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Attack On PDC Program Will Be The Camel’s Nose Under The Tent To Gut CMP

Time For Conservation Community To Rein In Potosnak And Circle The Wagons

“Twenty, 25 years ago, 30 years ago … the towns, many of them did not want to accommodate residential growth,” said Grogan. “That has completely turned around. What we see today are towns begging the commission to allow for more residential growth.” (Asbury Park Press, 1/7/22)

[Update below]

The delicate situation in the ecologically critical NJ Pinelands is spiraling out of control. It could become a death spiral.

Economic and political forces are mounting enormous development pressure on the Pinelands region, and Gov. Murphy – after 4 years of virtually ignoring the Pinelands – just radically upended and weakened an already pro-development Pinelands Commission.

The Gov.’s Pinelands move follows his administration’s support of an economic development plan for the NJ Highlands region, whose authorizing legislation (the Highlands Act) and Regional Master Plan land use plan was based on the Pinelands Act and the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).

The Governor just appointed a personal political loyalist (Laura Matos, immediately installed as Chair) and a corporate crony (Davon McCurry, with Orsted, the Gov.’s heavily subsidized & Wall Street financed  off shore wind developer) on the Commission.

The Gov. terminated reliable conservation votes by the Chairman Richard Prickett and Commissioner Rohan Greene. Two good people just thrown under the bus in order to install the gov.’s political loyalists and corporate cronies. Disgusting. No good deed goes unpunished (and the conservation community didn’t even fight for them).

That move comes at a time when the Commission is seeking a new Executive Director after the unexpected death of Nancy Wittenberg. The Gov.’s move exacerbated the prior 7 – 4 County appointee pro-development voting block on the Commission to a 9-3 pro-development slant.

At the same time, the conservation community – who are supposed to serve as an advocate for preservation and watchdog on the Commission – just completely collapsed, fragmented, cut a dirty deal, and actually supported the Gov.’s move.

Asbury Park Press reporter Amanda Oglesby recently wrote a good overview piece, that sets the stage and outlines what’s at stake, see:

• Ocean County, South Jersey future at stake as NJ Senate votes Pinelands Commission picks

Oglesby quotes Carleton Montgomery, Director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, at length on the ecological and water resource values provided by the Pinelands forests and why the Pinelands Commission is so important.

But, while not really surprised given his political corruption in support of Gov. Murphy, I was shocked by how Olgesby then quoted Ed Potosnak of the NJ League of Conservation Voters (NJ LCV) at length, concurring with the NJ Builders Association:

Though [Acting Executive Director] Grogan says the credit system is a success, New Jersey builders think otherwise. Jeff Kolakowski, CEO of the New Jersey Builders Association, said the credit system has added “unnecessary costs to the production of housing” around the Pinelands and has failed to work as it was originally intended.

“Regardless of whether you are building a 1,000-square-foot apartment or a 10,000-square-foot mansion, the price of PDCs (Pinelands Development Credits) are the same on every unit of housing, which in turn serves as a disincentive to more compact development,” Kolakowski said in an emailed statement. “Further complicating the matter is that PDCs are scarce and in high demand, which resulted in the price of PDCs more than doubling since last year.”

It’s a concern he shares with environmentalists, who also say new nominees to the Pinelands Commission need to address the issue.

“What we want to see is denser development in the growth zones, because it reduces the (suburban) sprawl and has a smaller environmental impact,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. “The existing system actually disincentivizes this kind of development so you have things like six-acre zoning. The houses are further apart, which means you need longer roads and longer water systems and sewer pipes, and you are cutting down more trees.”

Potosnak wants Pinelands rules to favor more dense housing surrounded by open space.

“We can provide, through the Pinelands Commission, even more incentive by changing the way the credits work, that folks can get more credit if they do some of these things we think are better for the environment and actually better aligned with what … prospective homeowners are looking for.”

Whoa! WTF? Are you kidding me?

Is Potosnak now a real estate agent? (“aligned with what … prospective homeowners are looking for.”)

The man knows nothing about land use planning or the Pinelands CMP. (And, while I’ve been out of State for several years, I’ve never seen him at a Pinelands Commission meeting and am not aware of anything NJ LCV has ever done in the Pinelands to promote preservation). (a reliable longtime Pinelands advocate just wrote to tell me that Potosnak has never been to a Pinelands Commission meeting. How is he possibly now a spokesman for “environmentalists?”).

Potosnak’s statements are ill-informed, politically dangerous, and flat out false (it will take several posts to explain why).

On top of that, it is abundantly clear that he is a political whore for Gov. Murphy and is committed to supporting Gov. Murphy’s tools the Gov. just installed at the Pinelands Commission and their policy agenda.

And on top of all that, Potosnak is concurring with the NJ Builders Association on flaws with and need to revise the CMP to promote denser development and “reform” the Pinelands Development Credit (PDC) system.

I am no fan of trading schemes like the PDC program, because they are designed to promote growth, are a form of privatization that restricts public involvement, and because the designated growth areas are often poorly planned and allow far too much growth (and climate issues and ecological water limits were never considered).

It is obvious that the NJ Builders Association game plan is to focus on”reforms” to the PDC program and that will serve as the camel’s nose under the tent to gut the CMP. Ed Potosnak is either a dupe or a whore – or both.

Opening the dood to any CMP amendments to promote growth under the current economic and political conditions would be a disaster.

We should not even be talking about more growth.

The conservation agenda for the Pinelands needs to focus on adopting CMP amendments to address the climate emergency, restrict water use to protect ecological functions, restrict destruction by ORV’s, and regulate endocrine disrupting chemicals.

To slow this train down, I sent the following email to Carleton Montgomery, who sits on the NJ LCV Board and has the power to rein him in: Potosnak can not possibly become the voice of the conservation community in the Pinelands (or anywhere else):

Carleton – You are on the Board of NJ LCV.

I was disgusted by the role NJ LCV played in supporting Gov. Murphy’s nominees (he also undermined PPA’s position, which I also did not support)..

Now, I read in the Asbury Park Press that Ed Potosnak is speaking on Pines land use issues and agreeing with the NJ Builders Association? WTF? see:

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/land-environment/2022/01/07/pinelands-commission-future-ocean-county-south-jersey-stake/8793943002/

You must rein Potosnak in. We are in dangerous times. Suggest you folks circle the wagon and do something publicly to slow this train down.

Wolfe

We’ll keep you posted –

I’m highly skeptical of any engagement, and note that the NJ LCV Board is stacked with other lame, well fed fellow Foundation funded, Murphy sycophants, including Tom Gilbert, NJCF and Julia Somers of the Highlands Coalition. They have not only been Murphy cheerleaders, but have not objected to the Gov.’s Highlands economic development initiative.

[Update: 1/18/22 – Carleton Montgomery of PPA writes to tell me that I got it all wrong:

The point that development in the regional growth areas should be higher density than it has been to date is one PPA has advocated for many years.  That means, among other things, changing the incentive structure built into the PDC requirements so they do not dis-incentivize higher density.  The very low density development that has marked almost all residential development in the growth areas just uses the limited growth area land inefficiently, while causing just as much habitat and water loss as would higher densities on the same land areas – something the Commission’s science program found long ago to be the case.

To rebut his ideas about density in the growth areas and the risks of opening the CMP right now, I responded thusly:

So, you would support opening the CMP to amendments regarding managing growth in the growth areas?

Do you think that is a wise stance right now, given the recent changes on the Commission and the development pressures?

I disagree with your characterization of low density land use as “inefficient” – what exactly is your optimization objective to define “efficiency”? Revenue per square foot? Lower per acre site improvement and infrastructure costs to the developer?

I have not reviewed the science program report, so if you could send a link, I’d appreciate it.

Aside from all that, if you are not troubled by the role of NJ LCV in recent events – a concern I raised that you ignore – I would strongly differ.

If you are concerned with habitat and water loss (recharge? consumptive use?), perhaps you might want to shrink the growth area boundaries and allowable growth in them and focus on setting the long overdue ecological based water allocation restrictions.

That might be a far more protective approach than supporting higher densities.

Gov. Murphy Installs Corporate Cronies On Commission, Removes Chairman & Conservationist

Balance Radically Shifts In Support Of Development Over Preservation

Another Corrupt Power Play By PSE&G And Orsted

Gov.’s Scheme Exposes Weakness & Corruption In “Green” Groups

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. ~~~ FDR  Message to Congress (1938)

I guess it was not enough that Gov. Murphy installed a corporate lawyer as DEP Commissioner, reneged on his climate commitments, and promoted an economic development plan for the protected forested watersheds of the NJ Highlands.

I)  Wall Street And The Ideological Roots Of The Disaster

Now, Gov. Murphy – a former Wall Street Goldman Sachs man – just sullied the legacy of former Governors Florio and Byrne in the Pinelands – and he cynically deployed classic identity politics as a cover, a textbook example of what professor Nancy Fraser calls “Progressive Neoliberalism”:

Progressive neoliberalism developed in the United States over the last three decades and was ratified with Bill Clinton’s election in 1992. Clinton was the principal engineer and standard-bearer of the “New Democrats,” the U.S. equivalent of Tony Blair’s “New Labor.” In place of the New Deal coalition of unionized manufacturing workers, African Americans, and the urban middle classes, he forged a new alliance of entrepreneurs, suburbanites, new social movements, and youth, all proclaiming their modern, progressive bona fides by embracing diversity, multiculturalism, and women’s rights. Even as it endorsed such progressive notions, the Clinton administration courted Wall Street. Turning the economy over to Goldman Sachs, it deregulated the banking system and negotiated the free-trade agreements that accelerated deindustrialization.

In another superb article, Fraser explains how a right wing ideology was legitimized by so called “New Democrats” to promote Wall Street interests, masked by “progressive” identity politics:

Progressive neoliberals did not dream up this political economy. That honor belongs to the Right: to its intellectual luminaries Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and James Buchanan; to its visionary politicians, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan; and to their deep-pocketed enablers, Charles and David Koch, among others. But the right-wing “fundamentalist” version of neoliberalism could not become hegemonic in a country whose common sense was still shaped by New Deal thinking, the “rights revolution,” and a slew of social movements descended from the New Left. For the neoliberal project to triumph, it had to be repackaged, given a broader appeal, linked to other, noneconomic aspirations for emancipation. Only when decked out as progressive could a deeply regressive political economy become the dynamic center of a new hegemonic bloc.

It fell, accordingly, to the “New Democrats” to contribute the essential ingredient: a progressive politics of recognition. Drawing on progressive forces from civil society, they diffused a recognition ethos that was superficially egalitarian and emancipatory. At the core of this ethos were ideals of “diversity,” women’s “empowerment,” and LGBTQ rights; post-racialism, multiculturalism, and environmentalism. These ideals were interpreted in a specific, limited way that was fully compatible with the Goldman Sachsification of the U.S. economy. Protecting the environment meant carbon trading. Promoting home ownership meant subprime loans bundled together and resold as mortgage-backed securities. Equality meant meritocracy.

Just like “Progressive Neoliberal” President Joe Biden is outpacing Presidents Bush and Trump in issuing oil and gas leases on federal lands in direct contradiction of his public pledges, Gov. Murphy is breaking new ground and going beyond pro-business Republican Governors Whitman and Christie in locking in a horrible environmental legacy.

Here’s how Gov. Murphy’s press office cynically justified and defended the Gov.’s nominations (source: Michael Zhadanovsky, Deputy Press Secretary – check out his bio – campaign for Hillary, to intern at corporate KPMG,  to Phil’s campaign)

After collaborative talks this afternoon with Pinelands advocates, we are moving forward with two nominees to the Pinelands Commission. The Governor is committed to diversifying the Commission and ensuring that its actions promote environmental justice and accountability to those most impacted by its decisions.

Textbook.

Gov. Murphy – another Progressive Neoliberal – has now become the worst environmental governor in NJ history.

In the process, the Gov. is also deeply dividing an already weak environmental community and exposing its corruption.

II)  Politicization And Pro-Development Bias Expanded 

The Pinelands Commission is supposed to be an independent planning and regulatory agency whose mission is to plan for and preserve the Pinelands:

The Commission’s 15-member board consists of seven members who are appointed by the New Jersey Governor, one member appointed by each of the seven Pinelands counties, and one member appointed by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. The gubernatorial appointees are subject to the review and consent of the NJ Senate.

In general, the County members tend to be pro-development and the Gov.’s appointees tend to balance that with a pro-conservation emphasis. Reflecting that split, the vote on the controversial South Jersey Gas Pipeline was a tie vote – 7-7.

So, the vote count is crucial.

Gov. Murphy’s slate of nominees would tilt the current 7-4 dominance of the County pro-development members to a 9-3 gross imbalance.

The Gov. would remove the current Chairman, Richard Prickett – a retired High School science teacher and independent and reliable pro-conservation vote – and Commissioner Rohan Greene – another independent and reliable pro-conservation vote. (below photo taken during historic pipeline debate)

The Gov. simply can not tolerate independence.

The Gov. is installing loyal political operatives that not only further politicize the Commission and destroy its independence, but radically reorient the balance of power towards development and away from preservation and the statutory mission of the Commission.

This corrupt move comes at a time when the Pinelands are facing intense new development pressures, threats from more infrastructure (including off shore wind transmission), and suffering from the impacts of climate change.

The Commission has several major policy issues backlogged, including taking action on the climate emergency, adopting long delayed regulations to limit the allocation of water to protect Pines ecology, addressing ecological and human health risks from endocrine disrupting chemicals exposed by a recent scientific study, and hiring a new Executive Director.

Gov. Murphy is destroying the Pinelands Commission at exactly the time when strong and expert leadership is desperately needed.

III)  What’s The End Game?  The Answer Is Blowin’ In The Wind 

But why would Gov. Murphy do such an unpopular and obviously corrupt thing? Something that even the Star Ledger editorial board denounced?

Even the the Star Ledger editorial board excoriated the Gov.’s move as “a craven power play”, a “brazen” attempt to “gut the Commission during lame duck”, and a “scheme” that was similar to the “bullying” by Gov. Christie.

What’s end the game?

Ironically, its about promoting Gov. Murphy’s “green light at the end of the dock” – off shore wind.

I say ironically, because – no disrespect to conservation author John McPhee or the conservation legacy of Governors Florio and Byrne –  the Pinelands were established as much or more to block off shore oil and gas development by forming a barricade from onshore pipelines east – west through the Pinelands to Delaware River refineries, as to preserve forests and water quality.

For documentation of that history, see:

• Untold Pinelands History

At the Princeton event, Florio noted:

Governor Florio (who served in Congress from 1975 – 1990) shared his national perspective, noting that the Carter Administration and many in Congress – just like today – were concerned about the Nixon Administration’s energy policy, impacts of off shore drilling, and plans to run pipelines across the Pines to refineries along the Delaware River. This prompted Congress in 1978 to create the nation’s first National Reserve in the Pinelands.

So, Gov. Murphy has installed a lobbyist from off shore wind developer Orsted on the Pinelands Commission to assure that no roadblocks to his off shore wind project are erected by the Commission.

His nominee, Davon McCurry, is an unqualified flunky (and token of Progressive Neoliberal diversity) who began his political career at a very low level in Gov. Murphy’s Office and then was installed in a political position at DEP, which he used as a revolving door opportunity to the corporate position at Orsted.

The combination of personal ambition, careerism, tokenism, corporate power and “progressive neoliberal” diversity is truly disgusting, even for NJ politics.

Gov. Murphy’s other corporate crony, Laura Matos, also displays a career path of political service, not subject matter expertise – she’s a virtual political hack handyman, having worked for politicians in multiple capacities:

New Jersey Political Director for Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign and served as an at-large delegate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. 

Laura also served on numerous boards for Governor Phil Murphy, including the 2017 Transportation and Infrastructure Transition Advisory Committee, the New Jersey Complete Count Commission and currently the Governor’s Restart and Recovery Advisory Council.

Of course, PSE&G has a hand in this corruption – the Murphy administration multi-billion dollar nuclear bailout, the $200 million wind subsidies for Artificial island wind port, the sweetheart lease deal, and that unreported quiet Murphy DEP deregulation weren’t enough to sate their greed and power ambitions (pun intended). The environmentalists supported all that.

PSE&G knows exactly how to play the dirty game and bribe NJ conservation groups – they are repeating the playbook for the DEP’s decision to abandon costly cooling tower requirements at the PSEG nuclear plants (a billion dollar giveaway supported by NJ conservationists) and the Susquehanna – Roseland power line through the Delaware Watergap and the Highlands (they got off cheaply there – with a mere $17 million “mitigation” bribe). Pringle played the same game with Gov. Christie in walking away from a DEP cooling tower mandate at the Oyster Creek nuke plant.

PSE&G is an investor that owns a 25% interest in Orsted, as well as approved utility rights-of-way across the Pinelands. Orsted needs a safe place to bring that off shore wind power ashore and transmission corridors. They now have a lobbyist on the Pinelands Commission to grease the skids for all that.

The Governor’s move prompted this unanswered set of questions to the press spokespersons for PSE&G and Orsted:(questions of course we will formally force a written answer to via the Pinelands Commission’s Ethics Officer): 

———- Original Message ———-

From: Bill WOLFE <bill_wolfe@comcast.net>

To: “Marijke.Shugrue@pseg.com” <Marijke.Shugrue@pseg.com>, “Gamar@orsted.com” <Gamar@orsted.com>

Date: 01/06/2022 1:58 PM

Subject: Orsted Official – Pinelands Commissioner

Greetings – I understand that today, the NJ Senate will confirm Gov. Murphy’s nominees to the Pinelands Commission, including Mr. Davon McCurry, Orsted’s Deputy Head of Market & Government Affairs, New Jersey.

I request your comment on this appointment.

Specifically:

1) how do you respond to the concerns regarding conflicts of interest?

2) Do Orsted and/or PSE&g plan or anticipate any projects located in the Pinelands that may require approvals by the Pinelands Commission?

Can you be specific about such projects?

3) can you provide a map of PSE&G currently approved utility ROW and property located in the Pinelands?

4) can you provide ethics disclosure and recusal documents that will be filed with the Pinelands Commission?

Appreciate your timely reply – I’ll be writing for tomorrow.

Bill Wolfe

IV)  Fake Green Fading

Gov. Murphy, in seeking his “green light at the end of the dock“, has divided and exposed the fading fake green of the NJ environmental and conservation community.

As I’ve written, Ed Potosnak of the NJ LCV supported this corrupt deal; Carleton Montgomery of PPA did not oppose it; and a good woman, Theresa Lettman, has been slimed by it.

But I need to add a few more players and organizations: Dave Pringle and Amy Goldsmith of Clean Water Action.

Recall that that dynamic duo endorsed and ran political cover for Gov. Christie in his first term.

Dave Pringle is obviously running interference for Gov. Murphy with the environmental community and the media and legislature. That’s exactly the same corrupt and dishonest and manipulative role he played in the first term of the Christie administration.

After I called out the entire NJ environmental community’s leadership for their corrupt support and cowardly silence on the Gov.’s nominees, Amy Goldsmith weighed in in a half assed defense. In an email (glad to share) she even created the false impression that CWA opposed the nominations.

So I listened to the tape of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing yesterday (folks can listen here, starting at around time 42:00).

Pringle didn’t oppose the nominees. After praising the Gov., and saying that the nominees would “break the logjam” at the Commission and saying he knew both of them well for many years and had spoken with them about their nominations, and then saying he supported offshore wind (all very supportive comments), Dave mentioned “concerns” about conflicts of interest.

That testimony could only be interpreted as supporting the nominees.

So, when I say its Chinatown, it’s all of that and more than the corruption portrayed in one of my favorite movies.

But sadly, there’s no Investigator Gittes to call it out. Classic scene:

Investigator Gittes: “What can you buy that you don’t already have?”

Noah Cross: “The Future, Mr. Gittes, the Future”

We warned that Murphy climate law was a “fake solution”

We predicted DEP could not & would not regulate methane

DEP’s Proposed Climate CO2 Air Pollution Rule Does Not Regulate Methane

A little over 3 years ago, on 11/28/18, NJ Spotlight reporter Tom Johnson wrote an unusual story timed to the introduction of climate legislation (rarely is introduced legislation newsworthy before it is heard in Committee). Just days after the bill was introduced, before it was even heard, Tom (and Doug O’Malley) were cheerleading big time, see:

• SMITH AIMS TO GET STATE ON FASTER TRACK TO REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

A central factual claim in that story was that the legislation was “going after methane”.

Under a boldface large font subheadline, the story claimed:

Going after methane

Among other things, the bill would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a comprehensive strategy to curb emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane. Methane, a component in natural gas that often leaks from pipelines, is much more potent that other greenhouse gas pollutants, such as carbon dioxide.

On the same day, we wrote to debunk that lie, see:

• More Fake Solutions On Climate Change

Just like the failed GWRA  – which I criticized at the outset – Smith’s bill limits the scope of DEP regulations to emissions monitoring and reporting and merely directs DEP to prepare a Report. […]

Regarding actual GHG emissions, Smith’s bill merely requires DEP to develop a “strategy”. […]

A strategy is NOT an authority to adopt regulations to limit GHG emissions or impose emissions fees on GHG emissions.

NJ Spotlight makes a big deal about the fact that the bill purportedly applies to and “goes after” methane.

This is false and misleading.

It is a sop to naive and incompetent anti-pipeline activists (like Rethink NJ) and designed to create the false appearance that it would regulate methane emissions from proposed pipelines or gas fired power plants. This is false and cynical – a classic “fake solution”.

As I’ve written, [then current] DEP regulations do not regulate methane emissions from pipelines, or GHG emissions from any pollution sources, see: NJ Environmental Regulations Ignore Climate Change

The bill does not regulate methane and is NOT “going after methane”.

I followed that criticism up the next day with specific recommendations to Senator Smith on how to put teeth in the bill.

The false November 2018 NJ Spotlight story on the bill’s introduction was followed up additional false stories (alternately citing cheerleaders Doug O’Malley and Tom Gilbert as sources).

When the Senate passed the bill, Tom Gilbert said this: (NJ Spotlight)

Other environmental advocates were more optimistic. “This is much needed legislation to ensure the state takes meaningful steps to reduce emissions,’’ said Tom Gilbert, campaign director of Rethink Energy NJ.

He cited provisions requiring the DEP to set benchmarks between now and 2050 for curbing carbon pollution and requiring actions to reduce emissions to achieve the targets if monitoring shows the state will fall short.

When the Governor signed the bill, Tom Gilbert said this: (NJ Spotlight)

Gilbert argued the legislation makes clear the administration plans to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions before the end of Murphy’s term. Clean-energy advocates have long argued the DEP has the legal authority to do so but that the department has been reluctant to do so.

“We are going to see the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions before the completion of the Governor’s first term,’’ Gilbert said. “There couldn’t be any more urgency for us to get it done.’’

When the Gov. signed the bill into law in July 2019, Gov. Murphy issued a highly unusual signing statement:

Today I am pleased to sign Senate Bill No. 3207 (Second Reprint) into law, establishing new timeframes and requirements for the implementation of the Global Warming Response Act. I commend the sponsors of this bill for providing the Department of Environmental Protection with the tools necessary to ensure the State meets our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals by 2050. ….

Although this bill was amended to remove black carbon as a greenhouse gas, black carbon continues to be a short-lived climate pollutant, and will be a part of the State’s comprehensive emissions reduction strategy. Furthermore, I am directing the Department of Environmental Protection to use its existing legal authority, in addition to the authority provided by this bill, to administratively address the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, which will provide short-term air quality benefits while also reducing climate warming pollutants.

I called Bullshit on that and explained why the law did not regulate methane and the Gov.s signing statement was absurd, see:

• NJ Gov. Murphy’s Statement On Signing Climate Bill Into Law Recalls George W. Bush’s Controversial Signing Statements

… The introduced version of the bill defined methane as a “greenhouse gas” and applied to methane as a part of a program governing “short lived climate pollutant” in Section 6.

Section 6 “short lived climate pollutant” DEP authority and program was deleted in its entirety. That section also included a provision preserving DEP’s “existing authority”.  Elimination of those provisions creates a very strong legislative intent argument that the DEP doesn’t have any “existing authority” and now lacks statutory authority and legislative intent to regulate methane.

But NJ Spotlight refused to report that truth and again falsely reported on the methane issue, see:

• MURPHY SIGNS LAW THAT TARGETS GLOBAL WARMING, CONCEDES IT’S NOT ENOUGH

As I noted, Tom Gilbert was not the only useful idiot cheerleader. Here’s another, in a Bergen Record  story:

“These are all important moves, but we need to make sure that DEP develops rules to regulate black carbon,” Goldsmith said. “They have the power to do this. They need to do this.”

Well, as we warned and predicted, among several other fatal flaws (i.e. see this and this), the DEP’s proposed climate air pollution rule only regulated CO2 and DOES NOT REGULATE METHANE EMISSIONS.

I revealed that huge flaw and explained how it would enable DEP to continue to rubber stamp methane infrastructure, including pipelines, gas power plants, and gas compressor stations, see:

• Murphy DEP’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rule Ignores Methane, Lacks A Cap On Total Emissions, And Does Not Link Individual Project Emissions To Statewide Mandatory Emission Reduction Goals

First, the DEP proposal fails to regulate methane emissions.

Methane is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (in the short-run, over a 20 year period).

In 2020, Governor Murphy signed into law P.L.2019, c.319 that requires DEP to use a 20-year time horizon and most recent IPCC Assessment Report when calculating global warming potential to measure the global warming impact of greenhouse gases.

Yet here is how DEP (under)estimated the warming potential of methane (top of page 30)

Direct methane emissions released to the atmosphere (without burning) are about 25 times more powerful than CO2 in terms of their warming effect on the atmosphere.

So, the DEP not only failed to regulate methane emissions, they are ignoring a State law mandate and misleading the public about  the warming potential of methane.

DEP originally defined methane as a regulated greenhouse gas way back in 2005, but did not regulate methane emissions (see DEP rule adoption, @ p. 66)

New Jersey’s decision to expand its emissions statement rules to require reporting for CO2 and methane resulted in Maine and Connecticut following suit, and other states are actively considering comparable requirements

In 2019, the NJ Global Warming Response Act was amended to address methane: (revealing their cheerleading role, Gov. Murphy’s press release is actually posted on the NJ Conservation Foundation website!)

The Legislature further finds and declares that, while carbon dioxide is the primary and most abundant greenhouse gas, other greenhouse gases known as short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, fluorinated gases, and methane, create a warming influence on the climate that is many times more potent over a shorter period of time than that of carbon dioxide, and have a dramatic and detrimental effect on air quality, public health, and climate change; and that reducing emissions of these pollutants can have an immediate beneficial impact on climate change and public health.

But DEP defied the legislature’s findings and mandate on how to calculate methane warming potential.

The failure to regulate methane allows DEP to rubber stamp permits for major fossil infrastructure like LNG export plants, gas pipelines, gas power plants, and compressor stations without considering GHG emissions, climate impacts or the emission reduction goals of the Global Warming Response Act or the Governor’s recent Executive Order 274.

According to a petition for rulemaking submitted to DEP by the EMPOWER NJ coalition, there are multiple major proposed natural gas pipelines, compressor stations, power plants and an LNG export project pending DEP permit review. Those projects, according to the petition, would increase current greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30%. (see point #64, p. 19-20)

These projects emit both methane (directly and by leaks) and carbon dioxide (by combustion of the methane natural gas fuel).

Because DEP is not regulating methane, the methane emissions from these projects (lifecycle, from the fracking gas well to the point of use) would not be considered or regulated.

The carbon dioxide emissions from these projects, e.g. for gas fueled power plants, would be below DEP’s promoted CO2 emission standards for individual sources, and therefore would be permitted by DEP.

So, one would think that now that the facts are on the public record, that NJ Spotlight would correct their prior false reporting about methane and Tom Gilbert and Doug O’Malley would criticize this DEP failure.

One would be wrong.

Instead of owning this huge reporting error on methane and reporting on the DEP’s failure to regulate methane, NJ Spotlight today tried to change the subject – again citing the useful idiot Tom Gilbert – and imply that methane restrictions were under development, see:

• NJ natural-gas supply adequate through 2030, new analysis indicates

The Murphy BPU’s release of that pipeline capacity Report is obvious news management to divert from Murphy’s DEP’s failure to regulate methane. (FYI, the BPU Energy Master Plan doesn’t begin to implement electrification of buildings until 2030, while NJ Spotlight reports an assumption that half of building electrification could be in place by 2030!)

NJ Spotlight went right along with it and used it to mask their prior reporting errors.

Shame on NJ Spotlight. This is not an accident. It’s part of an obvious long-standing pattern I’ve repeatedly criticized. Time for Tom Johnson to retire.

Tom Gilbert should be shunned by climate activists and people should stop donating to NJ Conservation Foundation, who employs Gilbert.

DEP Rejects Enforceable Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions

DEP Admits Continued Reliance On and Expansion Of Fossil Power

 

On December 18, 2021, the Murphy DEP denied a petition for rulemaking filed by a coalition of over 50 climate, environmental justice, and environmental groups and activists (read the DEP denial). It is an incredible example of bureaucratic obfuscation and diversion.

We wrote about the petition when it was filed back in July and again in October when DEP cowardly postponed a decision before the election, see:

• After 4 Years Of Cheerleading And “Stakeholder” Diversions, NJ Climate Activists Finally Pull The Regulatory Trigger

• Murphy DEP Punts On Climate Emergency Rule Petition Seeking Deep Reductions In Greenhouse Gas Emissions

As far as I can tell, the NJ media – certainly NJ Spotlight – failed to cover the story .(i.e. when it mattered and could have made a difference in mounting public pressure: i.e. when the petition was filed and when it was delayed by DEP until after the election).

There are several critically important lessons to be drawn from the Murphy DEP denial:

1. Climate activists refused to publicly pressure the Governor with aggressive protest tactics. At the same time, groups I call the NJ Green Mafia (NJ LCV, Clean Water Action, NJCF, Environment NJ, NJ Audubon) repeatedly provided undeserved praise and political cover for the Governor.

With little or no activist protest and no media coverage, the Governor felt no pressure to approve the petition, especially when he was enjoying such robust green cover and a supplicant stenographic media who constantly praised his rhetoric.

2. The DEP denial exposes the sham of the entire Murphy DEP climate rhetoric and the hollow and self serving train of Executive Orders. Those Orders never had any teeth and the media and Green mafia duped the people of NJ about that fact.

3.  The DEP denial exposes the ideological and policy basis for the administration’s climate program, which, as I have written, are the Neoliberal pro-business anti-regulatory disaster of market driven, voluntary, and individual actions in pursuit of purely aspirational goals with huge government corporate subsidies (Orwellian incentives).

The DEP went out of their way to confirm this and stick a finger in the eye of activists, who DEP ridiculed as “simplistic”:

Back in the day, there used to be the concept of a “technology forcing” role for environmental regulations, where strict environmental standards would drive technological innovation and increase productivity (even Al Gore touted that). (That’s why NJ’s State Air Pollution Control Act has an “Advances in the art of pollution control“ standard, which, as I’ve written, DEP has ignored for decades). And before that, environmental regulations were considered part of what economist Lester Thurow  and others called old fashioned New Deal era “industrial planning” (which morphed into “industrial ecology” and then “sustainable development”). This is not some green leftist utopian environmental program, it has deep roots in political economy, most aptly in the “creative destruction” of economist Joseph Schumpeter. So, the poorly educated pompous Neoliberal Hayekian corporate hacks at DEP can take their “simplistic” smear and shove it.

5. The DEP denial exposes the fact that the Murphy Administration is committed to relying on and even expanding current fossil power for the “next several decades” – and that the projected doubling of electric demand will be fueled by natural gas (not off shore wind)

The term “dispatchable generation” gives the fossil game away (renewables are often not “dispatchable”). So does the requirement to “meet anticipated electric demand.”

6. The DEP denial exposes the fact – as I testified when the bill was under consideration, as I wrote when Gov. Corzine signed the bill into law  (my 10/7/07 Star Ledger Op-Ed: “No Teeth in ‘Tough’ Climate Law” link doesn’t work, but see this DKos post) and as I’ve been writing for over a decade – that the NJ Global Warming Response Act has no teeth and the GHG emission reduction goals of that law are purely aspirational and can not be enforced by DEP.

The DEP’s recently proposed CO2 emissions rule also validates this criticism, because, as I wrote, the DEP failed to link individual permit emissions with compliance with or attainment of Statewide GHG emissions reductions under the GWRA or Gov. Murphy’s Executive Order #274, as is done by NY DEC under NY climate law

7. The exact same criticisms applied to recent amendments to the GWRA, dubbed the NJ Clean Energy Act. That is another cynical Kabuki game. DEP was forced to admit this as well and did so openly: (p. 14-15)

The GWRA “appears” to provide regulatory authority? And then as soon as they make that equivocal statement, they quickly run away from any regulatory action.

8. Relatedly, very few people are aware of the fact that – despite the DEP Commissioner and the Gov.’s rhetoric and Executive Orders – the highly touted Murphy “environmental justice law” does not explicitly apply to or regulate greenhouse gas emissions. That effectively means that DEP EJ permit reviews will continue to ignore regulation of GHG emissions.

(we are now working on a post that will expose the fact that the recent DEP CO2 GHG emissions proposed rule totally ignores environmental justice concerns. The Cliff Notes version of that post goes like this: a) the Murphy EJ law applies only to certain DEP permits; b) those permits include for any: “Facility” means any:  (1) major source of air pollution”; c) DEP just proposed a regulation for CO2 air pollution emission from major sources and that proposal did not include any EJ concerns; and d) the EJ law did not amend the current DEP air permit regulations.; e) The new EJ law created an entirely new EJ DEP permit review process, parallel to pre-existing air permit regulations; f) The EJ law created a new “EJ impact statement”. DEP EJ permit decisions are based on the EJ impact statement and a series of complex, novel, and vague standards; g) As such, give all this, the EJ law will not be able to overcome the status quo, as DEP just revealed in their basis for denial of the climate petition. I’ve called the current fiasco for developing rules to implement the new EJ law a “wild-goose chase”.)

9. The DEP denial – exactly as I warned – exposes the fact that DEP has very narrowly interpreted their statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In the denial, DEP completely fails to assert jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under DEP land use programs and DEP fails to make the link (as NY State DEC has done) between greenhouse gas emissions and water resource impacts:

This dangerously narrow legal interpretation – coupled with DEP’s recent failure to regulate methane, failure to build a nexus between GHG emissions and water resource impacts, and the exclusion of GHG emission from the EJ law –  absolutely guarantees that DEP will continue to rubber stamp gas pipelines and other gas infrastructure (in contrast, while NY Sate DEC has denied fossil pipelines on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts on water resources).

In a deeply dishonest move, the DEP denial tangentially alludes to – but evades response to – the critically important issues of:

a) a scientific and regulatory nexus between greenhouse gas emissions and regulated water resource impacts; and

b) the regulatory authority to deny a permit based on GHG emissions and their relationship to and compliance with State GHG emission reduction goals:

DEP failed to respond to that. Those are core issues and HUGE gaps and loopholes in NJ law and DEP regulation.

10. The DEP denial exposes the Green Mafia cheerleaders, who have praised Murphy’s climate rhetoric and hollow Executive Orders.

11. Finally, the timing of the DEP denial also exposes the gaslighting manipulation and cynical news management at the Murphy DEP.

The DEP knew this denial would prompt widespread and strong criticism – as well as force media coverage of a story they have ignored.

Therefore, DEP was sure to issue a few “good news” smokescreen diversionary press releases about climate initiatives before the shit hit the fan. (a critique of DEP’s “carbon sequestration” strategy forthcoming).

And they did it just days before Christmas.

There can and should no longer be any doubt about the bullshit emanating from the Murphy DEP.

The Green masks are off and the Corporate and Wall Street fangs have been exposed.

Let’s hope that the Green  Mafia cheerleaders and the NJ media stenographers get the message.

Bukowski Worked To Provide “Regulatory Relief” and Dismantle DEP Land Use, Air Quality, and Enforcement

Was Involved In Dirty DEP Enforcement Deal With Trump Golf Courses

[Update: 12/18/21 – A tweeter just advised me that Bukowski recently retired.  I have no way to confirm that, as he’s still on DEP website. That’s good news, but does nothing to change this story. Oh, I failed to note that Bukowski was involved in the Christie Administration’s dirty Trump enforcement deal and lied about it (ProPublica story):

In this case, the DEP did assess a fine: Despite five years of violations, just $294,000 — before cutting the amount in half, to $147,000 (plus $2,790 in interest), as part of the settlement. Bukowski asserts that Trump got no special treatment.

The Commissioner was personally involved in the Trump case. That alone is special treatment and Bukowski knows it. Worse, longstanding violations were ignored and DEP’s proposed paltry fine was cut in half. Bukowski lied: (ProPublica):

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:

How does someone spend 8 years of collaboration with the Christie DEP and get caught in a blatant lie on a high profile TRUMP enforcement case, and then get promoted to Assistant Commissioner in a “pro-environment” Democratic administration? Just what does it take to derail a career at DEP? (I know: just leak documents that expose corruption).

As Murphy DEP Assistant Commissioner, Bukowski also attended NJ Audubon’s corrupt Sparta Mountain logging tour. ~~~ end update]

When a new Governor is elected, during the transition process, the DEP management team and about a dozen political appointees are asked to leave and depart by January when the Gov. is sworn in. High level managers that have civil service protections are sent back to the bowels of the bureaucracy and told to stay in their cubicles.

The Christie Administration cleaned house at DEP – perhaps most importantly by abolishing the Office of Climate Change in the Commissioner’s Office – but the Murphy Administration did not.

As a result, there are many holdovers, including what I will call “regulatory hit men” that collaborated with the Christie regime under new Commissioner Bob Martin.

In many ways the Murphy Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is actually worse than the Christie DEP.

We’ve already exposed the fact that the Murphy DEP Commissioner was a corporate lawyer for some of NJ’s biggest corporate polluters, including the Fortress Energy LNG export project.

LaTourette was perhaps the most egregious example of revolving door abuse. His former Director of Legislative Affairs – the controversial Murphy Pinelands nominee now with off shore wind developer Orsted – could be a close second.

The Christie DEP was led by a far less experienced and knowledgeable corporate hack Bob Martin – who was a mere financial consultant and lacked the knowledge to do real damage (compared to LaTourette, who not only is far more knowledgeable, but has been spun successfully by Gov. as a public interest lawyer and a “diverse” and first openly gay DEP Commissioner).

Everyone knew Bob Martin was a corporate consultant and Christie had an anti-regulatory agenda. But, with Murphy, it’s just the opposite: he is spun as a “green leader” and LaTourette as a defender of Erin Brockovich, not the corporate lawyer he was!! LaTourette himself plays these misleading games. So,  compared with Bob Martin, LaTourette is not the “lesser of two evils”. He is – as Glen Ford said of Obama – the more effective evil.

We’ve already exposed the fact that the Murphy DEP not only failed to rescind Christie DEP regulatory rollbacks and strengthen current rules, but instead has re-adopted many Christie DEP rollbacks and gone even further and weakened important stormwater rules.

Current DEP Commissioner LaTourette, while previously representing his corporate polluter clients, actually litigated a case that did much damage to the Natural Resource Damage (NRD) program in DEP.  see:

• NJ Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner Was A Corporate Hired Gun Who Crippled DEP’s Natural Resource Damage Program

That NRD program provides huge leverage over corporate polluters, as the public learned in the Exxon $8 billion case, which was corruptly settled by the Christie Administration for pennies on the dollar.

That NRD program is administered by the Assistant Commissioner for Natural Resources, who is now led by a former Christie DEP Hit Man named Ray Bukowski. I strongly doubt that an unqualified yes man – hit man  heading that important NRD program and reporting to a former corporate lawyer Commissioner who successfully litigated against the NRD program on behalf of his corporate clients is a coincidence. Strongly – Doubt – It.

So, today, we expose the fact that there are Christie DEP holdovers who not only continue to do damage below the radar, but were actually promoted.

We start with Murphy DEP Assistant Commissioner for Natural and Historic Resources, Ray Bukowski.

Bukowski was a willing collaborator and served as a “regulatory hit man” for the Christie DEP.

(A role his Murphy DEP bio describes as “a Management Improvement Specialist in the Commissioner’s Office.” Orwell lives)

I borrowed the term “hit man” from John Perkins’ superb expose: “Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man”.

Everyone knows what the job of a Mafia “hit man” is.

In a similar vein, Perkins spent his career as an “economic hit man” and uses that experience to expose the role of an “economic hit man” as doing the necessary behind the scenes technical work to serve powerful interests:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

There are people who serve the same “hit man” role within the DEP bureaucracy.

During the Christie Administration, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin – a hit man with zero environmental training or experience or knowledge of DEP regulations – launched a vicious attack on DEP regulations.

In his “DEP Transformation Plan” – really code for a policy of dismantling, deregulation, and privatization – here’s what Martin said about DEP regulations – despite the fact that he had absolutely no knowledge or working experience with them:

Regulatory Reform. External and internal stakeholders have identified the need for true reform of the regulatory process for many years, most notably in the last transition reports. The regulatory process is cumbersome, resource intensive, and time consuming. We cannot respond quickly and efficiently to identified needs for rule changes. No effective measures have ever been taken to address this administrative process. DEP must address internal processes and then act as a pilot for the state in identifying APA reforms. Additionally, our rules are prescriptive, not outcome based, and inflexible. DEP must ensure that our regulations truly protect the environment, are science based and further

Martin flat out lied when he claimed that the goal was “regulatory reform”.

Actually, the policy of the Christie administration – as codified in Gov. Christie’s Executive Order #2, which he issued in the first hour of his first day in Office (EO #1 was a moratorium on regulations, EO# 3 was Red Tape Commission and EO#4 blocked state regulatory mandates on local government) – was  an across the board assault and called for a policy of “regulatory relief”, not “regulatory reform”.

EO#2 made the “regulatory relief” policy goal very clear:

Martin’s  “DEP Transformation Plan” was an effort to implement Gov. Christie’s “regulatory relief” policy.

Everyone in DEP knew that. Non-cooperative DEP staffers were overtly threatened by Deputy Commissioner Kropp’s “Burning Platform” presentation. Remarkably, Martin insanely claimed that he had established  a “New World Order” at DEP. Martin was such a zealot, he even tried to abolish the D&R Canal Commission, a foolish move – like his Bulls Island clearcut plan – that he was repudiated and humiliated on.

But Martin couldn’t do that by himself. Martin desperately needed collaborators to work as his “regulatory hit men”.

He was reliant on DEP “regulatory hit men” – DEP staff that knew enough to collaborate with his regulatory dismantling.

As the “DEP Transformation Plan” noted:

it is imperative to actively include our staff in the transformation process. DEP staff possesses a wealth of knowledge that can help us identify problems and solutions.

Which is where Mr. Bukowski comes in as a collaborator and “regulatory hit man” (read the Transformation Plan to see his specific “hit man” assignments)

Here’s how Martin’s “Transformation Plan” attacked DEP’s land use regulations:

Land Use Regulation. This program is repeatedly the criticism of a host of external, internal DEP and other State agency stakeholders. It is noted as being unresponsive, cumbersome, antiquated, overreaching and expensive due to fees, engineering costs and project overruns. All concerns point to the number one complaint, which is an impediment to economic growth, not due to preservation of resources but rather due to antiquated administrative/technical processes that include no flexibility. Program regulations are too complex and prescriptive. Some regulations are overreaching and overlapping, resulting in programs that face permitting and enforcement conflicts within DEP itself. This often results in confusion on behalf of the regulated community, as they cannot predict what is expected of them in order to comply with our regulations.

There can be no doubt that this is an all out assault on DEP’s land use regulations.

Well, guess who led that “regulatory relief” effort as a “regulatory hit man”?

Yup, Mr. Bukowski.

Here’s how Martin similarly attacked DEP’s air quality regulations, with the additional federal consistency rollback emphasis from Christie’s Executive Order #2:

Air Quality Regulation. This program is criticized by external, internal DEP and other State agency stakeholders as being more stringent than federal regulations, overreaching, over-regulating and expensive due to fees. Program regulations are too complex and prescriptive. Some regulations are overreaching and overlapping, resulting in programs that face permitting and enforcement conflicts within DEP itself.

There can be no doubt that this is an all out assault on DEP’s air quality regulations.

Well, guess who led that “regulatory relief” effort as a “regulatory hit man”?

Yup, Mr. Bukowski.

Take a look at how Martin attacked and sought to scale back DEP’s enforcement:

Enforcement. Interface/interaction with associated partnering programs. Evaluate priorities geared toward focus on true environmental impacts vs. statutory and federal mandates, penalties and settlement authority, interaction with DOL, and process to use new ADR office going forward.

There can be no doubt that this is an all out assault on DEP’s enforcement program.

Well, guess who led that “regulatory relief” effort as a “regulatory hit man”?

Yup, Mr. Bukowski.

Check out how Martin attacked DEP regulation of “linear development”, critical and controversial projects like pipelines:

Linear Construction projects. SRP is working with DOT, Transit, the Turnpike and multiple utility companies to identify how to provide guidance on these unique projects to regulated entities. Most DEP rules are geared toward developers and regulated companies, rarely considering the impact to fast moving linear construction projects. This existing team could be expanded to evaluate how to provide flexibility, guidance and future rule amendment/legislation to accommodate critical infrastructure projects.

There can be no doubt that this was intended to ease DEP regulations on projects like pipelines.

No need to guess. Bukowski was assigned this hit man job too.

And what was the public cover story for all this deeply unpopular corporate “regulatory relief”?

Something that could baffle the media and allow the NJ Green Mafia to greenwash this “regulatory relief” program?

It was the notorious greenwashing slogan “sustainability”:

Sustainability: A steering committee of approximately 12 internal stakeholders will be formed to identify opportunities to promote the application of sustainability science and to incorporate sustainability goals in best management practices both internally and externally. The committee will work with internal and external stakeholders as appropriate. The committee will utilize already existing SAGE workgroup for internal outreach.

Don’t even ask – Bukowski was on that too.

After all this work to weaken environmental protections – including DEP land use protections of natural resources – it is astonishing that Bukowski was not buried in the Siberian DEP bureaucracy. No he was promoted and is now the Murphy DEP Assistant Commissioner with policy control over Natural Resources. 

No wonder corporate lawyer DEP Commissioner LaTourette just abolished DEP’s enforcement program.

No wonder The Highlands Council justified promotion of economic development of 23,000 acres (36 square miles) as “sustainable development”.

As I recently wrote, there is virtually complete continuity between the Christie DEP and the Murphy DEP.

Yet the Green Mafia sycophants cheerlead and the media is AWOL.

Who will tell the people about all this?