EnviroPolitics Blog

Federal Court Strikes Down NJ Approval of Controversial NESE Fracked Gas Pipeline

By Food and Water Watch

Trenton, NJ – Today, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) grant of a water quality certification for the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) pipeline and sent it back to the DEP. The water quality certification is a key approval that the project needs to proceed. This victory comes after a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit last November against the DEP for unjustifiably approving the certification for NESE, after it first rejected the project in 2019 for failing to demonstrate compliance with state water quality standards.

“For years, the people of New Jersey have fought this dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary pipeline project. When the water quality certificate was denied in 2019, that should have been the end of it. But in the final months of the Murphy administration, the NJDEP rushed to grant critical approval through a flawed process. We are pleased to see the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed this bad decision by NJDEP, and those of us fighting for clean air, clean water, and a livable climate will continue to oppose this dirty gas pipeline until we win once and for all,” said Charlie Kratovil, Central Jersey Organizer at Food & Water Watch.

The DEP improperly left essential monitoring and management requirements unresolved and failed to adequately explain how the project would comply with New Jersey’s water quality standards.

Read the full story here

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Solar is now bigger than coal in China — but still way behind

China has more solar capacity online than coal capacity. It’s a remarkable milestone, but the fossil fuel still generates far more electricity than solar does.

Two men in red hats and vests amid solar panels, with a coal facility in the distance

Technicians inspect solar panels in Huaibei, China. (Wan Shanchao/VCG via Getty Images)

By Dan McCarthy, Canary News, September 4, 2026

Solar is beating coal in China. Sorta. But also not at all.

Let me explain.

An eye-popping new chart made the rounds this week. It shows a line representing solar energy in China rising improbably over the last decade, until it finally overtakes another line representing the nation’s vast coal fleet. One article featuring this chart came with the following headline: “Solar surpasses coal in China, becomes top power source.”

This is exactly the type of chart a person concerned about climate change could hope to see — one that would have defied the imagination of analysts and onlookers even a few years ago. It proves that the nation has been taking serious steps to clean up its coal-heavy grid, contrary to those who use China’s enormous emissions to justify climate complacency elsewhere.

But it’s also a bit misleading. While there’s nothing wrong with the data — solar really has overtaken coal in terms of capacity — the story is more complicated than a tidy chart can express.

To understand why, you’ll have to bear with some technical definitions. Capacity is the key word here: It’s a measure of the absolute maximum output a power plant can produce. But plants don’t run at full tilt, and experts use a metric called capacity factor to express how much electricity a facility actually produces compared with its potential output.

In China, coal has an average capacity factor of around 50%. Solar’s is only 14%

Read the full post here

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Were New Yorkers Misled About Air Quality After 9/11?

Smoke rises from amid the ruins of the topped World Trade Center towers.

By Sally Goldenberg and Nina Agrawal, Sept. 7, 2026

In the harrowing months that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe.

But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records being released on Tuesday.

The documents, reviewed by The New York Times in advance of their release, include among more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence among city officials that were stored in 68 boxes in a city office, shielded from public view for more than two decades and, according to city officials, only discovered last year.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has directed his administration to release the records to the public through an online portal, timing it to the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the attacks in Lower Manhattan.

Over the course of the next year, his administration intends to review, redact and publicize many more papers, found in municipal and insurance offices, that relate to the environmental toxins brought about by Sept. 11.

The records being released on Tuesday provide a snapshot of the frenzied months following the attacks, when New York City and its leaders were struggling to balance the city’s recovery with fears of terrorism and lingering toxins.

Read the full story here.

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Hearing set on revised menhaden catch limits

Atlantic menhaden illustration. Credit: Jack Hornady.

The Atlantic coastal states of Maine through Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden.

The Draft Addendum considers options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap (Bay Cap) by up to 50% and distribute the cap more evenly throughout the fishing season. The options aim to alleviate a concentration of effort that may be affecting other fisheries within the Bay and other potential ecological impacts.

The Board initiated the Draft Addendum in response to concerns regarding declining pound net harvest and catch per unit effort in the Bay in recent years, coinciding with an increase in the concentration of reduction harvest in the summer months, and the possible downstream effects on menhaden predators.

The Draft Addendum also includes options that link the Bay Cap to the coastwide total allowable catch to maintain a more fixed proportion between the two, as well as options to distribute the Bay Cap into three quota periods to prevent a concentration of reduction harvest in the spring and summer of the fishing season.

Some hearings will be conducted in-person, some will be hybrid, and others will be conducted via webinar. If you are unable to participate in your state’s scheduled hearing, you are welcome to participate in any of the virtual hearings.

See the hearing notice and catch chart here

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Recycling rates held steady despite declines in U.S. paper and paperboard production

A person in a hard hat inspects a bale of recyclables

By Katie Pyzyk, Waste Dive

The American Forest & Paper Association has released its annual analysis of fiber recycling rates. The figures for 2025 are roughly flat compared with the prior year.

AF&PA estimates the 2025 paper recycling rate was between 61% and 65%, up from 60% to 64% in 2024. The cardboard recycling rate was estimated to be 70% to 75%, compared with 69% to 74% the prior year.

U.S. mills consumed 31.4 million tons of recycled paper to manufacture new products in 2025, a year-over-year decrease of 1.3 million tons. Mills’ consumption had increased by 1.29 million tons the prior year.

“Containerboard capacity adjustments demonstrate the industry adapting to shifting global market and operational strategies,” said Abigail Sztein, executive director of recovered fiber at AF&PA. Total paper and paperboard operating rates increased to 89.4% in 2025, up from 88.1% in 2024, she said.

Despite market dynamics that led to decreased fiber production last year, paper recovery remained strong relative to the available supply, according to AF&PA.

“Our industry shows continued resilience. The paper industry operates at a significant scale, and it’s adapting to changing market conditions,” Sztein said. “The rate shows that the paper recycling system is functioning as designed, and the system held steady.”

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Trump frees Johnny Doc from prison. No reason given for commutation

John Dougherty in 2023.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

By Chris Palmer and Sean Collins Walsh, Philadelphia Inquirewr, Sept. 3, 2026, 7:16 p.m. ET

Cvicted former Philadelphia labor leader John Dougherty will have his six-year prison term cut short after President Donald Trump agreed to sign a commutation ending the rest of Dougherty’s sentence, according to Dougherty’s lawyer.

George Bochetto said in an interview Thursday night he’s hopeful that Dougherty, the former city power broker known as Johnny Doc, could be freed from a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg as soon as Friday.

Bochetto called Trump’s decision “a magnificent gesture of compassion.” He said Trump had signed the commutation Thursday afternoon.

Records on the Office of Pardon Attorney’s website did not yet reflect a commutation approval as of Thursday night.

Trump had denied Dougherty’s bid for a commutation earlier this year, according to that agency’s website. It was not immediately clear why circumstances changed this week.

For months, Dougherty had been petitioning U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl to be released on house arrest to provide care for his gravely ill wife. But Schmehl had repeatedly denied those efforts, saying in part that Dougherty had failed to demonstrate he was the only person who could serve as an adequate caretaker.

Prosecutors had opposed Dougherty’s request for similar reasons, and said they did not believe he had served enough of his sentence to merit release. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

Read the full story here.