Pallone Provision to Strengthen NOAA Facilities at Sandy Hook Passes House

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2019

Public Lands Package Reauthorizes Land and Water Conservation Fund

Washington, DC – Last night a provision authored by Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) to strengthen the facilities at Sandy Hook passed the House of Representatives. Numerous stakeholders, including the state of New Jersey, asked Pallone to provide a legislative fix allowing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to directly take over the marine science lab lease on Sandy Hook. Previously the State of New Jersey leased the lab from the National Park Service with NOAA subleasing the lab from New Jersey. The provision will improve the efficiency of NOAA’s facilities at Sandy Hook.

“I am proud that NOAA will be able to continue to important work at Sandy Hook, including research on climate change and its impact on New Jersey’s coast,” said Pallone. “This is an important example of how we can work together to improve efficiency for our government.”

The change is part of S. 47, which includes components of over one hundred individual bills, permanently authorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), designates over 1 million acres of wilderness, and protects over 1 million acres of public land from future mining operations, including a sensitive area at the gateway of Yellowstone National Park. The bipartisan bill previously passed the Senate and will now be sent to the president for signature.

“This legislation will help to protect and preserve our nation’s land and resources for future generations,” said Pallone. “Thanks to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, places in New Jersey like Gateway National Recreational Area and Sandy Hook can maintain and improve their facilities and remain open to all Americans – and now the Fund can continue helping communities around the country meet their potential. I’m proud to support this landmark package and look forward to seeing it become law.”

In New Jersey, LWCF has already invested $346 million to protect public lands, historic sites, and increase recreational opportunities.

Pallone, Kennedy, Northeastern Representatives Introduce Legislation to Shield Sandy Gasoline Reserve from Elimination by Trump

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2017


Washington, DC –Congressmen Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) together with Reps. Michael E. Capuano (D-MA), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), William R. Keating (D-MA), Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH), James P. McGovern (D-MA), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Paul D. Tonko (D-NY), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) and Peter Welch (D-VT) today introduced legislation to create in law a Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve. The Reserve, which would hold up to one million barrels of gasoline, is critical to ensuring that the region is protected from a disruption in the supply of gasoline due to a natural or manmade disaster.

The Members of Congress stressed that the move was necessary because President Donald J. Trump has moved to eliminate the reserve created in 2014 in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy by President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

“President Trump’s effort to eliminate the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve is as outrageous as it is shortsighted. Given how severely limited access to gasoline was in the wake of Sandy, it is imperative to defend a measure that can save our economy and even save lives in an emergency.

“The legislation we’re introducing will protect the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve from being wiped out by establishing it in law as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

The legislation:

· Amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) to create a Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) of one million gallons as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

· Initially covers the states of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
· Provides the Secretary of Energy with authority to add additional, contiguous states to be covered by the reserve.

· Permits the Secretary to use the reserve upon a finding by the President that a severe energy supply interruption exists or is likely to exist in the region within the next 30 days.

· Requires the Secretary to sell the gasoline at fair market value with no loss of revenue to the United States.

· Directs the Secretary to transmit to the President and Congress a plan within 60 days of enactment describing the acquisition of storage and related facilities for the NGSR. 

· Authorizes the Secretary to acquire, store, and transport refined petroleum products acquired by either purchase or exchange.

Pallone and Kennedy said that with the 2017 Hurricane season already producing monstrous Atlantic storms like Irma, it was even more critical than ever to ensure that the Northeast had in place a reserve and other mechanisms to make the region more resilient when another storm strikes. They noted that it was particularly important to have a reserve in place in light of the fact that updated predictions by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have called for above average activity this year, including 11-17 named storms, five to nine of which would become hurricanes.

Pallone, who is the Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with jurisdiction over Federal energy policy, said:

“Maybe being whisked to Bedminster by federal vehicles and tax dollars might have caused President Trump to forget the devastation that Sandy brought to New Jersey and the northeastern United States, but we and our constituents have not. Access to gasoline was severely limited in the aftermath of the storm, causing major problems in the region impacting homeowners, businesses and emergency personnel. We learned hard lessons from this experience and put in place a plan to make the region more resilient when another storm strikes.”

Kennedy, who also serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee added:

“After every natural disaster, once rescue and recovery efforts have ended, our country and our government not only reflect on the strength of our response, but study our shortcomings and promise never to repeat them. Once the winds and rains of Sandy subsided, a shortage of gasoline hampered recovery efforts and compounded the suffering of our neighbors throughout the Northeast. If this gasoline reserve is eliminated for political reasons, it will leave our constituents vulnerable and our local governments unprepared when the unexpected arrives again.”

Pallone Questions NOAA Official on Fisheries Management

Challenges Administration on Its Data Collection Program and Economic Impacts on Fishing Communities

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) appeared at a House Committee on Natural Resources oversight hearing on the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act), the legislation that has set the framework for determining hw much of any fish stock can be harvested where and by whom each year in federal marine waters. The Magnuson Act is set to be reauthorized before next year.

The hearing comes on top of concerns raised by recreational and commercial fishermen that the Magnuson Act is being implemented with faulty data and a lack of necessary scientific information on fish stocks. The hearing also raised issues of the economic impact that the current federal regulatory regime for fisheries management has on fishing communities.

At the hearing, Pallone questioned Sam Rauch, Acting Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s fisheries service is the federal agency charged with administering the Magnuson Act and is responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s living marine resources and their habitat.

Pallone questioned Rauch about the agency’s progress in transition from the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) to a new improved national recreational angler registry, known as the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). The Magnuson Act mandated the transition be done by 2009. Rauch replied that they had not fully met that deadline and that at this time they are still using MRFSS data in conjunction with the new MRIP system.

Pallone further questioned Rauch regarding how NOAA incorporates storms in their models of how much fishing and fish harvesting is occurring—another requirement on NOAA in the Magnuson Act. While Rauch could not directly provide an answer at the time, Pallone stressed the importance of taking into account storms so fishermen are not penalized for time when fishing does not occur.

Lastly, Pallone raised the federal fishery disaster declaration made for New Jersey as a result of Superstorm Sandy and the requirement under the Magnuson Act to provide a comprehensive economic and socio-economic evaluation of the affected region’s fisheries. Pallone requested the results of the report and asked Rauch for recommendations on how the Magnuson Act can be changed to better respond to natural disasters after such storms. Rauch responded that the report had not been completed, and when Pallone asked when it would be completed, he responded that he did not know.

Pallone called for follow up from the agency on his questions that were left unanswered.

Say it Aint So Bob: Menendez Blocks Obama’s Scientists Over Unrelated, ‘Deeply Offensive’ Cuba Policies

From Think Progress's Wonk Room -

Obama’s climate scientists are collateral damage in an unrelated fight over Cuba policy with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Menendez is responsible for an anonymous hold on the nominations of Dr. John Holdren and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, both world-renowned experts on climate change and the physical sciences. Holdren and Lubchenco “sailed through” their confirmation hearing on February 12. But as the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports, Menendez has anonymously blocked their full Senate confirmation “as leverage to get Senate leaders’ attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees’ credentials.” Menendez, a Cuban American, took to the Senate floor last night “to deliver a withering denunciation” of proposed changes to U.S.-Cuban relations included in the budget omnibus:

We should evaluate how to encourage the regime to allow a legitimate opening – not in terms of cell phones and hotel rooms that Cubans can’t afford, but in terms of the right to organize, the right to think and speak what they believe. However, what we are doing with this Omnibus bill, Mr. President, is far from evaluation, and the process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the Omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide.

Menendez points to a memo prepared by the staff of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) as recommending a policy change that Menendez worries could “rescue the regime by improving its economic fortunes,” namely giving Cuba “financial credit to purchase agricultural products from the U.S.”

These picks have in fact languished for months, having been put forward by President Obama on December 20. Lubchenco’s nomination to be administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has been stalled in part by the turmoil over finding a Secretary of Commerce, whose department includes NOAA. NOAA career staff are gamely working to draft a spending plan for the $830 million in the recently passed recovery act, and energy adviser Carol Browner is managing climate policy from the White House with a skeleton staff. But the Office of Science and Technology Policy is a key White House office, and its director Holdren is meant to be the top science adviser to the president. The “wise counsel” of Holdren and Lubchenco is irreplaceable, especially given the scope of the challenges our nation faces.

Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi declined to comment on the putatively anonymous hold. “He takes a back seat to no one on the environment,” Mohamadi discussed by telephone, saying the senator’s “record best reflects his feelings on the urgency of combatting climate change.” When asked if Sen. Menendez hopes to have climate legislation on President Obama’s desk before the end of 2009, Mohamadi explained that Sen. Menendez believes it “would be helpful to have it in place going into the December international climate change conference in Copenhagen.”

Each day that Dr. Holdren and Dr. Lubchenco have to sit on the sidelines makes that goal more unlikely.