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see new england?

bLUE STATE?

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MMA

Murdoch media continues scapegoating renewable energy in New Jersey

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

Published 10/21/25

Right-wing media are pushing hard to disparage New Jersey’s renewable energy investments, which they misleadingly blame for high electricity rates.

In 2025, New Jersey’s wholesale electric bills rose dramatically, with average residential customers seeing bills climb by roughly 17-20% per month. Next year, ratepayers can likely expect another 1.5 - 5% increase on top of that.

Several factors are contributing to the rate hikes in New Jersey. They include increased demand for electricity to power new data centers and New Jersey grid operator PJM Interconnection’s reported failure to quickly connect renewable projects to the grid. But news outlets owned by the Murdoch family — Fox Business and the editorial boards of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are pinning the blame for electricity costs on renewable energy, insisting that eliminating subsidies for renewable energy and building more fossil fuel infrastructure in the state are among the answers to New Jersey’s cost-of-living crisis.

The Trump administration has taken this approach as well, scrapping billions in renewable energy projects. Increasingly, the consequences consumers are already experiencing elsewhere reveal that a crusade against renewable energy is unlikely to benefit New Jersey or the country as a whole.

Electricity bills have spiked in New Jersey, a result of changes in the state’s energy market

Murdoch media outlets, hosts, and guests misleadingly blame climate-friendly policies for high energy prices

The anti-renewable energy agenda right-wing media are promoting in New Jersey is playing out across the country, and many are questioning its logic

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  1. ### Fox Business viewers might not realize Trump's tariffs are massive taxes that have disrupted the economy

10/17/25 3:58 PM EDT

  1. ### Media Matters weekly newsletter, October 10

10/10/25 10:57 AM EDT

  1. ### Fox Business host Larry Kudlow urges Trump to seize on the shutdown to fire up to 500,000 more federal workers

10/07/25

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mma

Murdoch media find a scapegoat for New Jersey’s high electric rates

As data centers demand enormous energy outputs and Garden State grid operators reportedly slow-walk new projects, right-wing media take shots at renewable energy

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

Published 08/27/25

The price of electricity has been on the rise across the country. Between 2021 and 2024, the average monthly residential electricity bill in America went up by $22 per month. Now, energy prices are rising twice as fast as inflation and are expected to increase further.

Several factors, including increased demand for electricity to power new data centers and New Jersey grid operator PJM’s reported failure to quickly connect renewable projects to the grid, are contributing to the rate hikes in New Jersey.

As electricity bills become a prominent concern in New Jersey and across the country, Energy Secretary Chris Wright complained to Politico, “We’re going to get blamed.” Indeed, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is set to increase energy costs “by around $165 per household per year in 2030, and by more than $280 in 2035 — a jump of over 13% compared to current costs.” Instead of acknowledging that, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post are scrambling to find a way to blame rate hikes on now-imperiled renewable energy projects — projects that tech companies fought to keep as they search for ways to make their data centers viable.

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Charlie Kirk: “These are members of Congress that stormed into a federal ICE facility despite warnings. They should absolutely be charged for this.”}:

05/12/25

Charlie Kirk: “These are members of Congress that stormed into a federal ICE facility despite warnings. They should absolutely be charged for this.”}:

05/12/25

May 12, 2025, edition ofThe Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on Rumble

CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): This is a very easy one for my friend, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. Very easy. They went after American patriots for peacefully walking into the United States Capitol building, nonviolently, while being invited, while doors were opened, and they stayed within the lanes, the little rope lines. These are members of Congress that stormed into a federal ICE facility despite warnings. They should absolutely be charged for this, without a doubt. No one is above the law, is what we've always been saying. No one is above the law.

...

KIRK: And that's exactly what should happen. You see, the Democrats have a big problem with Immigration Customs and Enforcement. But if you assault ICE, you get consequences. If you storm an ICE facility, there will be consequences. Rob Menendez complained that they had put their hands on a member of Congress. Oh, I must have missed the memo that he was an untouchable. He thinks they should be invulnerable, that he is royalty. And by the way, his dad is literally a traitor. Bob Menendez sold our country out to Egypt for gold bars while on the Senate foreign intelligence committee, selling out American secrets for cash. And did — he also had multiple instances of near misses with the law. This guy was a disgusting person.

...

KIRK: Throw the book at them. Kash and Pam, you got all the details you need — charge these members of Congress. The facts are there. They stormed the facility. They assaulted our ICE officers. They think they are above the law. They tried to put President Trump in jail for 700 years for something he did not do. They are begging you to indict them and do it. Don't make a big show of it. Indite them. Charge them. The only way that we end the lawfare chapter in this country is reciprocity. They came after us, they assaulted ICE officers, and we will go after them.

  1. ### Fox’s comically pathetic spin for a foreign government gifting Trump a $400 million plane

05/12/25

Steve Bannon: “Certain members of Congress should be arrested this afternoon for their activities on this situation up in Newark”}:

:{:{05/12/25}:

May 12, 2025, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

STEVE BANNON (HOST): This hurtling towards a constitutional crisis, which we are hurtling towards, it must be resolved by the end of June. When the Supreme Court leaves for the summer, they're not back until October. This cannot fester over the summer. This issue, particularly about the deportations.

Something else, I believe certain members of Congress should be arrested this afternoon for their activities on this situation up in Newark. The mayor was already arrested.

I think Stephen Miller, as we started here on the show with Rogan O'Handley, DC Draino, to talk about the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus like President Lincoln did during the Civil War, that this is something that has to be on the table.

I believe that this is going to be even a bigger part of the controversy. I think it's gonna become part of the conversation. I know Stephen Miller and the crack team over there, he's deputy White House counsel — chief of staff for policy, I think Stephen and his team are all over this. Remember Stephen ran America First Law, which is outstanding, did so much of the great work.

This is the convergence of the crises, right? You have the constitutional crisis on the mass deportations and really President Trump's power under Article 2. The judge in San Francisco on Friday said he doesn't have the ability to either cut costs of personnel at 21 separate federal agencies, so the whole Article 2 powers of the president now being challenged by, let's face it, radical Marxist — neo-Marxist, a judicial supremacists in the federal judiciary, it's got to be taken care of.

They asked me at the Financial Times situation on Saturday night, what happens to the Supreme Court's rules? I said, hey, we're going to see at the time. It's that open a question.

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POLITICO

New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka arrested at ICE facility

The Democrat, who is also running for governor, was involved in a scrum with three members of Congress seeking a tour of Delaney Hall.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was detained while at Delaney Hall, a facility to house migrants. | Seth Wenig/AP

By Ry Rivard

05/09/2025

NEWARK, New Jersey — The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, who is also a Democratic candidate for governor, was handcuffed and detained by federal officials on Friday at a protest ofan immigration detention centerfollowing a scrum involving federal agents and three members of Congress seeking a tour of the facility.

The arrest followed a chaotic scene in the detention facility’s parking lot involving protesters, federal law enforcement officers and the three Democratic members — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver — at Delaney Hall. It is the Trump administration’s newest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, which is expected to play a major role in its Northeast immigration operations.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was being held at a separate ICE field office in his own city as elected Democrats in New Jersey scrambled to get him released.

House members, protesters clash with authorities at New Jersey ICE facility

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The members of Congress all said they were touched to varying degrees and, in one case, assaulted by federal authorities at the facility.

“This most assuredly is the most discomforting, concerning visit we have had. And what we experienced was the weaponization, of the abuse of power, that this administration has given ICE to do,” Watson Coleman said. “ICE is out of control.”

The mayor and the three members of Congress had been visiting Delaney Hall hoping to inspect conditions inside. While the members were inside, Baraka waited in a fenced in parking lot at the facility while protesters gathered outside the fence.

The roughly 1,000-bed facility just recently started taking detainees. The Baraka administration has tried to prevent it from opening, taking the private prison operator that runs the facility to court and alleging it does not have proper city permits.

The detention unfolded after Baraka was apparently allowed inside the fenced parking lot at the facility and then later told to leave.

The three House members had been inside the facility waiting for a tour [for two hours?] but then came out after officers wearing gear that identified them variously as federal police, ICE and Homeland Security personnel began gathering near Baraka in the parking lot. At one point, the three Democratic members came out as authorities threatened to arrest Baraka. They all exited to a parking lot outside the fence where protesters had gathered in an attempt to defuse the situation and to avoid Baraka getting arrested.

The three members then reentered the fenced area while Baraka waited outside the fence, but Menendez quickly came back and warned Baraka that the authorities still wanted to arrest him. When Menendez came to warn Baraka, he looked through the fence and told the mayor, “They are talking about coming out to arrest you.”

Later, Menendez told POLITICO that he’d witnessed an agent inside the fenced area talking on the phone with someone who told the agent to arrest Baraka, who by then was outside of the fenced area. McIver gave a similar account in a press conference.

Then law enforcement officials all came out, setting off a scrum in the parking lot area outside the fence, with Baraka and 80-year-old Watson Coleman near its middle.

It was a chaotic scene.

The group then moved to reenter the fenced-in area as Baraka was handcuffed and detained.

The interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, confirmed that Baraka was in custody.

“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” shewrote on X. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”

But the members of Congress also said they had been touched.

McIver, who represents Newark, said she and her colleagues came to the facility for a “simple oversight visit” but they had to wait about two hours to get inside. She and Watson Coleman were “assaulted” and Menendez was “roughed up” afterward. Menendez said that “all of us were touched,” calling what happened to McIver an “assault.”

As they reached the gate after the scrum to reenter the secure area of the facility, Menendez said he witnessed a federal law enforcement official assault McIver.

“It was a complete shove,” Menendez said in an interview.

McIver gave a similar account.

But even after that, the three members of Congress continued inside the secure area and received a tour. None of the members said they witnessed deplorable conditions at the facility, but by then the mayor’s arrest had overtaken the inspection.

“What we just witnessed was disgusting,” McIver told reporters. “If they can treat three members of Congress like that, just imagine how they can treat people on the street each and every day.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, described the events differently. It said in a statement that as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall a group of protesters and two members of Congress — Menendez and Watson Coleman — “stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

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“These members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk,” the agency said. “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility. This is an evolving situation.”

protesters on the scene, which included members of the SEIU union, began moving to the field office across town when they learned Barak was being taken there.

By late afternoon, the three members of Congress reassembled at the field office and began pushing back against claims that they had stormed the facility. At least 100 protesters remained outside the facility in the rain Friday evening, chanting “free Ras Baraka.”

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Baraka, astaunch progressive and one of six Democrats running for governor this year, has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s plans for the immigration detention facility. While other Democratic candidates have spoken out against the Trump administration’s recent immigration actions, none have done so as forcefully as Baraka. He took part in a rally against the reopening of the facility in March — footage of which hasappeared in his campaign ads — and has been “demanding entry” into Delaney Hall throughout the week since its opening.

Newark, which is home to a diverse population, previously filed a complaint with the Essex County Superior Court, alleging that ICE was planning to open Delaney Hall “without following proper building safety protocols.” (DHS told POLITICO in a statement that the facility has “valid permits and inspection from plumbing, electricity to fire codes has been cleared.”) GEO Group, the private prison contractor that owns the facility, has accused the legal action of being “politically motivated.” GEO Group referred POLITICO to ICE for comment.

At the March rally, Baraka told reporters that he would “love to see action” from his fellow Democratic candidates regarding immigration.

“They say they are against the detention facility in Newark, and that’s the talk,” Baraka said at the time. “I would love to see them out to help us in this effort. I mean, it is a competition, so maybe they feel like coming here supports me. I don’t know what it is. I can’t speak for them, but I would love to see them out here.”

The arrest puts Baraka in the national spotlight with a month to go before the June 10 primary. Just two hours after he was led away in handcuffs, Baraka’s campaign sent out a text message asking for donations. “Ras was at Delaney Hall today demanding entry into the ICE detention center where Trump and MAGA extremists are illegally detaining people,” it read. “Ras is ready to do whatever it takes to stop Trump and to protect New Jerseyans from his extreme agenda. We need you with us now more than ever.”

Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement he was “outraged by the unjust arrest” of Baraka. The governor noted that he signed a law several years ago that aims to ban private immigration detention facilities, but the law has not been enforced amid a pending lawsuit.

“Mayor Baraka is an exemplary public servant who has always stood up for our most vulnerable neighbors,” he said. “I am calling for his immediate release by federal law enforcement.”

The arrest alarmed other pro-immigrant activists who were in attendance.

“If they can do this to a mayor that has a profile as large as Mayor Baraka, what are they going to do to people protesting at Tesla stores?” said Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

Other Democratic candidates running for governor condemned the arrest. Rep. Mikie Sherrillcalled it an “absolute outrage,” while Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City,said it was “a dangerous precedent — and it demands condemnation in the strongest possible terms.” Former state Senate President Steve Sweeney called for his release, as did Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who said that Delaney Hall has “an environment ripe with mistreatment and abuse.”

New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller said that he will go to Delaney Hall tomorrow, and called on the other candidates to join him “in standing together for justice.”

Meanwhile, Republicans attacked Baraka. Bob Hugin, the state Republican Party chair, warned that Baraka would be a governor “who puts political theater ahead of public safety and the rule of law.” The GOP gubernatorial hopefuls also went after him, with former radio host Bill Spadea saying that he “should be embarrassed by his behavior” and former Assemblymember Jack Ciattarelli calling Baraka “shameful.”

“In Newark, the airport is in the midst of an unprecedented & dangerous meltdown, the public schools are failing students & families, and there is crime in the streets every day,” Ciattarelli wrote. “And yet its Mayor and leading Democrat candidate for Governor … is busy shilling for illegal Immigrants at an ICE detention center with a cheap publicity stunt.”

*Madison Fernandez and Daniel Han contributed to this report.

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AN 4 25

The Trump lawyer who is now New Jersey’s acting U.S. attorney ratcheted up the buffoonery this week with her claim that she will investigate our governor and attorney general.

Alina Habba appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Thursday to say she’s opening an investigation into Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matt Platkin over the Immigrant Trust Directive, a state order that bars state and local police officers from becoming de facto immigration agents.

“We are to take all criminal, violent criminals and criminals, out of this country and completely enforce federal law, and anybody who does get in that way, in the way of what we are doing, which is not political, it is simply against crime, will be charged in the state of New Jersey for obstruction, for concealment, and I will come after them hard. Those investigations will start immediately,” Habba told Hannity.

A normal prosecutor would probably keep this under wraps so her targets wouldn’t know from minute one that they’re being investigated. But for all we know, there is no actual investigation. Habba, clearly reveling in the attention this high-profile appointment has granted her, wanted to say something that would make headlines, so she did. I wouldn’t be surprised if her on-air threat is as far as this alleged investigation goes.

That Habba is targeting Murphy and Platkin for the Immigrant Trust Directive is not a surprise. Anti-immigration hard-liners like Habba have twisted efforts like the directive to claim that it does something it does not. It does not bar police from working with immigrant agents to arrest suspected criminals. What it does is prevent local cops from seeing a brown person on the street and asking for their papers. But the facts about the directive are not important for Habba; what’s important is she can use it to promise retribution for her — and President Trump’s — political foes.

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Multiple judges have rejected legal challenges to the Immigrant Trust Directive, including one judge appointed by President Trump himself.

Murphy was asked about Habba’s claim on a podcast recorded Friday. His response was fairly muted considering Habba basically threatened to arrest him, but at least he defended his administration’s efforts to protect the countless immigrants living in New Jersey who have done nothing wrong.

“We go after criminals hard, period, full stop, regardless of their immigration status. What we don’t do is we don’t go after somebody for jaywalking or where there’s no probable cause of a crime. And we’re very clear about that,” Murphy said.

Platkin, speaking at an unrelated press conference in Newark, was a bit more knives-out when asked about Habba.

“I hope she starts doing her job,” Platkin said.

Seems unlikely. The U.S. attorney gig is a plum appointment, but it’s probably a bit of a slog overseeing nearly 200 attorneys and handling some complicated cases. That’s probably why we didn’t see a lot of Habba’s predecessors, Craig Carpenito and Philip Sellinger, yet Habba is out here cosplaying as a cop for the New York Post and targeting Democrats on Fox News. That sounds a lot more fun than doing work.

Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, told me Habba’s threat against Murphy and Platkin is in line with the Trump administration’s focus on TV ratings and viral social media posts rather than governing. It’s also part of a broader attempt by the administration to make sure their opponents know they could end up in jail or, if possible, deported.

“They’ll go after political opponents, whether those are individuals, whether those are student protestors, whether those are institutions like law firms and universities, or whether those are state governments,” Torres said

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2 23

Longtime politician and New Jersey State Senator Samuel Thompson, a former President Donald Trump supporter, says he is leaving the Republican Party and will seek reelection as a Democrat, NBC reports.

The retired U.S. Army official told Associated Press (AP) in a phone interview he made the decision "after party leaders questioned his fitness for office because of his age." Thompson is 87.

“It is my life. It gives me something to do every day when I wake up to get there and help people. The alternative is sit at home and just wait to die? I have to be active,” the senator said. “I think I’m doing a public service.”

READ MORE:**Former member of Trump administration explains why the former president’s GOP influence is fizzling out**

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, shared his admiration for the senator's commitment to his role in a statement, describing Thompson as "a tireless public servant," according to AP.

Thompson said many of his colleagues in the state Senate "work part time as legislators while also holding other jobs," but "he works only as a legislator."

AP reports GOP state Senator and Chairman Rob Bengivenga contended that"although he considered Thompson a friend and mentor and wanted him to be part of the party’s future, leaders decided to support another candidate for state Senate."...

https://www.desmog.com/**2022/10/**18/new-jersey-sues-shell-exxon-api-oil-public-deception-climate/

the state of New Jersey filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against five oil companies and the oil industry’s most powerful lobbying group for covering up and misleading the public about climate change, the latest round of state and municipal-led climate litigation seeking accountability from the oil industry.

Thelawsuit, filed in the New Jersey Superior Court, states that the companies knew about climate change for decades and actively sought to conceal that information from the public. Instead, they funded PR campaigns aimed at confusing and misleading the public.

The oil companies “concealed and misrepresented the dangers of fossil fuels; disseminated false and misleading information about the existence, causes, and effects of climate change; and aggressively promoted the ever-increasing use of their products at ever-greater volumes,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit names ExxonMobil, Shell Oil Company, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobbying group in which the five oil companies were members.

The case comes just ahead of the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated New Jersey and other parts of the eastern seaboard, and the storm “previews the grave climate-related consequences New Jersey faces as a direct result of Defendants’ tortious deception,” the lawsuit argues.

As it happens, nearly 25 years ago, Shell predicted with remarkable accuracy the events that would broadly unfold.In a 1998 internal document that laid out future climate scenarios, Shell described a hypothetical catastrophic storm that would ravage the U.S. East Coast in 2010 — one that sounds unmistakably like Hurricane Sandy — which sets off a society-wide backlash that would engulf the oil industry. The result would be a legal and policy reckoning. From Shell’s 1998 forecast:

“Following the storms, a coalition of environmental NGOs brings aclass-action suit against the US government and fossil-fuel companies on the grounds of neglecting what scientists (including their own) have been saying for years: that something must be done. Asocial reaction to the use of fossil fuels grows, and individuals become ‘vigilante environmentalists’ in the same way, a generation earlier, they had become fiercely anti-tobacco. Direct-action campaigns against companies escalate. Young consumers, especially, demand action.”

Today, a long list of major climate accountability cases are proceeding in state courts, each with extensive documented evidence demonstrating that the oil industry, including Shell, covered up internal climate science and instead chose to fund climate denial and greenwashing campaigns.

“Based on their own research, these companies understood decades ago that their products were causing climate change and would have devastating environmental impacts down the road,”New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkinsaid in a statement. “They went to great lengths to hide the truth and mislead the people of New Jersey, and the world. In short, these companies put their profits ahead of our safety.”

Shell knew about the risks and reality of climate change at least as far back as the 1980s. A 1988 internal Shell document called “The Greenhouse Effect,” detailed Shell’s knowledge that climate change was real, that fossil fuels were a principal cause, and that 1.5 to 3.5 degrees Celsius warming was possible. The document also warned that society could turn against fossil fuels if they learned about how serious the threat was.

The New Jersey legal campaign, like the others, seeks compensation from the oil industry for the large and growing destructive cost of the worsening climate crisis.

“The lawsuit by New Jersey adds to growing momentum to hold Big Oil accountable for its decades of deception and harm,” Kathy Mulvey, the accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “As the tobacco control movement has demonstrated, litigation is a powerful tool that can and should be used to hold bad actors accountable and protect people and the planet over profit" [twt]

in response to questions from DeSmog, Anna Arata, a spokesperson for Shell, stated: “The Shell Group’s position on climate change has been a matter of public record for decades. We agree that action is needed now on climate change, we fully support the need for society to transition to a lower-carbon future and we’re committed to playing our part by addressing our own emissions and helping customers to reduce theirs.”

Arata went on: “We do not believe the courtroom is the right venue to address climate change, but that smart policy from government, supported by action from all business sectors, including ours, and from civil society, is the appropriate way to reach solutions and drive progress.”

But Shell’s misdirection continues through to the present. The company, like its peers, heavily advertises its clean transition plans and investments in renewable energy, but analysts say Shell is expected to spend four times as much on oil and gas development compared to renewables. Indeed, despite the glossy ads and rhetoric, Shell’s plans to grow oil and gas production in the years ahead mean that it is on track to produce more greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 than it does today.

And as DeSmog reported last month, Shell is acutely aware of how its communications on the energy transition can open it up to further litigation, warning employees in internal emails and presentations not to confuse the oil major’s net-zero talk with the company’s actual business plan.

“It’s long overdue that the facts be aired in a New Jersey court, and the perpetrators of the disinformation campaign pay for the harms they’ve caused,” New Jersey Attorney General Platkin said.

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ew 920

city of Hoboken on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against multiple Big Oil players—including ExxonMobil, incorporated in New Jersey—joining an increasing number of state and local governments using litigation in efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for defrauding the public about foreseen climate crisis damages and to make companies "pay their fair share" of the costs of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a warming planet.

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hmn

anga dunks on nuke Ohio householder bribery:

But, the nuclear industry is still working overtime tosecure nuclear bailouts in places such as New Jersey, according to the Electrical Power Supply Association, an organization of its competitors whose customers will directly suffer from these outrageous, and apparently crooked, nuclear bailouts:

https://theintercept.com/2020/06/04/pfas-chemicals-new-jersey-solvay/

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Toxic PFAS Fallout Found Near Incinerator in Upstate New York

Sharon Lerner

PFAS contamination was found in soil and water near an incinerator in New York state that has been burning firefighting foam for the Department of Defense.

READ MORE →

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6/20

New Jersey Becomes First State to Put the Climate Crisis in Its K-12 Curriculum

CLIMATE CRISIS

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https://www.ecowatch.com/new-jersey-climate-crisis-building-permits-2644940252.html

New Jersey will be the first state in the U.S. to require builders to take the climate crisis into consideration before seeking permission for a project.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the new regulations Monday as part of the final version of the state's master energy plan, which commits New Jersey to achieving 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050, according to NJ Advance Media. But while The New York Times pointed out that other states have adopted a 2050 100 percent renewable energy goal, New Jersey will be the first to require that projects seeking Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permits consider both how their projects' emissions will contribute to global warming and how climate change will impact their building plans.

"This is a big deal," director of the water and climate team at the Natural Resources Defense Council Rob Moore told The New York Times. "For New Jersey to step to the forefront and say, 'We're going to look at future climate impacts, and that it's going to be a driver of our decision-making' — that's exactly what all 50 states need to be doing."

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new Jersey has a particularly good reason to consider how climate might impact new construction projects. The state has 130 miles of coastline and is especially vulnerable to sea level rise. Murphy cited a Rutgers study that found that the state's sea levels were projected to rise more than one foot by 2030 and two feet by 2050, NJ Advance Media explained.

"Quite frankly, it will be hard for future generations to create their Jersey Shore memories if the Jersey shore becomes only a memory," Murphy said. "We are not gonna let this keep happening without a fight."

To lead this fight, Murphy signed an executive order calling on DEP to craft the the Protecting Against Climate Threat (PACT) rules, the Daily Record reported. Those rules will include the requirement that the permitting process consider sea level rise and greenhouse gas emissions. PACT will also include new air pollution controls and compile a complete picture of New Jersey's emissions so that it can reduce them to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.

Murphy asked the DEP to have the new regulations finalized and ready to be implemented by January 2022, The New York Times explained.

However, some environmental groups criticized that timeline, saying it would allow more than a dozen new fossil fuel projects to slide in before that deadline, according to the Daily Record.

Empower NJ, a coalition of green groups, instead calls for a ban on all new fossil fuel projects.

"Without a moratorium on all new fossil fuel projects, we are losing precious time — time we don't have to waste in the race against climate change," Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of theDelaware Riverkeeper Network, told the Daily Record.

Green groups are also concerned that the 2050 clean energy goal calls for 100 percent "carbon neutral" energy. That means nuclear plants and offset natural gas can still be used.

"The (plan) still defines clean energy to include incinerators, natural gas, biogas and others," Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, told NJ Advance Media. "It does not call for a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects or a 45% reduction of emissions by 2030, and will not get the state to zero carbon by 2050."

However, other groups were pleased with the plan.

"Governor Murphy's actions today put New Jersey at the forefront of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a healthier, more prosperous, clean energy future," Tom Gilbert, campaign director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and ReThink Energy NJ, told the Daily Record.

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1219

NJ Restores Voting Rights to Residents on Probation or Parole

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RGGI back

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icn 1019

Pennsylvania, one of the nation's largest coal and natural gas producing states, is moving to join the Northeast's carbon market. It would mark the largest expansion of the multistate initiative since its inception a decade ago and a milestone in the drive by states to counter the impact of the Trump administration's retreat from climate action.

Pennsylvania would become the largest member in terms of carbon emissions of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), now a nine-state compact to curb pollution from the electricity sector.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday that joining RGGI would be a necessary step for achieving the targets for cuts in greenhouse gas pollution he set earlier this year.

"If we want a Pennsylvania that is habitable for our children and grandchildren, where temperatures aren't in the 90s in October ... where flooding doesn't destroy homes and businesses over and over again, we need to get serious right now about addressing the climate crisis," Wolf said.

It is not clear how far Wolf can go to join RGGI without action by the Republican-controlled state legislature. As buzz grew in the state capital earlier this year on a possible RGGI move, the Wolf administrationreportedly floated a proposal that indicated legislative action would be needed to authorize spending the hundreds of millions of dollars per year in proceeds from carbon fees that the state stands to receive from its involvement in RGGI. But Wolf signed an order Thursday to begin the process of establishing the rules to govern the state's entry to the RGGI market without waiting for the legislature.

"This is the beginning of the process," he said. "I'm looking forward to a robust conversation with environmental advocates, the General Assembly, Pennsylvanians all across the state to figure out how we do this right."

Wolf said he expects Pennsylvania to be a RGGI member within the next two years.

New Jersey, an original RGGI member that dropped out under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, is currently moving forward with establishing the rules to rejoin RGGI, a months-long process that it expects to have in place by Jan. 1, 2020. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, tried to bring his state into RGGI but was blocked earlier this year by the state's Republican-controlled legislature. 

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NJ school district debates whether or not to feed kids who owe more than $20 in school lunch ‘debt’

Marissa Higgins / Daily Kos

Another day, another school debating whether or not to punish hungry kids because they can’t afford to pay for their lunches. Today’s horror brings us to New Jersey.

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Water Rights Group Calls on Newark Officials to Resist Privatization of City's Water Supply Amid Lead Crisis

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intercept

b:{ad Chemistry:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition:color 100ms ease 0s;display:inline !important"):}:

:{New Jersey Is Making Companies Pay for Toxic Contamination — Shining a New Light on a Little-Known Offender:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

Sharon Lerner:{ — :{4:30 a.m.:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}::(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition:color 100ms ease 0s"):}:

In the absence of federal regulations, New Jersey is the first state to set safety levels for PFAS contamination and make companies pay for clean up.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27092018/election-2018-governor-races-renewable-energy-wisconsin-maine-michigan-colorado-new-mexico-nevada

Some of the most consequential elections for climate policy this fall could be the 36 governor's races, where a blue wave could position clean energy advocates as a significant counterforce against the Trump administration's fossil fuel agenda.

Republicans currently hold a near-record 33 governorships—a lock on power that has served as a brake on clean energy progress in some areas.

But the tide may be ready to turn. As many as a third of those seats are considered toss-ups or are leaning Democratic in the upcoming election, according to analysts like the Cook Political Report and University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

Several of the Democratic contenders have 100 percent clean energy commitments in their platforms, and many others support ambitious renewable portfolio standards, net-metering incentives and other climate policies.

[map]

The model for environmental advocates is New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat elected last November who has reversed several of the policies of his Republican predecessor, Chris Christie. He reinstated New Jersey's membership in the Northeast's carbon cap-and-trade system known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and signed legislation to mandate that utilities obtain 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. With Murphy's first appointee, the state's Public Utility Commission now has a Democratic majority and a mandate to come up with a new program to incentivize rooftop solar.

"The most critical policies are set at the state level," said Adam Browning, executive director of Vote Solar. "When it comes to the renewable energy agenda, the future is very much on the ballot this November."

These are some of the ways state policies could change:

Advocates and opponents of climate policies and clean energy have been pouring millions of dollars into the races.

...

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https://www.alternet.org/environment/nj-governor-said-he-wants-stand-fossil-fuel-industry-so-will-he-stop-penneast-pipeline

anti frak

http://www.alternet.org/environment/new-law-new-jersey-combating-climate-and-hunger-same-time

A new law in New Jersey aims to shrink the state’s climate footprint and feed the hungry by drastically reducing the amount of wasted food that ends up in landfills.

The law requires the state to develop a plan over the next year to cut the state’s food waste by half by 2030. The bipartisan measure, which passed the state legislature without a single dissenting vote and was signed last week by Gov. Chris Christie, mirrors an Environmental Protection Agency goal for the entire country set under the Obama administration in 2015.

“The beauty of the bill is it’s going to get at two long-festering problems—climate and hunger—at the same time,” said Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City. “The states are going to have to take the lead on issues like climate and this new law holds the hope of tackling one piece of that problem.”

Up to 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. ends up uneaten and tossed into the garbage. So much food is thrown away every year that it adds up to the equivalent of about 20 pounds of food per person every month. Discarded food also wastes cropland and energy that are used in the production of food.

Worldwide, processing wasted food generates about 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually. That means if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest climate polluter after China and the U.S., according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

When leftovers and rotting fruit and vegetables are tossed out and end up in the dump, they become a major climate problem. Decomposing food pollutes the atmosphere with methane, a greenhouse gas 34 times as powerful in warming the climate as carbon dioxide over the course of a century.

Larry Hajna, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said that while New Jersey has implemented more effective methane emissions controls at its landfills over the past 30 years, much of the state’s garbage is shipped to landfills out of state where New Jersey officials have no control over emissions.

Less methane will be emitted from those landfills and the climate will benefit if the amount of food New Jerseyans discard is cut drastically, he said.

At least five states either ban organic waste from landfills or mandate food waste recycling to some degree, according to the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic.

California mandates organic food waste recycling and requires businesses to cap the amount of food they send to the landfill each year. Connecticut and Rhode Island also require many businesses to cap the amount of food thrown out. Massachusetts and Vermont have a weight limit on food waste both individuals and businesses can throw away....

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1% of $9 billion see trms

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/nyregion/exxon-mobil-settles-with-new-jersey-over-environmental-damage.html

https://www.propublica.org/article/new-jersey-senate-examines-controversial-student-loan-agency

This story was co-published with The New York Times.

Almost a dozen people with harrowing experiences with New Jersey’s controversial student loan program testified on Monday before state lawmakers, detailing its aggressive collection tactics and onerous terms that some said had ruined them financially.

“Hesaa destroyed my family,” Tracey Timony, referring to the state’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, said at a hearing before the Higher Education and Legislative Oversight Committees of the New Jersey State Senate.

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6/14

Will Gov. Chris Christie Re-embrace Cap & Trade in Wake of EPA Rule?

hree years ago New Jersey's governor peremptorily walked out on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, saying the novel cap-and-trade scheme for Northeast power plants wasn't right for his state.

Now Gov. Chris Christie finds himself under pressure from several forces—including the Obama administration and local grassroots groups—to return to RGGI's embrace.

"It's the obvious thing for New Jersey to do," said Seth Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation. "All you need to do is pick up the phone and say, 'whoops, sorry!'"

When the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules on June 2cracking down on carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel plants, the agency suggested that one of the smartest ways for states to meet its targets would be to form multistate emissions markets –or to join existing ones, like RGGI. The flexibility to trade carbon allowances would lower compliance costs, the agency said.

But ever since a federal cap-and-trade bill passed the House during President Obama's first year in office, only to die in the Senate, any use of markets to regulate carbon dioxide has become anathema to conservative Republicans. Christie's spurning of RGGI's version was widely seen as a matter of presidential primary positioning, and he's shown no sign of reversing course.

But that could change—especially if he decides his presidential prospects are waning.

"I predict that New Jersey will rejoin RGGI when and if Gov. Christie accepts that he is not a viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination," saidRobert Stavins, a prominent environmental economist at Harvard University.

The pressure was already on even before the EPA issued its proposed rule, aimed at reducing emissions from the power sector by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Last March, environmentalists won a New Jersey court case finding that Christie's cut-and-run withdrawal from RGGI was illegal because he did it by fiat, without any due process such as hearings or public comment. In July, the state will commence just that kind of formal process, as Christie's environmental agency tries to codify its separation from RGGI into an official divorce.

RGGI advocates plan to use the agency's public hearings to argue that it would be wiser for New Jersey to reverse course and rejoin the regional arrangement than to go it alone. To stay aloof would be to forfeit the financial benefits of the cap-and-trade approach, while the state attempts to cut its carbon pollution by 48 percent by 2030, the target set for New Jersey under EPA's proposal.

"Our argument for the state to rejoin RGGI got a big shot in the arm from the EPA," said Doug O'Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, one of the groups involved in the tug of war. "The EPA proposal and our victory really put the screws into the Christie administration. The administration is in an uncomfortable place right now. They'd hoped they could pull us out of RGGI and be done with it."

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stinktanks

New Jersey

Common Sense Institute

csinj.org

973-927-9860

Solutions for New Jersey, Inc.

solutionsfornewjersey.com

609-882-1071

New Jersey State Senator Diane Allen Joins RGGI Cap & Trade Repeal Effort

May 09, 2011 JEnergy & Environment

AFP PRESS RELEASE – SEE BELOW FOR PICTURES OF TODAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE

For Immediate Release – May 9, 2011

State Senator Diane Allen: “We Must Absolutely Get Rid of RGGI”

State Senator Assails RGGI; Says Cap & Trade Scheme Must Go To Ensure New Jersey’s Competitiveness and Future Economic Growth

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Number 17: "Polluting the Garden State"

129

Frank Lautenberg v. Pete Dawkins, U.S.

Senate, New Jersey, 1988

Pulls out of cap and trade christi 180  http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-05-27-confused-chris-christie-embraces-climate-science-rejects-action

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_Jersey_and_coal

Introduction

Taking Carbon out of Coal?

New Jersey had 9 coal-fired generating stations in 2005, with 2,237 MW of capacity, representing 11.5% of the state's total electric generating capacity; New Jersey ranks 36th out of the 50 states in terms of coal-fired electric generating capacity.[1] In 2006, New Jersey's coal-fired power plants produced 10.7 million tons of CO2, 55,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 16,000 tons of nitrogen oxide; coal-fired power plants were responsible for 8.7% of the state's total CO2 emissions.[2] In 2005, New Jersey emitted 14.2 tons of CO2 per person, about 50% less than the U.S. average.[3]

No coal was mined in New Jersey in 2006.[4]

Global warming plan

In December 2008, the NJ DEP and Governor Corzine announced a new plan to attack greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The plan recommends state action and policies that will:[5]

Regional carbon trading

In April 2011, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he is re-evaluating the state's participation in a regional carbon trading program and could opt to withdraw the state. The anticipated policy reversal is in step with recent actions in Maine and New Hampshire, where Republican-dominated legislatures are trying to repeal their states' participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon market between 10 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the first mandatory emissions trading plan in the country.[6]

The program was launched in 2005 and held its first quarterly online auction for carbon credits in 2008. Participating states so far have raised nearly $861 million in carbon allowances from 11 auctions. More than half of those funds went to improving energy efficiency, according to the latest auction results posted by RGGI. New Jersey had raised $102 million in proceeds to date, the fourth highest amount behind New York, Maryland and Massachusetts. Proceeds in New Jersey are distributed through the Clean Energy Solutions Capital Investment (CESCI) loan/grant program. About one-third of the state's proceeds so far have been spent on clean energy and customer assistance programs to cut electricity costs.[6]

The governor's re-evaluation of RGGI may in part be a response to mounting pressure from outspoken RGGI opposition groups, namely Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded by David Koch in 2004, and the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC), which is funded partly by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. In February 2011, AFP launched a media blitz of radio spots and television advertisements in New Jersey to alert residents "to the fact that RGGI will cause their electricity rates to soar and cost our state jobs," according to the announcement.[6]

AFP is planning a similar media campaign for New Hampshire and has applauded a March 30, 2010 vote by the state's House of Representatives to pull New Hampshire out of the carbon trading program. In Maine, AFP is backing a bill introduced by Republican State Sen. Tom Saviello, the sole sponsor, to withdraw the state from RGGI and the northeast power grid. Steve Lonegan, director of AFP's New Jersey chapter, said that his office had provided Christie with information on RGGI and urged the governor to repeal the measure. The chapter also runs a website, NO NJ Cap and Trade, as a "resource" for RGGI opponents and New Jersey residents. According to claims on that site, energy taxes under RGGI have cost businesses and consumers more than $66 million.[6]

NJ pulls out of carbon trading

In May 2011, NJ Governor Christie pulled the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the only mandatory cap-and-trade program in the U.S., while promising to ban new coal-fired plants in the state. Branding the RGGI a "failure," Christie said he would withdraw from the program “in an orderly fashion” by the end of 2011, coinciding with the end of RGGI’s first compliance period. The RGGI currently has ten member states – New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The nine remaining states will need to provide guidance to explain how they will deal with power plants that currently hold carbon allowances from New Jersey. Christie also said that New Jersey will enact an immediate ban on new coal-fired power plants: “From this day forward any plans that anyone has regarding any type of coal-based generation of energy in New Jersey is over." He affirmed New Jersey’s commitment, through its renewable portfolio standard, to derive 22.5 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2021. And he announced the creation of a a State Energy Savings Initiative Oversight Committee, to design a framework to improve energy efficiency at state-owned buildings.[7]

Citizen activism

Hudson Generating Station and Environmental Justice

Resident RJ Harper on the Hudson Plant

Public Service Enterprise Group's Hudson Generating Station near Jersey City ranked #2 in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)'s 2010 report on the nation’s most toxic coal fired power plants. NAACP ranking on environmental justice and coal was based on level of poisonous emissions from coal plants, cross referenced by proximity to large populations of communities of color and low-income communities. Within a three mile radius of the Hudson plant, 85% of the area's 100,000 plus residents are African Americans with an average income of $10,000 per year. Hudson is among over 100 coal plants near residential areas.[8]

History

With little or no coal reserves, New Jersey has no history of coal mining.[9] The coal power industry is also relatively weak in the state, which is dominated by nuclear and natural gas-fired power production.

The license for the 641-MW Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, built in 1969, is expiring in 2009. However, due to a carbon cap that has been proposed by the state's governor - and facing the alternative of building new coal-fired power plants - state regulators are now considering extending Oyster Creek's license.[10]

Legislative issues

Clean energy spending

A March 2011 Sierra Club report, "A Clean Northeast: Moving the Northeast Beyond Coal and Toward a Clean Energy Future" notes that NJ ranks second in the country in using solar technology, and is among the top states for venture capitalists and investments for clean energy research and development. The report also notes that NJ Gov. Chris Christie cut about $463 million worth of clean energy-dedicated funds in 2010, and is planning to divert $66 million for the proposed 2011 budget. Also, the state's new energy master plan calls for reducing clean energy subsidies and building more power plants using fossil fuels. The report argues that reinstating the clean energy investments can help save $1.5 billion from not having to import coal, and reduce costs in health care.[11]

Proposed coal plants

Active

Cancelled

Coal lobbying groups

Coal power companies