DEP Does a Cameo at Pinelands Pipeline Farce

After Years of hiding under their desks, a trio of Christie DEP bureaucrats emerge

For the first time, whispers of greenhouse gas emissions are heard!

By the time I arrived at last Friday’s Pinelands Commission hearing (@ 9:15 am for the scheduled 9:30 start), the Commission HQ’s small hearing room was packed  and over-flowing.

The paid union puppets had packed the room – with lame copycat signs no less – and outnumbered the 50 or so opponents.

As I signed up to testify, they were already on the 5th sheet, with over 100 already signed up.

Glancing at the sign in sheets, I noted that DEP was there – and not one, but 3 DEP officials! – and they were all right up at the top of the list, in speaker slots #3, #4 and #5.

Now how did they manage to do that?

[A reader sent me a note, explaining how that was done, showing grossly improper collusion:

The DEP names were signed up by the man in front of me, a suit. He had three pieces of paper with one name written on each piece. He carefully logged each name. Another suit also signed up three names. Since I was fifth or sixth in line I could see what they were doing and I called them out on it. – end]

Did they camp out at the Commission’s HQ? Or, more likely,  did they have an inside friend at the Commission sign them up early?

They must have got the same memo the union guys did: get there early, control the message, and dominate the news coverage because the reporters rarely last more than 45 minutes.

These little manipulative public relations games reveal how desperate the Christie administration is and how much they are feeling the heat of the opponents and critical press coverage.

Thus far, DEP has been completely absent from the public review of this project. DEP’s own air and water permit hearings on the BL England and CAFRA permits for the pipeline were invisible – no attendance and no media. That illustrated just how arcane DEP’s permit public participation program is.

Contrary to the Pinelands Commission process, DEP did not hold public hearings or publicize the issues – the public was completely unaware of the DEP draft permits and opportunity to testify.

Amazingly, DEP then used the lack of participation in their BL England air permit process as the reason for rejecting a request by Sierra Club to hold a public hearing on the draft water permit! You can’t make this stuff up.

So, because DEP likes to hide  behind arcane permit procedures, and because DEP has intentionally managed to keep their role in this project below public awareness and the media radar, it was obvious that DEP Commissioner Martin ordered up this little Pinelands Cameo trio brigade and told them to back the project and undercut opponents’ arguments.

Substantively, DEP’s testimony did not inspire confidence – here are the major failures in that testimony:

1) DEP did not even mention or stand by the so called “air quality analysis” that the Pinelands Commission ED falsely stated was done by DEP. That lie should be taken down from the Commission’s website. The only thing by DEP in that “analysis” was the cover transmittal memo to Wittenberg. We are not fooled – for full details, see this;

2) The DEP issued an enforcement Order to the BL England plant that gave the owners of the plant 3 option: a) install pollution controls to meet air quality standards; b) re-power the plant; or c) shut down and retire the plant.

Amazingly, DEP testimony on their evaluation of “alternatives”  failed to mention the alternative in DEP’s own ACO – plant shutdown and retirement. Obviously, that is the best alternative.

That huge omission – alone – is sufficient grounds to seriously question DEP’s integrity.

3) DEP, for the first time, DEP finally admitted that the project would emit 2.5 million tons of greenhouse gases.

DEP called that insignificant, but it would represent over 15% of current NJ electric sector emissions.

As I later noted, RGGI carbon pollution allowances are selling for $3 – $4 per ton. So, had Gov. Christie not taken NJ out of RGGI, the BL England plant would pay $7.5 – $10 million per year just for RGGI emissions. The price of RGGI allowances is projected to rise due to a declining cap. The NJ RGGI law caps the rate at $7 per ton – so a more realistic estimate of BL England costs is $17.5 million per year. For a 40 year operational life, that would amount to $700 million!

And EPA’s estimates of the “social costs of carbon” (SCC) are far higher than NJ RGGI $7/ton cap –a range from $12 – $235/ton. Other economists studies show even higher SCC.

So South Jersey Gas Co. and BL England are causing billions of dollars of economic damage.

That makes the Commission’s one time $8 million bribe for “equivalent protection” not only corrupt, but a joke analytically. 

[oops, forgot to mention that the BPU Order exempts BL England from any RGGI fees – now and prospectively – so in the event that the Legislature, the Courts, or a future Governor manage to get NJ back in RGGI, BLE is safe. Mr. Valeri earned his bonus.]

4) Only 2 of the 3 DEP reps were from air quality, the third was from the “customer service” “one stop shopping” rubber stamp DEP office of permit coordination. Ironically, that office also is responsible for EO 215 EIS reviews, something that has been ignored here.

This Office coordinates with the “Red Tape Czar” Lt. Gov. Guadagno’s Office to assure that corporate interests control policy outcomes.

And all that got nary a word in the press accounts of the  hearing – and of course, Pinelands Commissioners were not given any opportunity to ask DEP questions.

All in the cameo spirit, no? Or should I say the spirit of Vaudeville?

[End Note: Bill O’Sullivan, longtime head of DEP’s Division of Air Quality and a true professional, testified.

Bill’s hands were trembling, and he missed the 3 minute comment deadline. In an uncharacteristic and highly unusual move, Bill defiantly plowed on in his remarks until Chairman Lohbauer was forced to cut him off. It was an embarrassing moment and I felt horrible for Bill. Bill is a mild tempered man, and would never violate hearing procedures.

I assume, like the professionals at the Port Authority, that Bill was “just following orders” of his craven hack Christie loyalist boss, Bob Martin.]