Saving Seafood

N.J. to Trump: Stay away from our ‘treasured coastal communities’

February 2, 2018 — The [Gov. Phil] Murphy administration has sent another signal to Washington that it does not want drilling off the Jersey Shore.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal joined attorneys general from 11 other states in sending a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday, objecting to the new plan to drill for oil and natural gas throughout federal waters.

In the letter, the attorneys general express “deep concerns” and claim that the plan represents “disregard for vital state interests, economies, and resources.”

Grewal was joined by the attorneys general of North Carolina, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Virginia in the letter to Zinke. Each attorney general outlines concerns specific to their states.

Read the full story at NJ.com

 

Murphy restarts big offshore wind plan for New Jersey

February 1, 2018 — ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order Wednesday to return the state to national leadership in offshore wind energy.

New Jersey will finally implement the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act of 2010, which languished under Gov. Chris Christie, Murphy said at a press conference at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s wind farm and wastewater treatment plant.

The law creates ratepayer-financing of wind field development through an Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Credit program. But Christie’s administration never finalized regulations to implement it, and developers have not received the approvals from the Board of Public Utilities to move forward, Murphy said.

The order commits the state to quickly generate 1,100 megawatts annually of offshore wind energy, and 3,500 megawatts of generation by the year 2030 — enough to power 1.5 million homes, according to Murphy.

“Thirty-five hundred megawatts would make us, I think, the number one aspirational wind field in the world,” Murphy said. Scale, reliability and predictability will make it possible to attract manufacturing, the governor said.

Environment New Jersey Director Doug O’Malley said New York and Massachusetts have goals of 2,400 and 1,600 megawatts, respectively.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a co-sponsor of OWEDA, said the plan is not just to place windmills in the ocean, but to jump-start a wind-energy manufacturing industry.

Murphy’s executive order directs the BPU to begin the rulemaking process and to work with the Department of Environmental Protection to establish an Offshore Wind Strategic Plan.

The BPU must implement a renewable energy credit program and solicit for projects to generate 1,100 megawatts of electric power.

“This is great news for the people of New Jersey and a positive step forward in bringing offshore wind to the state,” said Thomas Brostrom, president of Orsted North America. The company holds a lease to develop Ocean Wind, a project with the potential to generate 1,000 megawatts of offshore wind about 10 miles off Atlantic City.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City 

 

South Jersey Times: Christie should fight hard to keep drilling ban

January 11, 2018 — With less than a week to go in office and part of his legacy on the line, Gov. Chris Christie has called out President Donald Trump over his administration’s unilateral call to open the entire East Coast to offshore energy drilling.

The possibility of drilling causing a spill despoiling the Atlantic Coast or otherwise ruining New Jersey’s tourism and fishing industries has long been a third rail of Garden State politics, uniting Democrats and Republicans alike. Past attempts to increase coastal drilling — and even President Barack Obama authorized them — generally had “opt-out” features for states, often won after protests from New Jersey lawmakers and governors.

The latest move by U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, with Trump’s apparent blessing, to open both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to more drilling has no specific carve-outs. A current drilling moratorium for the Atlantic coast was supposed to last until at least 2022.

With all due respect to most of the New Jersey elected officeholders who circled the wagons against the Zinke proposal, just as they had in the past: They have no juice with this president.

Read the full story at the South Jersey Times