WolfeNotes.com

But Enck Rolled Over As NJ Gov. Christie Rolled Back Federal Protections

Is Enck laying foundation for US EPA Administrator in 2020?

I just listened this morning to former EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck on a panel at the northeast NPR radio station WAMC (“The Roundtable” – listen here). I only heard a portion, but during the conversation, the panelists praised Enck for an opinion piece that ran in The Hill today regarding EPA budget cuts, see: We cannot weaken the EPA as hurricanes are growing worse (for some reason I can not access the content of that piece, so confine my remarks to the radio show).

I like Ms. Enck as a person and respect her qualifications and long career record of public service, both in government and environmental advocacy organizations.

But, I was deeply disappointed by her failure to hold the Christie Administration accountable and enforce federal environmental laws in NJ during her 7+ year tenure as head of Region 2, which oversees NY, NJ and Puerto Rico.

At the outset, we had high hopes for Enck, and looked to her for a strong federal oversight backstop against the Christie Administration’s regulatory and enforcement rollbacks. But she has been a disappointment.

I spoke with Ms. Enck personally shortly after her appointment. She seemed aware of many NJ skeletons in EPA Region 2’s closet, but she asked me to work with her in confidence in reforming EPA and more aggressively overseeing NJ DEP. I told her I didn’t operate that way and did everything publicly. After that, she declined to work with me.

During her tenure, I wrote her numerous times, on Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act compliance, stream buffer rollbacks, Superfund, RCRA, Dupont Pompton Lakes, Ford Ringwood, Barnegat Bay, BL England, Pinelands pipelines, NEPPS, EPA grant funding and more.

[update: Enck once called me to complain to explain that I got the facts and EPA’s position on enforcement and the taxpayer tab wrong on the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site in this post. Read the update of that post to understand the disagreement. But an EPA RA calling a blogger?? Thin skin, no? ~~~ end update]

After some initial supportive replies and conversations, Enck simply stopped even responding and never really pulled the trigger or dropped the hammer on the Christie administration, despite an appalling record. (e.g. see this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and more).

It’s not as if Enck could not see all this coming.

During the 2009 campaign, candidate Christie said he looked forward to fighting the Obama EPA. In October 2009, Christie laid down the gauntlet:

“I’ve got a feeling that you will see, come January 2010, a lot of battles between the Christie administration DEP and the Obama administration EPA.” (watch YouTube)

The Christie administration basically created a model for the Trump administration, in terms of rolling back climate, renewable energy, environmental justice, and environmental protections via Executive Orders and regulatory policy; appointing industry hacks to run the Agencies (NJ BPU and NJ DEP); appointing industry scientists to DEP Science Advisory Board; slashing enforcement; dismantling environmental programs and intimidating career professionals; gutting and putting the burueaucracy on a short leash; allowing improper industry access to agency decision-making; and slashing budgets and diverting environmental funds to other purposes.

Many of these Christie policies impacted and possibly violated federally delegated and/or funded programs subject to Enck’s oversight.

On top of that, Enck looked the other way in the wake of Sandy, as the Christie Administration:

1) waived environmental review requirements for rebuilding infrastructure;

2) violated federal procurement laws in awarding contracts to political insiders;

3) failed to address climate change or renewable energy in rebuilding plans; and

4) blatantly ignored Obama Executive Orders on incorporating climate change in various federally funded and delegated programs.

Remarkably, in the wake of Sandy, Obama came to NJ to support Gov. Christie!

So, given that history, I found Enck’s aggressive critique of the Trump administration on today’s radio show somewhat opportunistic and hypocritical. Here’s why.

Specifically, today, Enck was highly critical of Trump administration $300 million electric grid rebuilding contract and failure to include renewable energy and local micro grids and climate adaptation & resilience in the Puerto Rico post hurricane rebuild plans.

Where was Ms. Enck when the Christie administration did virtually the same thing after Hurricane Sandy?

She also criticized the Trump administration proposed deep budget cuts at EPA.

Where was Ms. Enck when Obama proposed budget reductions at EPA? (e.g. see:

• Obama Budget Request Cuts $300M From EPA Funding

Where was Enck when Obama abandoned EPA scientist proposed Clean Air Act standard for ozone? At the time, even the NY Times critically noted:

“Reaction from environmental advocates ranged from disappointment to fury, with several noting that in just the past month the administration had tentatively approved drilling in the Arctic, given an environmental green light to the 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas and opened 20 million more acres of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling.

Today, Enck piled on and also criticized the recent highly publicized gag on EPA scientists speaking at the Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program (NEP) conference.

But far worse than EPA Administrator Pruitt gagging scientists from speaking at a public event, Enck did nothing as Gov. Christie’s original Barnegat Bay “10 point management plan” failed to even mention climate change and Gov. Christie’s Barnegat Bay Restoration Strategy – after 8 years of study – totally ignored climate change impacts. (Barnegat Bay is part of the same Nation Estuary Program as Narraganset Bay.)

If that’s not opportunistic and hypocritical, I don’t know what is.

Enck challenged those EPA scientists to defy the EPA managers’ gag order and speak at the conference anyway.

When did Ms. Enck ever put here career on the line by defying political marching orders, from Albany or Washington DC?

Finally, Enck repeated a right wing talking point by saying it was impossible to fire EPA employees, even for cause. That is just not true and it was a cheap shot.

Ms. Enck’s criticisms show that it’s a lot easier to throw rocks from the outside than to lead and take career and political risks on the inside.

I know – been there, done that (and got fired for it too!)

[Endnote: Enck now talks a big game on renewable energy and climate change.

But in terms of the over-rated Obama energy and climate record, as EPA R2 Administrator, she went along with Obama’s Washington DC political message and talking points, not the policy merits.

In addition to Naomi Klein’s critique of Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy – does anyone recall that Obama bragged about record construction of pipeline miles and US fossil energy production? – and climate record, here’s a more recent cogent critique from a Jacobin article:

In true technocratic fashion, Obama sought a fix through executive orders, administrative measures, and elite international negotiations. His Clean Power Plan relied on the power of the presidency to reduce emissions by further regulating power plants and raising fuel standards using the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. In his final year in office, he made much of brokering an international agreement at the COP 21 in Paris — the first global climate agreement since Kyoto in 1997.

But his achievement was overstated, and so was liberal panic over its demise. The agreement fell far short of what climate scientists and activists alike agree would be necessary to avoid a dangerous 2˚C or higher warming — not least because Obama himself had pushed for it to be non-binding. Even implementing the set of commitments made in Paris would have required sustained political action, regardless of who controlled the Oval Office.

Paradoxically, Obama also got more blame for regulatory attempts than he probably deserved. Stricter emissions regulations are just one reason the demand for coal has been declining: activists have campaigned for the closing of coal-fired power plants and the prices of both solar power and natural gas have been plummeting. But Obama provided a convenient scapegoat for coal country’s continued decline — after all, he’d done little to alleviate the crisis of unemployment and need in places once dependent on the resource. The path was clear for someone like Donald Trump to run on a platform of bringing mining jobs back — even if he had no actual way of doing so.

Another funder driven biased story

NJ Spotlight ran a story today that again raises troubling issues about journalistic integrity, see:

• STATE WANTS TO HELP GET A FEW CNG-POWERED VEHICLES ON ROAD

Journalism can be biased by acts of commission and omission – this story has both faults.

The story has just one “source”, the NJ Board of Public Utilities. And there is no context provided so it reads like a BPU press release.

The story has just one quote, highly selective and highly spun, by BPU President Mroz:

“This is yet another positive step in implementing the state Energy Master Plan policies that supports alternative fuel vehicles comprehensively and are accelerating the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles, including electric and CNG vehicles,’’ said Richard Mroz, president of the BPU. “In making these grants we can gauge interest in cleaner and quieter-running CNG trucks and buses.’’

So much for commission.

The story also leaves out highly relevant facts, including:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 HELPED ENERGY CO. SUCCESSFULLY RESPOND TO CRUDE OIL SPILL CRISIS

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

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

Leadership

From the group’s website: [16]

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

2) NJ Natural Gas is corporate funder of NJ Spotlight (a fact disclosed on NJ Spotlight website).

3) NJ BPU is doing an awful job in getting electric vehicle infrastructure installed.

4) methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Some scientific studies suggest that it is as bad as coal in global warming potential.

5) The $200,000 BPU grant is a corporate subsidy for the development costs of a CNG vehicle program.

6) No technical performance or cost effectiveness criteria for the program were even suggested by BPU. Nor was a comparative evaluation methodology with other alternative fuels suggested, especially renewables.

7) CNG investments compete with renewables

8) The Christie Energy Master Plan is controversial and has come under huge criticism for failure to address climate change and for promotion of fossil fuels, especially natural gas.

9) Governor Christie has diverted over $1 billion of Clean Energy Fund revenues to pay for his corporate tax cuts. These funds are used to subsidize energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. The Gov. has opposed subsidies to renewables but not to fossil fuels, especially gas.

10) The so called “cheap price” of gas is a false claim because it fails to include economic externalities that have been quantified and characterized by federal regulators as “the social costs of carbon”.

Other than that, it was a good story.

Heck of a job NJ Spotlight!

Independence Pass – 12,095 feet

We had another incredible day –

The day began as we broke camp along Chalk Creek at the base of Mt. Princeton (in the San Isabel National Forest just south of a trailhead for Colorado Trail, which we walked for only a few miles)

and ended camped off a National Forest Service road above Turquoise Lake just outside Leadville Colorado:

Leadville is a hardscrabble old mining town, but it is surrounded by incredible beauty.

Too bad the federal money (and Big Ag corporate subsidies) spent by the Bureau of Reclamation building dams, fake lakes (reservoirs) and other absurd irrigation and boondoggle water infrastructure couldn’t instead be spent on improving the lives of the mostly poor people who live there.

We’re in Boulder today, waiting for our bike to arrive and be re-assembled at the local bike shop.

Take a look at one of our better days (and I left out the reservoir we swam in and a lovely stroll through Twin Lakes):

Man may seek such [wilderness] scenes and find pleasure in the discovery, but there is a mysterious fear that comes over him and hurries him away. The sublime features of nature are too severe for a lone man to look upon and be happy. ~~~ Thomas Cole (1820’s) as quoted in Nash (p.79)

What shall we do with a man who is afraid of the woods, their solitude and darkness? What salvation is there for him? ~~~ Henry David Thoreau, quoted in Nash (p.91)

Yesterday marked one month since we began our adventure, so I thought I should post brief observations and some photos of where we’ve been.

Overall, its been incredible and far better than I had imagined.

I am experiencing incredible landscapes and everyone I’ve run into is friendly and interesting. I am sleeping and eating well, walking more, drinking less, and haven’t had a bad day or heartburn, not even once. My buddy Bouy is having a blast – chasing elk is his latest game – and actually enjoys his little bed-cave in the van. The van is running great and all systems working. BTW, we are camping on National Forest or Bureau of Land Management lands, for FREE!

On the downside, we’ve run into a lot of extreme weather. After a beautiful day in Shenandoah National Park, we had a week of cold rain and fog along the Blue Ridge. In trying to drive away from that mountain weather, we hit tornadoes, golf ball size hail, 50 mph winds and flash floods in Little Rock Arkansas. After that, we had record low temperatures in the desert in Texas (28!), harsh high winds and heat conditions in the desert at Big Bend National Park, lightning storms in Arizona, and even snow in Flagstaff Arizona! All in just one month! (and it looks like we left Big Bend NP and Chisos Basin just before the wildfire!)

I’m having slight altitude adjustment issues camping here at 7,000 feet – light-headed, shortness of breath easily, and not much stamina.

Also, I am reading and writing less. Just finished re-reading Roderick Nash’s classic “Wilderness and the American Mind”. Visited an excellent local bookstore here in Flagstaff and picked up a copy of another classic I never read: “Water and the West” by Norris Hundley Jr. about the history of the Colorado River Compact. I’m only on Chapter 4, but there are echoes and huge ironic historic parallels between early 20th century advocacy for an “All American Canal” and the current debate over Trump’s Wall.

Here’s a flavor of the history from Hundley: in response to the use of Oriental labor on the Mexican Delta by LA Times publisher Chandler to build competing water infrastructure to benefit the development of Mexican lands  – another irony in light of the movie classic “Chinatown” – California Imperial Valley residents claimed that Chandler was using “Japs and Chinamen” to steal water that belonged to “red blooded, free Americans“. Asiatics and Mexicans were denounced and said to “undermine our social standards, destroy the efficiency of our schools, and fill our courtrooms”. They accused Chandler of “betraying the real American workman” and “subjecting Americans to unsanitary conditions”. In early 1900’s testimony:

“Who wants to drink from a stream when he knows that there are 7,000 Chinamen, Japs, and Mexicans camped on that stream a few miles above in Mexico?” (page 33-34).

Sound familiar? An historical continuum of deplorable racism.

We ran into US Border Patrol twice in Texas, and were screened by dogs and forced to stop and answer questions at one checkpoint. I took strong exception to this with the agents. They didn’t understand why I was concerned and told me that illegal migrants travel 7 miles across the desert at this specific point. My thought – which I didn’t share with the agent – was that anyone who could travel 7 miles across that desert should be exactly the kind of people we embrace and reward with citizenship- smart, brave, tough, determined, hard working, strong and committed.

At Big Bed National Park, I met a Rio Grande river tour guide as he was loading canoes onto his trailer at the end of the day. We had a good conversation about the river and the region. He suggested I spend the night nearby in an old ghost town named Terlingua. He said that it was the cultural center of the region and that I should be sure to spend some time and have a few beers and music on the front porch. He also advised that I drive along the Rio Grande river on RT. 170 for some spectacular scenery on my way north.  I forgot to ask him about the green color of the river, and whether that was a result of eutrophication or minerals or some other reason.

I took the man’s superb advice. We easily found the front porch. I had beers and conversations with the, lets say, very interesting locals, and met a lot of cool dogs too. We had live music, a burger, and beers at the Starlight Theater – and Monday was 2 burgers for 1 night so Bouy got meat instead of his kibble!

Here’s some of what I saw along the Rio Grande – where is Trump going to build the Wall here?:

All for now – next post we show places in New Mexico and Arizona.

Williams/Transco Letting their FERC Flag Fly

Latest Diversion Is a Hail Mary For The Birds

Clock running on legal appeal of DEP permits

local governments are spending a ton of money on lawyers, so they need to make it look like they’re doing something – that’s truly a shame, especially at this critical time when they should be drafting their briefs **to challenge the DEP permits. The clock is ticking on those appeal deadlines!!!

See Correction below

Yesterday (3/27/17) Williams Transco, the Oklahoma based gas company building the Garden State Expansion Project, a compressor station and NJ Natural Gas Southern Reliability link pipeline, started off construction on the wrong foot.

They ran into aggressive residents and opponents and made huge PR gaffs and regulatory compliance mistakes.

I got a request from Agnes Marsala of People Over Pipeline to come to the site – arrived just before 10, no one was there at the time (was later told that folks were there at 6:30 am!, including bird experts.)Except 2 lame Williams security goons, who tried to run me off:

It was raining hard and muddy, so I immediately noticed lack of compliance with soil erosion and sediment control and DEP permit requirements. Spoke with Williams’ Chief Inspector on the site Roger Salmi (cell: 612-518-0983). He stonewalled and told me to call press officer Christopher Stockton (713-215-2010 (W) 713-562-2939 (cell). Salmi’s assistant later told me that he would install required stone and other soil erosion control measures before heavy equipment is brought on site.

So I contacted Burlington County SCS (609-267-7410) and the DEP Hotline (1-877-WARN DEP) to report violations. A Burclo inspector later went to the site – I was told that he warned Williams but did not issue violations. It will probably take a week for DEP to get someone off their ass and out of Trenton.

Later spoke with Williams lawyer on site (a Jersey girl, she claims) and advised her that site was not in compliance. Shorlty thereafter, Williams’ broke out a broom to sweep up the mud they were tracking off site! The man with the broom yelled at me that I didn’t have his permission to photograph! Take a look! Hahahaha!

If Williams can’t comply and get the easy stuff right, that does not inspire confidence that they will do the important stuff right – the same goes for the government oversight efforts. Williams needs to be told – at the outset – that this is not Texas or Oklahoma, arrogance is not acceptable to the community, and that they will be strictly regulated and monitored.

Cars parked on site had out of state plates – except for the Jersey girl attorney.

Since no construction was going on, I guess they wanted to let their FERC flag fly and make it clear that these are the crew our local pipe fitters and NJ laborers will be working for.

Shortly after 10, a few more POP member arrived to observe – I told one woman that the parked cars and trucks were violating NJ’s idling law and she called the Chesterfield Police to report that violation – Chesterfield cops arrived and gave them a warning:

Later, Chesterfield Councilwoman Rita Romeau and Patti Cronheim of Rethink Energy NJ arrived and were ebullient.

They gave conflicting stories about birds.

The initial story I got from Rita R. was that a stay was issued (presumably by a court). Then I heard that NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife issued a stop work.

Then Patti Cronheim from Rethink NJ arrived and told folks that bird experts had discovered habitat for owl or raptors (unclear what species and if this was done on Friday or this morning) and conveyed that info to US Fish and Wildlife Service. According to Patti, USFWS then got Transco to agree to a voluntary stop work and agreement to conduct a bird breeding survey.

I found this all very hard to believe – and requested but was not provided any documentation so I could write about it. That failure to provide even an email about what was going on only heightened my skepticism.

Well today, Dave Levinsky writes “the story” (I put “story in quotes for a reason) in the Burlington County Times:

• Nesting owls, raptors and songbirds could delay compressor station work

Although Oklahoma-based utility company Williams Transco has received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin work at the site of the proposed compressor station off Bordentown-Chesterfield Road, the possible presence of nesting and courting Cooper’s hawks, screech owls, red-tailed hawks and other migratory songbirds may cause a delay.

Both Chesterfield and Bordentown Township have asked the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the FERC to order a stay on any work at the site, including tree clearing, until a survey is completed to determine if nesting birds are present.

Williams Transco spokesman Christopher Stockton said the company was aware of the towns’ claims and taking steps to re-survey the site before clearing any trees.

“We have not started any tree clearing yet. At this point, we are still moving construction equipment at the site,” he said in an email. “We do plan to re-survey the area prior to any tree removal.”

If birds are present, it could create more delays for the compressor station project, called the Garden State Expansion, which has dragged on for the better part of two years.

Like I said in the sub-headline: that’s a real Hail Mary. A last ditch effort to block construction based on birds also tends, politically, to undermine the credibility of the POP and other pipeline opponents who are focused on air, water and safety issues, by opening them up to longstanding stereotyped criticism of environmentalists, e.g.: that they care more for critters than people and jobs. Focus on birds also opens up legitimate criticism that they are not focused on real community safety and environmental issues.

But this is not some hopeful last minute effort – something insidious is going on.

This is just the latest episode in the pattern of tactics by Rethink Energy NJ. Rethink is heavily invested in the FERC process and they have repeatedly engaged in diversions and sought to change the issue. Their diversions have consistently undermined the efforts of the local group People Over Pipelines.

The diversions consistently seek to shift the focus from NJ DEP and water resource regulatory issues to FERC, local or county governments, and FERC issues related to economics and private property rights.

Rethink wants to change the issue and divert focus for at least three reasons:

1) they praise DEP, they keep their powder dry, and they seek to shield DEP from criticism, under the false assumption that an “inside” friendly game with DEP will result in DEP denying permits on their priority project, the PennEast pipeline. They also fear retaliation from Gov. Christie or DEP Commissioner Martin, who they need as friends to secure funding for land preservation deals (the primary organizational mission of NJCF, the parent of Rethink);

2) the don’t want their members and the public to understand that their almost exclusive FERC strategy is mis-targeted, fatally flawed, and can not win.

3) The don’t want aggressive local activist groups and radicals to control the strategy, tactics and message and thus gain political power and resources.

In fact, Rethink was created and funded by corporate and foundation money as the politically safe alternative that would not make waves or threaten powerful economic interests, or step on corporate or political toes. Rethink has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ineffective corporate PR, economic studies, and FERC NEPA intervention, while virtually ignoring NJ DEP and State regulatory issues.

In the end, from the corporate perspective, Rethink is the “reasonable” environmental group that will compromise and cut the deal in the end – all while undermining and keeping the radicals from gaining media attention or real political power. This is the way corporations like PSEG do their work in NJ.

Given prior deals, my sense is I that a deal would be likely to include: 1) small changes in the pipeline route to avoid preserved lands lands owned by NJCF or by Rethink’s wealthy elite members; 2) land donations as mitigation; and 3) “mitigation” funding to ReThink and fellow conservation groups.

Thankfully, Dave Levinsky is a very good reporter and can sense this dynamic – If not to divert attention from DEP and FERC rubber stamps, why else would Tom Gilbert of Rethink suddenly parachute into Chesterfield, just in the wake of DEP and FERC final approvals?

Here how Levinsky subtly alludes to that:

The compressor station and pipeline have received approvals from the FERC, which oversees infrastructure related to interstate pipelines, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which oversees intrastate pipelines. The DEP recently issued required water permits for the station and pipeline.

Having almost exclusively focused on FERC and not even tried to hold DEP accountable, of course Gilbert and the Rethink crew want to try a Hail Mary on an esoteric bird issue.

We’ll keep you posted – but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting from any bird issue to block construction.

End Note: And local governments are spending a ton of money on lawyers, so they need to make it look like they’re doing something – that’s truly a shame,  especially at this critical time when they should be drafting their briefs **to challenge the DEP permits. The clock is ticking on those appeal deadlines!!!

** Correction – There is no administrative appeal to OAL. I’ve been told that the federal Natural Gas Act Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C.A. Sec. 717r(d)(1)mandates that appeals of State permits be filed in federal court. This is astounding, as the DEP wetlands permits and 401 WQC are issued pursuant to State law and EPA delegated Clean Water Act powers that federal courts have found are State CWA 401 WQC and WQS are NOT preempted by the NGA.