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‘Dirty dirt’ law revised in New Jersey

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy today signed into law A4255 / S2870 (McKeon, Haider, Kennedy / Smith, Codey).

The bill revises current law requiring registration with the state Department of Environmental Protection of businesses engaged in soil and fill recycling services.

Specifically, the bill would extend the original April 20, 2020
registration date to July 14, 2022. The bill would also require any
persons registering with the DEP pursuant to P.L.2019, c.397
(C.13:1E-127.1 et al.) to apply to the Attorney General for a soil
and fill recycling license no later than 30 days after the DEP adopts
rules and regulations to implement the law, rather than by October
17, 2020, as in current law.

The bill would also clarify certain language in section 1 of
P.L.2019, c.397 (C.13:1E-127.1) regarding the Attorney General’s
responsibility for issuing a soil and fill recycling license pursuant to
section 8 of P.L.1983, c.392 (C.13:1E-133).

Finally, the bill would require the DEP to adopt rules and regulations to implement P.L.2019, c.397 (C.13:1E-127.1 et al.) no later than one year after the bill’s enactment.

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‘Dirty dirt’ bill to put phony soils recyclers out of business sent to NJ Gov. Murphy

After years of delay, Legislature unanimously passes a bill requiring soil and fill recyclers to register for licenses, adds more background checks for employees

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

It took nearly a decade, but a long battle to close loopholes to keep criminal elements out of the recycling industry has finally been passed by the Legislature.

The legislation (A-4267) was drafted in the wake of a 2011 report from the State Commission on Investigation, which indicated that widespread dumping of contaminated debris and toxic-tainted soil across New Jersey had been standard practice for years.

The bill, which kicked around in the Legislature for years, would expand the number of people in the sector who would have to submit more stringent background checks if they wanted to participate in an industry that dumps soil and recycling materials in New Jersey.

The Assembly passed the bill, sending it to the governor in a near-unanimous vote (75-0-1) that belied its past history. There was no debate on the bill.

Driving out bad actors

In the past, the measure had been held up over concerns from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the recycling sector about expanding the scope of a tough licensing law designed to drive the mob and criminal elements out of the solid- and hazardous-waste industries.

The original SCI report, amplified by other studies, documented schemes in which contaminated fill and construction debris were dumped as clean fill. In one case, a so-called dirt broker dumped tons of contaminated soil and debris in Old Bridge, polluting portions of Raritan Bay.

“These unscrupulous dirt brokers are dumping contaminated soil all over the environment,’’ said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The illicit dumping has continued to recent days, according to advocates.

In Vernon, a property owner created an illegal dump in his backyard that resulted in a 75-foot pile of toxic debris. In October, a judge ordered the property owner’s assets and bank accounts be frozen to pay for the cleanup.

“There are bad actors contaminating our environment with debris containing cancer-causing agents and they are able to do so by passing off themselves as recyclers who are not currently subject to the same oversight,’’ said Assemblyman Hal Wirths (R-Sussex), a sponsor. “They are literally doing dirty work and we’ve got to clean things up.’’

Assemblyman John McKeon, a Democrat from Essex County and another sponsor, agreed.  “Solid waste operators out of New York are showing up in our state because they know they can get away with almost anything and their continued illegal activity poses an incredible threat to our residents,’’ he said.

Under the bill, soil- and fill-recycling businesses have 90 days from date of enactment to apply to the DEP for a temporary registration. They must apply for a license for soil and fill within 270 days. It also requires more background checks for more employees in the solid-waste industry.

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‘Dirty dirt’ soil broker licensing advances in NJ

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

Separate New Jersey Senate and Assembly bills requiring the licensing of persons involved in the sale and transport of soils for fill were merged yesterday and are now in place for final passage in both houses.

A-4267 (McKeon) and S1683 (Smith) would expand the requirements for background checks and so-called ‘901’ solid waste licensing to companies and persons involved in the “collection, transportation, processing, brokering, storage, purchase, sale, or disposition of soil and fill recyclable material.”

The legislation comes in response to a 2011 report by the State Committee of Investigations that found organized crime members posing as legitimate recyclers but supplying construction projects with contaminated soils.  

The legislation referred to during the legislative process as the ‘dirty dirt’ bill, is now in place for an Assembly floor vote.

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‘Societal benefits’ and ‘dirty dirt’ bills clear NJ committee

Two high-profile environmental bills were released yesterday by the New Jersey Senate’s Environment and Energy Committee. 


The first, SCR-151 (Smith/Bateman), would amend the State Constitution to require that ‘societal benefit’ charges on utility bills be used to fund energy-efficiency programs–and not to plug up holes in the state budget as has been the practice in recent years.


The second, S-2306 (Lesniak), would bring soils brokers, soils salesmen and Class B recycling facilities under the A-901 licensing law currently required for companies and facilities in the solid waste sector.


EnviroPolitics Editor Frank Brill asks the NJ Sierra Club’s Jeff Tittel and Environment New Jersey’s Doug O’Malley why they are pushing for passage of both pieces of legislation.


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French government blocks U.S. LNG deal as too dirty

The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract.

A shale gas drilling site in St. Mary's, Pa.

By BEN LEFEBVRE, Politico

The French government stepped in to force a domestic company to delay signing a potential $7 billion deal with a U.S. liquefied natural gas company last month over concerns that its U.S. shale gas was too dirty, two people familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

The incident was first reported by a French news site but independently confirmed to POLITICO by two people with direct knowledge. The delay highlights a growing concern among some U.S. natural gas exporters that the regulatory rollbacks pushed by the Trump administration, especially those easing Obama-era limits on the potent greenhouse gas methane, plus the industry’s overall failure to rein in emissions, are making it more difficult to sell their product overseas as a cleaner alternative to oil or coal.

The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract to buy LNG to be delivered from Next Decade’s planned Rio Grande export facility in Brownsville, Texas, one person with knowledge of the discussions said. That deal would be a boon for NextDecade, which has been trying to line up customers to take at least 11 million tons of LNG a year before it makes a final decision to build the plant.

The French government, which is a part owner of Engie, stepped in to tell Engie’s board of directors to delay, if not outright cancel, any deal because of concerns that U.S. natural gas producers emit too much methane at the West Texas oil and gas fields that will supply gas to the NextDecade plant, said Lorette Philippot, head of private finance campaigns for French environmental group Les Amis de la Terre,a French affiliate of the green group Friends of the Earth that met with French government officials to oppose the deal.

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Editorial: Payoff in NJ crackdown on dirty vehicles may be more than cleaner air

Editorial from the Press of Atlantic City

The latest in pollution enforcement lawsuits by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office targets a source familiar to drivers — dirty diesel engine trucks and cars.

Despite regulations and new technology that can keep diesel pollution roughly as controlled as that from gasoline engines, diesel vehicles too often leave streams of bad air for following drivers to breathe.

One reason, apparently, is that sellers and owners of diesel vehicles are disabling or removing pollution controls. Last week the state sued Manheim Remarking Inc., alleging it tampered with controls on 214 vehicles in less than three years and perhaps thousands of others annually.

The nation’s largest vehicle auction company, Manheim has a facility in Burlington County and a lesser one in Essex County. Also sued were three vehicle resale dealers, including Rezzetti Enterprises in Vineland.

The state said Manheim and subsequent sellers advertised that the vehicles had disabled pollution controls, including no catalytic converter, exhaust gas recirculation removed or simply “altered emissions.” When these controls are removed, nitrogen oxide pollution is increased 20-fold.

A Department of Environmental Protection raid of a Manheim facility in February last year found 28% of 50 vehicles inspected had been tampered with. The company sells hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year in New Jersey.

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NJ’s ‘Battle of the Bob’s’ promises to be dirty and nasty

Bruised by his lackluster win in Tuesday’s primary, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez still favored to beat Republican Bob Hugin in fall election

menendez hugin

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (left) and Republican senatorial hopeful Bob Hugin
Colleen O’Day reports
for NJ Spotlight:


Now that the primary is over, the battle of the Bobs for New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat begins in earnest and though he may be bruised, Sen. Robert Menendez is still the favorite to win after what is expected to be by all accounts a nasty, negative campaign.
Menendez (D-NJ), a 12-year incumbent, had a lackluster win on Tuesday over a virtually unknown Lisa McCormick, garnering just 62 percent of the vote. He lost to the local news publisher in six counties – Cape May, Hunterdon, Salem, Somerset, Sussex and Warren. All but Somerset are Republican-dominant with low Democratic registration. His only dominant majorities of more than 70 percent were in Essex and Hudson counties, which have strong Democratic machines, and in Bergen.
But at least two national politics ratings continue to rate New Jersey’s Senate race this year as a likely Democratic win and Jersey-based pundits agree, although it is not likely to be as easy as his 20-point victory in 2012.
“All the news about Sen. Menendez leading up to the primary was bad, it won’t be in the general election,” said Matthew Hale, a professor of political science and public affairs at Seton Hall University, noting that the Senate Ethics Committee “severely admonished” Menendez less than six weeks before the primary. “A lot of people who voted for McCormick are going to come back to Sen. Menendez in November.”
Hale said the November election will wind up being less about the corruption charges against Menendez — of which he was not convicted — and more about the latest scandal involving the Trump administration. Menendez was charged with accepting gifts and travel from a campaign donor on whose behalf he intervened with a federal agency. Menendez said the gifts were from a friend. A trial led to a hung jury and the Justice Department has since dropped the charges.

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Skyscraper-sized air purifier is scrubbing China’s dirty air


Denise Chow reports for NBC News:

It may look like just another giant smokestack, but a 200-foot tower in the central Chinese city of Xi’an was built to pull deadly pollutants from the air rather than add more. And preliminary research shows the tower — which some are calling the world’s largest air purifier — has cut air pollution significantly across a broad swath of the surrounding area.
Given those findings, the researchers behind the project say they hope to build an even taller air-purifying tower in Xi’an, and possibly in other cities around China.
“I like to tell my students that we don’t need to be medical doctors to save lives,” said Dr. David Pui, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota and one of the researchers. “If we can just reduce the air pollution in major metropolitan areas by 20 percent, for example, we can save tens of thousands of lives each year.”

The prototype tower in Xi’an cost $2 millionHow does it work?  Read the full story here

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Trump continues to choose dirty energy over clean energy

Solar panel installation on home

 Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg

White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring administration’s preference
for fossil fuels


Chris Mooney and Steven Mufson in the Washington Post:


The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.


Many of the sharp cuts would likely be restored by Congress, but President Trump’s budget due out in February will mark a starting point for negotiations and offer a statement of intent and policy priorities.


The document underscores the administration’s continued focus on the exploitation of fossil fuel resources — or as Trump put it in his State of the Union address, “beautiful clean coal” — over newer renewable technologies seen as a central solution to the problem of climate change.


The Energy Department had asked the White House for more modest spending reductions for the renewable and efficiency programs, but people familiar with the process, who asked for anonymity to share unfinished budget information, said that the Office of Management and Budget insisted on the deeper cuts.


The cuts would also be deeper than those the Trump administration sought for the current fiscal year, but was unable to implement because of the budget impasse in Congress. The federal government has been operating on a series of continuing resolutions that have maintained existing spending. The current continuing resolution expires Feb. 8.


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Envrios claim EPA is giving ‘dirty diesel’ a free pass

The green trio of PennFuture, Sierra Club, and NRDC today blasted new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The activists say the rules create loopholes for dirty diesel and
gas electricity generators, allowing them to avoid installing pollution
controls for toxic and other air pollution emissions.

“These proposed rules sacrifice local air quality and public health,
distort energy markets, and could endanger electricity reliability in
our region,” said Christina Simeone, director of the PennFuture Energy
Center, a program of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future. 

Several years ago, EPA adopted rules limiting the amount of toxic air
emissions — like formaldehyde and benzene — that are released from small
diesel and gas-fired generators. 
In a news release the organizations say that EPA is now proposing to allow dirty
generators to increase by six times the number of hours they may operate
in electricity planning programs without any pollution controls.

“EPA’s proposal would create a loophole allowing dirty generators to
participate in profitable electricity market programs, giving them
additional revenue while avoiding life-saving pollution controls,” said
Courtney Lane, senior policy analyst at PennFuture.

“The loophole in these rules could result in reduced reliability and
will result in increased air pollution, by making the electricity system
more dependent on small, dirty sources of electricity. Closing this
loophole will send market signals to invest in cleaner generation and
conservation while better protecting Americans’ health,” said John
Walke, clean air director and senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

“Nobody gets a free pass,” said Mark Kresowik, eastern region deputy
director for the Sierra Club‘s Beyond Coal Campaign. “Even the local
operators of the electric grid say that our energy supply is secure.
Don’t tell mothers that the only way to ensure a stable electric supply
is to put their kids’ health in danger… The
technologies exist to reduce this pollution, and that’s why EPA should
close the loophole.” 
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