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NJ residents hit with doubled bills as lawmakers fume at Murphy’s ‘energy disaster plan,’ demand hearings

NJ residents hit with doubled bills as lawmakers fume at Murphy’s ‘energy disaster plan,’ demand hearings

After a surge in home energy bills that left many New Jersey residents with costs that have doubled, or more, there have been widespread calls for hearings to hold the state utility commission, the governor and supporters of green energy accountable. State Sen. Mike Testa, R-Salem, echoed those calls and said on Wednesday that much of the blame goes to Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy’s “Energy Master Plan,” launched in 2020. “New Jersey is already one of the most unaffordable states in the United States of America. Now people are being hit with energy bills that are essentially doubled. And look, I get it that it was a hot July, but it wasn’t that hot that your energy bills should have doubled,” Testa said. One constituent apparently told Testa they raised their thermostat four degrees on average this summer in the hopes of saving money but that the cost still somehow increased “significantly.” GOP LAWMAKER TORCHES OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS AS MAYOR WARNS OF ‘STAR WARS’ BACKDROPS Homeowners in suburban Morris County vented about the news on a local social media group, according to the Morristown Daily Record, with a Parsippany resident questioning a $782 monthly bill. “Quite frankly, what I think happened is, via the Murphy Energy Master Plan that I’ve often called the energy disaster plan, it seemed that the BPU (New Jersey Board of Public Utilities) and the Murphy administration are working in tandem chasing this green energy dream. “It’s what I call the energy disaster plan. It’s a green energy nightmare,” he said, adding that BPU officials went so far as to wear windmill pins at public functions amid New Jersey’s kerfuffle over offshore turbines. In a lengthy statement, BPU acknowledged it had received correspondence from New Jerseyans and offered several potential reasons for the rate hikes. The board cited increases in generation costs and usage, and it asked customers to contact their utility or the board right away if they find an “anomaly and cannot determine an explanation” A one-time $175 bill credit program is also available, a board spokesperson said. IDAHO FARMER BLASTS BIDEN’S WINDMILL PROJECT: ‘IT WILL DESTROY THE DESERT’ PJM, the energy transmission company that covers much of the Mid-Atlantic, offered data to Fox News Digital on the matter as well. PJM research showed electricity demand is likely to increase in the region particularly due to “proliferation of high-demand data centers” and “thermal generators retiring at a rapid pace due to government and private sector policies as well as economics.” Meanwhile, at the federal level, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., fumed at the BPU this week in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, which cited “thousands” of constituents discovering unbearable bill increases. “Given these alarming reports, I demand that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) hold a public hearing in South Jersey to allow residents to voice their concerns directly to the Board,” he wrote, adding the board must also determine whether there is a correlation between the rate hikes and the offshore wind turbine operations in his Cape May district. Van Drew said New Jersey officials must take the situation seriously, and he dismissed claims that the “unseasonably warm summer” was the only variable. “We need transparency and accountability from the NJBPU to ensure that the needs and concerns of South Jersey residents are being effectively addressed,” he said. Van Drew previously noted how Danish green power company Ørsted withdrew its windmill plans for the Jersey Shore despite Murphy’s full support and taxpayer funding: “They still couldn’t make it.” While Murphy’s office did not return a request for comment, the governor previously praised his Energy Master Plan’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2050 in the Garden State. “The Energy Master Plan comprehensively addresses New Jersey’s energy system, including electricity generation, transportation and buildings, and their associated greenhouse gas emissions and related air pollutants,” he said. In a statement Tuesday, the Murphy administration highlighted a “Residential Energy Assistance Payment (REAP) Initiative” to provide financial relief to thousands of households, of the same $175 figure cited by BPU. “Making our state more affordable for New Jersey families has been the top priority since day one,” Murphy said in the statement. State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Perth Amboy, added it is “great to see this resource added to the growing list of support available to residents who need a little extra help in our state.” Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, R-Summit, said price-per-kilowatt hour increases averaged 8.6% in Central Jersey. “It’s simple economics: When supply drops and demand surges, prices go up,” she told Fox News Digital. “I’m of the belief that Americans are innovative. … The government can’t be mandating deadlines at the same time that they’re … shutting down natural gas production.” Munoz, who serves on the Budget Committee, said there are likely Democrats who agree the rate hikes are a problem: “That’s kind of a silly concept for them to think, like, do they not care that their constituents are the ones that are having to absorb these massive increases in cost?” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to state Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Clark, for such a perspective. Citing attempts to make New Jersey vehicle sales 60% electric by 2035, Munoz said there won’t be the proper infrastructure to fulfill the need, regardless of opinions on EVs themselves. When Testa was asked about other states’ similar green energy endeavors – such as then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo shuttering the Indian Point nuke plant on the Hudson River opposite Haverstraw in 2020 – he expressed relief that crackdowns hadn’t gotten that far at home. A similar nuclear plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township remains operational, he noted, adding that he is proud to have it and its jobs and generation ability in his district. Testa said the state’s energy portfolio is 50% natural gas, 40% nuclear and 10% other, which flies in the face of Murphy’s aversion to additional natural gas production. While

Report: USAID staff warned Gaza pier could sap Israel’s willingness to open ‘more efficient’ aid corridors

Report: USAID staff warned Gaza pier could sap Israel’s willingness to open ‘more efficient’ aid corridors

The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a report that indicates “multiple” agency officials were at odds with the Biden administration over its decision to build a humanitarian pier off the coast of Gaza. The office released the report on Tuesday, indicating that “multiple USAID staff” initially expressed concern that implementing the pier could potentially undercut broader efforts to persuade Israel to open “more efficient” land corridors that are “proven methods” for transporting aid. However, the report pointed out, “once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use [the pier] as effectively as possible.” Construction of the $230 million pier came at a time when the U.S. was facing pressure from critics to send aid to those living in Gaza due to concerns that famine was setting in. Although aid was being delivered by air, President Biden aimed to enhance support by giving the green light to the pier project. It was a joint effort between Biden’s Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is tasked with distributing foreign aid for the federal government. But after just about a week of being up and running, the pier began facing issues. Heavy winds and rough sea waters repeatedly broke the pier apart, and officials working to distribute aid faced hostile actors seeking to loot incoming shipments. Ultimately, the pier operated for 20 days before it was shut down on July 17. BIDEN’S $230 MILLION GAZA PIER QUIETLY SHUTS DOWN; US SENATOR LABELS PROJECT ‘NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT’ Even before the pier was operational, critics worried there were more efficient and cheaper alternatives to both air drops and the pier. Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the move to build the pier as an effort by Biden to win back support from his progressive base. “I think he’s worried about losing Michigan in November, so he wants to throw [something] … to Muslim-American voters, particularly in Michigan,” Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital in March, the same month Biden announced plans for the pier. Meanwhile, other Republican critics blasted the move for putting American troops in harm’s way. Fox News Digital reached out to USAID for comment but did not receive a response. A spokesperson for Biden’s National Security Council, Sean Savett, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the temporary pier – despite all its shortcomings – “had a real impact” and was “part of a comprehensive response to the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza.” Savett noted that prior to being shut down, the pier delivered roughly 20 million pounds of food and water that otherwise would not have made it to the war-torn region, which he insisted was “the highest volume of humanitarian assistance that DOD has ever been able to deliver in the Middle East.” “From the beginning, we said this would not be easy,” Savett said. “We were honest and transparent about the challenges. But the bottom line is that, given how dire the humanitarian situation in Gaza is, the United States has left no stone unturned in our efforts to get more aid in, and the pier played a key role at a critical time in advancing that goal.”

This state may decide whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election

This state may decide whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election

SAVANNAH, GA. – Vice President Kamala Harris wakes up Thursday in this historic coastal city in Georgia, a crucial presidential election battleground that’s one of seven states that will likely determine the winner of her 2024 face off with former President Trump. The vice president on Wednesday kicked off a two-day bus swing in southeastern Georgia, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visiting with faculty and students at a high school before stopping by a barbecue joint. On Thursday, Harris and Walz will sit for their first major interview before the vice president holds what’s expected to be a large rally in Savannah. By choosing the Peach State for her first campaign trail swing following last week’s Democratic National Convention, Harris is making a statement – that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election. NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN FOUR KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES  Georgia had long been a reliably red state in White House elections until President Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture the state. Fast-forward to this year’s election, and Trump saw his slight edge in the polls in Georgia over Biden jump to a solid single-digit lead after the president’s disastrous performance in their one debate, a late June showdown in Atlanta. THIS POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR SAYS HIS STATE’S A MUST WIN FOR TRUMP But in the 5½ weeks since the vice president replaced her boss atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, polls indicate that it’s once again a margin-of-error race in the Peach State. A Fox News poll conducted August 23-26 in Georgia and released on Wednesday indicated Harris with a razor-thin 50%-48% edge over Trump among registered voters. The most recent Fox News survey in Georgia before Biden dropped out of the race indicated Trump topping the president by six points, 51%-45%. Georgia’s popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state’s very competitive. “Certainly this is a battleground state,” Gov. Brian Kemp emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday. “I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia,” Kemp said. But he added that Georgia “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.” 2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY So are the Democrats. “The Georgia Democratic coordinated campaign is running the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with over 190 Democratic coordinated campaign staff in 24 coordinated offices across the state,” the Harris campaign touted hours ahead of the vice president’s arrival in Savannah. This is Harris’ second stop in Georgia since taking over for Biden as the party’s standard-bearer. She previously hosted a large rally in downtown Atlanta. But this time around, Harris is barnstorming through the southern part of the state, far from Atlanta and its growing suburbs, which make up nearly 60% of Georgia’s population. The traditional route for Democrats to win statewide in Georgia is to concentrate on metropolitan Atlanta.  But Quentin Fulks, who was principal deputy campaign manager under Biden and has remained in that role with Harris, is following the playbook from two years ago when he steered Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s narrow re-election victory over GOP challenger Hershel Walker. The strategy is to not only win big in Atlanta and its suburbs, but also to stay competitive in the rest of the state. “We have to make sure that we are competing everywhere across the state,” Fulks said Tuesday in an interview on MSNBC. “We’re going to continue to run in rural counties. …. We have to be statewide in that state and even compete in counties that Democrats don’t traditionally go. That is how you win statewide in Georgia.” WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE 3 STATES The Harris campaign noted that “campaigning in Southeast Georgia is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working-class families.” The first stop for Harris and Walz was Liberty County High School in Hinesville, where they met with the school’s administrators, faculty, students and stopped in on the school’s marching band rehearsal. “We wanted to come by just to let you know that our country is counting on you. All of you,” Harris told the students. “We’re so proud of you. Your generation, all that you guys stand for … is what is going to propel our country into the next era of what we can do and what we can be.” The vice president told the students that she was in band when she was in high school, according to a pool report. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee took aim at Harris as her bus tour got underway. “The Trump campaign is fighting and winning in Georgia by building a broad coalition of support from those fed up with her four years of failure in the White House,” senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News. And RNC spokesperson Morgan Ackley argued that “while our highly engaged and energetic operation in Georgia is focused on turning out votes across the entire state, Democrats in Georgia are finally learning an important lesson…there is more to Georgia than just Atlanta.” Ackley emphasized that “Republicans from Catoosa to Camden County and everywhere in between are fired up and ready to re-elect President Donald J. Trump because his message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds.” But the Harris campaign appears to enjoy a large organizational advantage over Trump’s team in Georgia.

Washington state’s homeownership program offers loans based solely on race

Washington state’s homeownership program offers loans based solely on race

Washington state launched a new housing program last month that provides loans of up to $150,000 with 0% interest to prospective homeowners solely based on their race. Launched on July 1, 2024, the Covenant Homeownership Program offers home-buying assistance to Washingtonians who were subject to discrimination before 1968, when the Fair Housing Act was passed. To be eligible for the program, a person’s household income must be below 100% of the area median income (AMI) of the county where the home is located; the person must be a first-time homebuyer; the buyer or their parent, grandparent or great-grandparent must have lived in Washington before April 1968; and the person who lived in the state must be Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Korean or Asian American. According to the program’s website, applicants or at least one of their family members must have lived in Washington before April 1968 because state officials said discrimination persisted despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act. But because discrimination remained, the state did not have an official or legal role in enforcing or upholding the new law. CALIFORNIA BILL THAT WOULD GIVE UNDOCUMENTED FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS MONEY DESPITE LACK OF FUNDING ADVANCES The program also omits other groups that may have been discriminated against, such as Jews. “The Covenant program’s initial eligibility criteria are intentionally narrowly tailored. While many racial, ethnic and religious groups in Washington were subject to unjust and egregious housing discrimination, the Covenant program considers not only this history but also its current impacts,” the Washington Housing Finance Commission said on its site. “Some of the groups discriminated against continue to show much lower homeownership rates compared with the general white population. These are named in the initial eligibility criteria. However, for other groups (such as Jewish residents), the data is limited when it comes to documenting the lasting impacts of historical discrimination.” For those who are eligible, the program gives homebuyers the opportunity to apply for 0% interest loans through their lenders to help fund down payments and closing costs. CALIFORNIA CLOSE TO APPROVING $150K LOANS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO HELP PURCHASE HOMES If approved, the borrower will receive a loan paid for by a $100 fee on recorded real estate documents. The loan is not required to be paid back until the new homeowner either sells or refinances the property. Homeowners who make less than the AMI must meet a broad definition of first-time homebuyers. For instance, people who have not owned a home in at least three years, may have only owned a mobile home or are single parents who only owned a home while married to a previous spouse are all considered first-time homebuyers. The Seattle Times reported that the program comes as America faces a racial gap in homeownership in places like Seattle. 5 CALIFORNIA TAXES KAMALA HARRIS COULD USE TO CRUSH MIDDLE CLASS A study sponsored by Washington found the federal government as well as state and local authorities in Washington contributed to housing discrimination. Examples include forcing Native Americans from their lands, excluding Black people during the 1800s and incarcerating Japanese Americans and others in the 1900s. While Washington has tried to increase homeownership using other programs, disparities continue to exist throughout the state when it comes to housing. Even though the Covenant Homeownership Program is race-based, the state has other programs in place to help people of all races purchase a home. Still, the paper reported that in 2022, only 32% of Black people in Washington and 48% of Hispanic people owned homes, compared to 68% of White people. US AFFORDABLE HOUSING SHORTAGE SPARKS RESURGENCE OF SINGLE-ROOM ‘MICRO-APARTMENTS’ Fox News Digital has reached out to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. The agency’s executive director, Steve Walker, told the Seattle Times that “race-neutral approaches … aren’t closing the racial homeownership gap.” When the Covenant Homeownership Program was passed last year, lawmakers largely stuck to their party lines, with Republicans voting against the measure and Democrats voting in favor of it. Republicans expressed concerns about the cost of the fee that would fund the Covenant program. The $100 fee on recorded documents goes toward the program, and since January, the state has collected more than $20 million, much less than the $75 to $100 million projected to accrue each year, Walker told the publication. EX-CALIFORNIA RESIDENT SLAMS STATE BILL THAT GIVES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HOUSING LOANS: ‘ASININE’ The lack of funding could be because of an awkward housing market in which many people are not selling and buying homes. Still, with the funding that has built up, the state is only able to fund about 130 down payment loans of $150,000, the paper reported. Washington is not the only state implementing or looking into housing assistance programs to help boost homeownership. In California, lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill through the state Senate that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for their “California Dream for All” first-time homebuyers’ financial assistance program. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The program awards first-time homebuyers up to 20% of a home’s value or up to $150,000 as down payment assistance. It also requires the California Housing Finance Authority’s home purchase assistance program, or California Dream for All Program, to include undocumented applicants. The bill now heads back to the California State Assembly to go over revisions made by the Senate. Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

South Korea arrests battery maker CEO over fire that killed 23

South Korea arrests battery maker CEO over fire that killed 23

Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan arrested over alleged violations of industrial safety law. The head of a South Korean lithium battery maker has been arrested over alleged violations of industrial safety law following a factory fire that killed 23 people. Suwon District Court approved a warrant to arrest Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan over his role in the June blaze late on Wednesday, a court spokesperson said. The court also issued a warrant for Park’s son, who is an executive at Aricell, the spokesperson said. South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor said Park had been arrested on charges of “causing the deaths of 23 people” by employing unskilled contract workers to handle materials that posed a serious fire risk. Park’s arrest marks the first time that a company head has been held responsible under legislation introduced in 2022 to penalise management for industrial accidents. The Serious Disasters Punishment Act carries penalties of one year in prison or one billion won ($835,000) in fines for business owners and management for accidents that cause death or serious injury. Police said last week that the fire at the factory in Hwaseong, about 45km south of Seoul, broke out as the company raced to meet a deadline without taking steps to address signs of serious quality failures. South Korea has a long history of deadly incidents blamed on companies cutting corners. In 2014, 476 people, including 325 high school students, died when the Sewol ferry capsized following modifications to the vessel to increase its cargo capacity. In 1995, more than 500 people died following the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store, which subsequent investigations revealed had been built without sufficient support columns. Adblock test (Why?)