New Jersey looks to capture energy from biomass waste


Each year in New Jersey more than 8 million tons of waste — yard litter, household table scraps and livestock manure, among other debris — is thrown away in garbage dumps, burned in incinerators, or disposed of elsewhere.


So what, you ask?  


A Rutgers University study says that we should be looking at this “waste” as a “resource” and suggests that half of it could be put to use to generate electricity or even create a cleaner-burning fuel to power motor vehicles.


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“If tapped, those 5.4 million tons of waste could generate more than 1,124 megawatts of electricity — a larger amount than New Jersey’s highly touted solar program now generates, or the equivalent of approximately 311 million gallons of gasoline-equivalent fuel,” Tom Johnson reports in NJ Spotlight.


“How to tap that resource and turn it into an asset to produce clean energy is part of a revamped initiative launched by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities this past week.” 


Learn more in Tom’s story: Board of Public Utilities Hopes to Get Into Garbage in a Big Way 


Here’s the Rutgers study on biomass resources 


Related environmental news stories:
Judge Rules Biomass Plants Have to Obey the Law – SustainableBusiness.com
Appalachian State University Receives Biomass Grant – Domestic Fuel
The Price of Being Politically Innocuous – Biomass Magazine (blog)
Greenfield biomass project dead for now – MassLive.com

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EPA is wiping out an overly burdensome regulation

EPA reduces regulatory burden for industrial facilities using
solvent wipes.  Common-sense exclusion expected to save
industry up to $27.8 million per year.

The U. S, Environmental Protection Agency announced that it has modified the hazardous waste management regulations under the RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) to conditionally exclude solvent-contaminated wipes from hazardous waste regulations provided that businesses clean or dispose of them properly. The agency said that the rule is based on its final risk analysis, which was peer reviewed in 2008 and published for public comment in 2009, that concluded wipes contaminated with certain hazardous solvents do not pose significant risk to human health and the environment when managed properly. EPA estimates that the final rule will result in a net savings of between $21.7 million and $27.8 million per year.

Wipes are used in conjunction with solvents for cleaning and other purposes by tens of thousands of facilities in numerous industrial sectors, such as printers, automobile repair shops and manufacturers of automobiles, electronics, furniture and chemicals.

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“Today’s rule uses the latest science to provide a regulatory framework for managing solvent-contaminated wipes that is appropriate to the level of risk posed by these materials,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “I’ve heard directly from stakeholders about the benefits of this rule and the need to finalize it. The rule reduces costs for thousands of businesses, many of which are small businesses, while maintaining protection of human health and the environment.”  

Today’s final rule excludes wipes that are contaminated with solvents listed as hazardous wastes under RCRA that are cleaned or disposed of properly. To be excluded, solvent-contaminated wipes must be managed in closed, labeled containers and cannot contain free liquids when sent for cleaning or disposal. Additionally, facilities that generate solvent-contaminated wipes must comply with certain recordkeeping requirements and may not accumulate wipes for longer than 180 days.

Read the full EPA news release here

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EPA is wiping out an overly burdensome regulation Read More »

Another setback for offshore wind's Fishermen's Energy

** Updated twice on July 22 to add related news stories**

Like a buoy that the company hopes will one day mark the sea channel to the wind farm it wants to build off the New Jersey coast, Fishermen’s Energy was swamped by a cold new wave of government rejection on Friday but quickly bounced back to the surface.


The Star-Ledger reports that the state Board of Public Utilities rejected a settlement that would have advanced the company’s latest plan to build a 25 megawatt offshore wind farm, saying New Jersey taxpayers would be on the hook for too much money should the anticipated federal grants fall through.

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The five turbine demonstration wind farm to be built in state waters three miles off the coast of Atlantic City, was first proposed in 2011 and would be the first along the East Coast. It would power 10,000 homes and cost $200 million.

But the BPU agreed with a staff recommendation to reject a settlement negotiated between Fishermen’s Energy and the state Division of Rate Counsel, which serves as the public’s watchdog on utility issues. BPU staffers objected to several aspects, most notably a $19.2 million contingency fee that state residents would pay Fishermen’s Energy if expected federal grants to fund the project fell through, and the project was abandoned.

It was the latest in a  string of setbacks for but the company but perhaps not unexpected.
In a news release handed out minutes after the meeting ended, Fishermen’s Energy said it was "pleased to continue to work with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities toward a successful launch of the offshore wind industry in New Jersey."

Related environmental news stories:
BPU puts another obstacle in way of offshore wind pilot

New Jersey BPU rejects offshore wind project

Fishermen’s Energy now monitoring wind in water off Ocean City
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Fishermen’s Energy Installs Advanced Wind Monitoring System in Federal Waters


Another setback for offshore wind's Fishermen's Energy Read More »

Roth appointed chair of ABA’s environment section

David A. Roth
David A. Roth,  a partner in the environmental department of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP’s Woodbridge. NJ office, has been appointed as chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Environmental Disclosure Committee for the 2013-2014 term.

A resident of Hawthorne, NJ,  Roth has a concentration in real estate, environmental and health and safety law with special emphasis on compliance counseling and environmental aspects of real estate and business transactions. He assists clients in resolving issues arising under solid and hazardous waste laws, the federal Clean Water Act, the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act, right-to-know programs, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and emerging product safety laws.


In recent years Roth has functioned as national environmental counsel for a group of consumer product and manufacturing companies.

Roth is a director of the Environmental Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association. 

Our most recent posts: 

Former e-waste exec draws a 14-month jail sentence


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Former e-waste exec draws a 14-month jail sentence

 
                                                                      Newcanadians photo Tor Olson, former vice president of Executive Recycling, is sentenced
in Colorado to 14 months in prison for his role in duping customers into
believing they were recycling e-waste domestically while it was actually
sent to developing countries, Waste & Recycling News reports today

Olson, along with CEO Brandon Ritcher were convicted in late 2012 of various
mail and wire fraud charges along with environmental crimes. Overall, Olson was
convicted of eight crimes and Ritcher was convicted of nine crimes. Ritcher will be
sentenced July 23, according to court documents. The company itself will be
sentenced at that time as well. Olson and Ritcher were indicted in 2011 and were convicted after an 11-day trial.
The government alleged the company exported cathode ray tubes to foreign countries, including China. The company exported over 300 containers between 2005 and 2008
and approximately half of those containers contained a total of 100,000 CRTs,
prosecutors said. The exports were happening while the company claimed they were recycling
the items domestically and responsibly. The company was featured on a "60 Minutes" segment in 2008. The program
tracked containers from the company to parts of China. 
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NJ enviros sue to change direction of energy investments


Two of New Jersey’s state’s largest environmental groups are trying to intervene in a rate case in which the state’s largest utility is seeking to spend up to $3.9 billion to make its energy infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather.

NJ Spotlight reports today:

The intervention, if granted by the BPU, would probably make what already has been a contentious rate case even more so. Despite the high cost of the initiative,even regulatory officials concede that the state must take steps to prevent 7 million people from losing power in extreme storms, which is what happened during Hurricane Sandy last October.

In a filing last week with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the New Jersey Sierra Club and the New Jersey Environmental Federation argued that the agency should focus on enhancing efforts to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, and distributed generation — where electricity is produced and consumed locally.

Report: US Energy Infrastructure a Sitting Duck in Face of Climate …
New Web Tool Highlights Hurricane Risk for Energy Infrastructure …
Tour the Country’s Energy Infrastructure Through A New Interactive Map
Ideas to Bolster Power Grid Run Up Against the System’s Many Owners
Heat wave pushes power grid operator to ask residents to conserve


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