy needs, underground storage caverns present a unique opportunity to serve as a driver of local and regional economic growth.”

Miller went on to underscore Delaware River Partners LLC’s position that the DEP should consider all liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products “as a single regulated substance.”

One LPG rule fits all?

“As a result,” Miller wrote, “if geologic conditions are found to be suitable for one LPG product, that determination can be safely applied to all LPG products provided the cavern is designed to accommodate the maximum operating pressure for any LPG product.”

 Let’s break that down to emphasize what it really means:

1. “The proposed Cavern Rules are the culmination of a considerable and concerted effort by Department staff and those in the regulated community”

This exposes what is known as “regulatory capture”. The Fortress Energy lawyers are so smug and arrogant that they openly brag about their undue and corrupt influence on DEP regulators.

These are the kind of stunning admissions journalists can expose when they do real work and get inside the DEP game. Bravo!

2. “to craft a protective and workable regulatory framework”

Once again, we get an open admission that the DEP regulators are working to craft a regulatory framework that “works” for the industry.

Worse, this phrase can be interpreted – often accurately – that the DEP regulatory framework is designed to protect the industry and provide “regulatory certainty” that is necessary for private investment.

3. “as a single regulated substance.”

A single regulatory substance would mean that the rules would promote expansion of storage  “for any LPG product”, which means fracked gas and LNG export.

Just as we warned:

Don’t be fooled by the exclusion of storage of LNG. The DEP proposal would allow underground storage of fracked natural gas, which can easily be converted to LNG for export.

This means that DEP regulations will promote LNG export, just as the lawyers for the Fortress Energy LNG export project advocated.

While NJ Spotlight reports this concern, they do not fully emphasize the significance:

And while the proposed regulations would exclude liquefied natural gas from the list of products that can be stored in underground storage caverns — since it must be kept at minus 259 degrees Fahrenheit — the prohibition would not impact the construction of nearby LNG plants or export terminals. Fracked natural gas can still be pumped or transported from an underground storage cavern to a nearby facility and ultimately converted to LNG.

II) Some Serious Omissions And Distortions On Climate and Environmental Justice

That’s all the good reporting, but unfortunately, the NJ Spotlight story misses the mark on climate and environmental justice issues, largely do to reliance on sources that just don’t know what they are talking about.

Here’s the worst:

Marcus Sibley, chairman of the New Jersey Progressive Equitable Energy Coalition, views the expansion of underground storage caverns as an affront to the state’s landmark Environmental Justice Law, which requires the DEP “to evaluate the environmental and public health impacts of certain facilities on overburdened communities when reviewing certain permit applications.”

This is not the first egregious error by Mr. Sibley, and they are not honest mistakes.

The “landmark environmental justice law” he’s been cheerleading for does not apply to DEP cavern regulations or to the DEP permits DEP will issue to caverns pursuant to the propose regulations (if they are adopted).

That EJ law is riddled with loopholes and technical flaws, as I’ve written about numerous times so won’t go into here.

To his credit, Sibley correctly blasts the privatization aspects of the DEP proposal as well as the potential risks to EJ communities (but with respect to climate, not so much).

The Spotlight story also goes very easy on Delaware Riverkeeper.

As we wrote, Riverkeeper actually supported the DEP proposal of regulations:

The folks at Delaware Riverkeeper played the inside DEP game and got duped. DRN actually supported the development of regulations, instead of just opposing the need for this practice and seeking decommissioning of existing caverns and a ban on expansion or promotion of new fossil infrastructure. Remarkably, they did this despite noting that the Gibbstown LNG project was seeking expansion of the current cavern capacity of 186,000 barrels to 3 million barrels! 

Riverkeeper now looks like they blew the whistle on this, while they failed to do that and instead played the inside DEP stakeholder game. AS a result, the public, who will strongly oppose this insanity, has been in the dark until today.

III) Finally, there are some large gaps in the story, including:

1) Failure to report that the: a) Gov.’s Executive Orders on climate and energy; b) the Global Warming Response Act; c) the current DEP regulations; d) the DEP cavern regulatory proposal; e) the environmental justice statute; and f) the DEP’s proposed environmental justice regulations ALL DO NOT APPLY TO THE DEP CAVERN REGULATORY PROPOSAL OR TO THE DEP PERMITS DEP WILL ISSUE PURSUANT TO THE PROPOSAL (if it is adopted).

This goes for the environmental impact assessment provisions in the DEP proposed cavern rule.

Do I make myself clear?

Mr. Sibley and Delaware Riverkeeper surely must know this. So why don’t they warn the public about it and pressure the Governor and DEP to close these loopholes?

2) failure to report the current DEP Commissioner’s prior legal work for Fortress Energy in securing DEP permits and his ethics recusal (Spotlight previously reported on that, based on our disclosures, bu with no attribution or link to Wolfenotes:

LaTourette’s [recusal] memo lists the matters before the DEP that he worked on while he was an environmental attorney with a Newark law firm immediately before joining DEP in September 2018. Those matters include the Repauno Port and Rail Terminal, a project on which he represented Delaware River Partners on “all remediation and permitting concerns” before the DEP, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and two federal agencies, according to the document, which was obtained via an Open Records Act request filed by Bill Wolfe, a former DEP employee.

3) failure to report the special treatment and unusual regulatory approvals that the Fortress LNG project has benefited from. For example, just days ago, we wrote about the most recent one of them:

• Despite Gov. Murphy’s Vow To Stop The Project, DRBC Extends Expired Approvals And Fortress Energy Remains “Fully Committed” To LNG Export Plant On Delaware River

4) failure to report on the direct related energy policy and fossil infrastructure issues, and the role of gas infrastructure.

5) Lewis downplayed the California Aliso Canyon disaster we highlighted.

6) The long delay in reporting this May story and the fact that NJ Spotlight filed OPRA request to get the DEP regulatory source documents suggests the power of the fossil industry. Spotlight had to make their reporting bullet proof, largely because they likely feared the consequences of pushback from fossil.

We’ll keep you posted.

[End Note: I like to avoid race based and divisive arguments, but I should note that a reader just emailed me to note that I missed an important flaw in the EJ law. The definition of an EJ community ignores poor and working class white communities, he writes:

Gibbstown is not an EJ community- even though it has lots of industry super fund sites recra sites – it doesn’t not have enough minorities or people that speak other languages -Short Hills ,Alpine West Windsor are but working class white communities are not

Wow.

DRBC Extends Approvals With No Public Process

Murphy DEP Commissioner Previously Served As Lawyer On The Project

DRBC Extension Is Compelling Evidence That Gov. Murphy’s Opposition Is Not Genuine

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) recently granted a request by Fortress Energy to extend DRBC approvals for the controversial LNG export project along the Delaware River in Gibbstown, NJ.

The initial DRBC approval was slated to expire on June 12, 2022. Expiration could have forced the project back to square one to re-apply for DRBC approvals, or at least seek DRBC approval after additional rounds of DRBC technical review and public hearings on the extension request.

This is a massive new fossil infrastructure project that would expand fracking and cause significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions, especially highly potent methane.

As such, the project directly contradicts NJ Gov. Murphy’s numerous (toothless) Executive Orders and personal public commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (read the Fortress request and DRBC approval here – documents provided by Delaware Riverkeeper).

Fortress Energy emphasized that they remain “fully committed” to the project:

The DRBC extension was granted for an additional 3 years, until June, 12, 2025

In an unusual move, particularly on a project that has generated such huge public opposition, DRBC Executive Director Tambini issued the extension unilaterally by letter on June 16, 2022 (with an unusual retroactive provision, i.e. the extension was issued after the original approval had expired), and he did so with no public process, a move that was harshly criticized by Delaware Riverkeeper.

The DRBC extension is particularly egregious, given NJ Gov. Murphy’s high profile public vow to do everything in his power to stop the project. (NJ Spotlight wrote:

“The Administration, however, remains unwavering in its commitment to continue advancing critical initiatives to protect the environment and public health for future generations. It will explore all avenues within its authority to prevent the use of this dock for LNG transport,” the statement said. Murphy did not say how he would do that.

His vow to block the project came after his DEP issued permits to approve the project.

Gov. Murphy is a Co-Chair of the Commission – his DEP Commissioner is a voting member (which raised obvious ethical conflict and recusal issues, given DEP Commissioner LaTourette’s legal work for the project in securing DEP permits).

Obviously, DRBC denial of the extension request was a regulatory opportunity to block the project.

There is no way DRBC Executive Director Tambini would have issued this extension on his own without consulting with Gov. Murphy’s Office, with his DEP Commissioner, or over the objection of Gov. Murphy or DEP, so the extension itself is compelling evidence that Gov. Murphy’s opposition is not genuine.

The fact that Fortress Energy remains committed to the project and continue to spend a lot of money developing the project is also compelling evidence that that have no fear of Gov. Murphy’s threat to kill the project.

The Fortress commitments and DRBC approval make a mockery of Gov. Murphy’s gestures to stop the project.

As we revealed, Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner Shawn Latourette was the lead lawyer for the Fortress LNG project to secure DEP permits and he was installed at DEP just 2 weeks after leaving his law firm legal post for Fortress.

The Tambini secret extension is another example of special treatment and secrecy on this project, see:

• Murphy DEP LNG Permit Approval & Suspension Exposes A Rigged And Corrupt DEP Permit System

• Did Senate President Sweeney and/or NJ Gov. Murphy Pressure Regulators To Keep Delaware LNG Export Terminal Under The Radar?

• Murphy DEP Denies Request For Public Records On DEP’s Review Of “Fortress Energy” LNG Export Project In Gibbstown, NJ

• Documents Show That Consultant For LNG Export Project Actually Wrote Portions Of DEP Responses To Public Comments 

None of this could have occurred if Gov. Murphy seriously wanted to kill the project.

So, why did the Delaware Riverkeeper’s scathing press release not even mention Gov. Murphy and instead punched down and targeted ED Tambini, and not Gov. Murphy?

That’s just another example of the lame lapdogs in the NJ climate activist community.

Where is the NJ press corps? Where is legislative oversight to hold the Gov. accountable?

[End Note:  I learned of the DRBC extension this morning in an email from Catskill Mountainkeeper. The mis-focused headline says it all: “BREAKING NEWS– DRBC Executive Director Breaks Protocol”

While they do mention the powerful NY State climate law (which NJ does not have), unfortunately they follow Riverkeeper’s lead and target ED Tambini with No mention of NJ Gov. Murphy or NY Gov: (red highlight mine, boldface in original)

New York State’s nation-leading climate law–the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA)–clearly states that the approval of all new construction and development here must take climate impacts into consideration. The DRBC’s quiet approval of this permit extension behind closed doors not only violates public trust and governmental transparency, but also goes against the guidelines laid out in the CLCPA by supporting the fossil fuel industry’s behind-the-scenes dealings in toxic oil and gas. Mountainkeeper is extremely disappointed and concerned about this breach in protocol by Mr. Tambini, and we are working with our allies at Delaware Riverkeeper Network to hold the DRBC accountable.

Both groups need to hold their Governors accountable, not the puppet Tambini!

“Wishful Thinking” – this approach is not working and will not work.”

“This is a climate suicide pact,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy development to massive new oil and gas extraction. The new leasing required in this bill will fan the flames of the climate disasters torching our country, and it’s a slap in the face to the communities fighting to protect themselves from filthy fossil fuels.” ~~~ Center For Biological Diversity

Historical Intro Note:

I took the photo above at a November 2009 NYC protest, see: Jim Hansen Takes on NRDC and Bank of America.

In a remarkable continuity, back in 2009, Hansen was criticizing NRDC for their lame climate advocacy.

Since then, NRDC has maintained basically that posture – check out this quote from Inside Climate News on Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act oil and gas subsidy policies:

“It will provide an important incentive to curb methane emissions and to comply with EPA’s forthcoming rules,” David Doniger, NRDC

So now Oil-Gas corporate subsidies are good. We must pay polluters not to pollute. Regulatory mandates are too big a hit on corporate bottom line profits and must be paid for with public money. Wow.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions From Biden Inflation Reduction Act Are Inflated

By now, I’m sure you’ve all read or heard about the significant climate policy victories embedded in the Biden “Inflation Reduction Act” and how it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions – the models estimate – by up to 44%.

I’m not technically competent to critique the models that generated these estimates of emissions reductions, but I have basic quantitative skills and experience in how laws get implemented. Without going into detail, based on a cursory review, I can say that key assumptions of those models are absurd. To name just 4:

1) the carbon capture and sequestration technology is not feasible;

2) the huge rate of increase in renewable power capacity installation is unrealistic; (read the below caveats):

3) there is no guarantee that renewable power capacity displaces carbon sources of power, especially given technical integration of renewables and gas fired power.

See this excellent piece that explains all that:

• Energy transitions or additions?  Why a transition from fossil fuels requires more than the growth of renewable energy

I’ve call it “magical thinking”.

There likely will be growth in GHG emissions given projected economic growth, projected huge increases in energy demand (especially from electrification), continued promotion of leasing and development of fossil reserves, and investment and expansion of fossil and other GHG generating infrastructure in the bill (and the prior infrastructure bill).

Bernie Sanders Blasts “Huge Giveaways” To Fossil Fuel Industry In Manchin Deal

[Senator Sanders] raised concerns about the “billions of dollars in new tax breaks and subsidies” that the oil and gas industry will receive under the measure

“In total, this bill will offer the fossil fuel industry up to 700 million acres of public lands and waters… to oil and gas drilling over the next decade.

“Under this legislation, up to 60 million acres of public waters must be offered up for sale each and every year to the oil and gas industry before the federal government could approve any new offshore wind development.”

Sanders also expressed alarm about the newly released side deal between Manchin and the Democratic leadership that would pave the way for approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline—a major fracked gas project that runs through West Virginia—and limit environmental reviews of new energy infrastructure.

It’s even worse than Sanders blasted. He didn’t mention huge subsidies to carbon capture, nuclear power, agriculture, “biofuels”, “sustainable aviation fuel”, logging, mining, pipelines, and electric power lines, among others.

4) I think “forest management” logging policies deeply undermine, if not wipe out, the assumed forest carbon sequestration assumptions. Logging is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to inherent limitations of modeling, I’m also highly skeptical of the ability of modelers to understand laws and policy and how they are implemented in the real world.

Keep in mind that this cheerleading comes from the same “independent experts”, beltway environmental group sources, and media outlets who all claimed that the Obama EPA Clean Power Plan was “bold” and “transformative” and would deeply reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Fact check: the Obama EPA plan was blocked by the Supreme Court and private market forces reduced emissions deeper and faster. Here’s Justice Kagan in her dissent:

Right after the Obama administration issued the Clean Power Plan, the Court stayed its implementation. … The ensuing years, though, proved the Plan’s moderation. Market forces alone caused the power industry to meet the Plan’s nationwide emissions target.

Here are the embarrassing numbers, from the Supreme Court’s decision:

EPA explained that, while the Clean Power Plan “was projected to reduce CO2 emissions from the electric power sector by 2030 to a level approximately 32 percent below the level in 2005,” “[p]reliminary data indicates that CO2 emissions from the electric power sector in 2019 were 34 percent below the level in 2005.”).

You’re being fed the same line of cheerleading bullshit again on the Biden deal.

No need to take my word for it – I’m biased anyway, having called Biden a “climate fraud” –  so here’s Jim Hansen’s take:

Oh, BTW – Recall that Biden State Dept. made much of US/China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis (April 2021) and the restoration of cooperation with China on climate policy back in November 2021. That got good press and praise by climate activists.

• U.S.-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s

But Pelosi’s Taiwan stunt triggered retaliation from China, including ending cooperation with the US on climate .

(and, on the global front, there’s also the fact that Germany and Europe are re-firing coal plants and increasing use of oil to replace gas shortfalls prompted by US sanctions on Russia, while China, Russia, India, Iran, and South American oil producing countries form a new block and expand fossil production.)

Another “Heckofajob” Joe!

[End Note: When considering priorities suggested by the billions of dollars in the bill, keep in mind that this is a 10 year plan, so divide by 10: e.g. the $370 billion for renewable energy is just $37 billion/year. Compare that to the $800+ billion or so spent on the military, per year.