More on the Lackawanna Cutoff proposal


If you were interested in our recent post
Reviving the Lackawanna Cutoff (Updated 7/16), you’ll want to check out:

* Last Sunday’s column by (Morristown, NJ) Daily Record editorial page editor Fred Snowflak, and

* A letter-to-the-editor in response to the column from Jefferson Township resident Norman H. Ressler.

The Penn Jersey Rail Coalition is urging letters in support of the revised railway to be sent to the New Jersey Transit. The deadline for such public comment is July 30.

More on the Lackawanna Cutoff proposal Read More »

NYC cooking oil fueling vehicles and buildings

Several years ago Brent Baker heard that a group of women who called themselves the “Veggie Babes” had driven cross country in a van powered by used cooking oil. That got Baker thinking and the product of that cogitation is today’s Tri-State Biodiesel.

The Manhattan-based company provides city restaurants with free collection of used cooking oil and trap grease. It has that material processed and then offers it for sale as biodiesel that can be burned in most diesel-powered vehicles without modification and as a boiler fuel to heat office buildings and apartments.

The company offers what sounds like a pretty attractive consumer package–free removal of a material that a restaurant owner otherwise would have to pay a waste hauler to remove and the sale of a environmental friendly fuel at a cost generally less than you’d pay for standard diesel at the pump or from your heating oil supplier.

But no business is without its challenges. Baker details some of them, including the high-cost of operating in America’s largest city, in an interesting interview appearing in the Brooklyn-based blog, Gowanus Lounge.

And, despite its ‘green’ credentials, his company has been hurt by recent press accounts linking the biofuel industry to a multitude of evils, including, believe it or not, world hunger.

Baker says these media reports stem from a “corporate smear campaign conducted by a Washington DC public relations firm.” He says that the campaign employs “fuzzy math and anonymous studies to slow the US transition to biofuels, in much the same way that similar campaigns slowed action on global warming for several years. “

To do his part to set the record straight, Baker has set up a Myths and Facts About Biodiesel page on his website.

Baker’s is not the only biofuel venture in the news. Newark Liberty International Airport has announced it has signed an agreement with Gaz Realty which will provide biodiesel at a soon-to-be-built Super Station that also will include a convenience story, car wash, light auto repair and towing service.

MORE:
Setting the Record Straight When It Comes to Biofuels – Queens Ledger 5/22/08
The Changing Face of Biodiesel Production – Biodiesel Magazine

NYC cooking oil fueling vehicles and buildings Read More »

Big environmental week in Pennsylvania

It’s been was a big week for environmental headlines in the Keystone State with the resignation of Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty, the enactment of a $650 million energy bill and the additional signings of climate-change and biofuels legislation.

(DEP Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty with solar panels)

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquire broke the story of McGinty’s resignation (effective July 18) with this lead:

“Kathleen McGinty, who in her five years as secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection led Gov. Rendell’s ambitious agenda to enhance the environment, advance energy conservation initiatives and attract green businesses, is stepping down.”

The Governor’s Office confirmed the story on Friday with a news release praising McGinty for her accomplishments in the post:

“Katie’s tenure as DEP secretary has been marked by many achievements that will have a lasting benefit for this commonwealth,” said Governor Rendell. “From her first day in office, she brought a unique perspective to the way we view environmental challenges: that those challenges are economic opportunities in disguise. Operating under that philosophy, Pennsylvania has become a center of progress and innovation. “

The governor later announced that Joseph R. Powers, who has served as executive deputy secretary since 2003, would fill in for McGinty until a permanent replacement is announced.

The statewide activist organization, PennFuture, was quick to salute McGinty in a statement calling her an environmental ‘trailblazer.’

“Katie hit Pennsylvania like a whirlwind, working with government, the private sector, public interest organizations and everyone in between to promote and improve Pennsylvania’s environment and economy,” said Penn Future’s president and CEO John Hanger. “Thanks to her, Pennsylvania now has a solid plan to combat
warming. She helped convince global green energy companies Gamesa, Iberdrola and Conergy to locate here in Pennsylvania, bringing millions in investments and thousands of great paying green jobs. Recognizing the need for strong regulation to protect the health of Pennsylvania’s babies, McGinty championed the rule that will result in a 90 percent reduction of toxic mercury pollution from our state’s coal-fired power plants. She also led the fight for a new rule to guarantee that Commonwealth residents would have access to the very cleanest new cars available anywhere. And just this legislative session, she fought and won the $650 million clean energy fund, and legislation to support homegrown cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel “

PennFuture posted an interesting “Exit Interview” video with McGinty on its website.

The video takes a little time to download and it sounds like the interview was taped inside a large steel drum. Those quibbles aside, we recommend it since it gives McGinty an opportunity to expand on her accomplishments and some of the environmental challenges left for her successor (and the Rendell Administration) to grapple with.

McGinty’s can-do approach, which seeks to find opportunities for economic development within solutions to traditional environmental problems, is credited by many as a big factor in helping to turn the Commonwealth–despite its significant problems with abandoned coal mines leaching toxic water, landscapes scarred by mountains of coal waste, and an energy industry wedded to coal and oil–into a national leader in attracting, promoting and subsidizing new companies in the alternative-energy fields of wind, solar and biofuels.

Turning to a few of the week’s other big stories…

Rendell’s signature of Special Session HB 1 will make some $100 million available to households and small businesses to offset the cost of installing solar energy systems. The new law also provides $92.5 million in loans, grants, reimbursements and rebates to support energy conservation and weatherization projects and $165 million for loans and grants to spur the development of alternative and renewable energy projects (other than solar) among businesses and local governments.

The global-warming legislation signed this past week will require Pennsylvania to conduct an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and set up a registry for business and industry where they can track their emissions and get credit for pollution reductions.

(Mark Morey photo)

The governor also signed two bills which lend a hand to those companies working to develop homegrown biofuels.

Special Session SB 22 directs an investment of $5.3 million to in-state biodiesel producers annually through June 30, 2011. These companies will be able to take advantage of a 75 cents-per-gallon subsidy that will be capped at $1.9 million per year per producer.
HB 1202 aims to reduce the state’s depedence on foreign fuels by establishing new requirements that every gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel contain a percentage of ethanol and biodiesel.
Legislation gladdens biodiesel producers – The Sentinel
Editorial: Pennsylvania expands beyond corn-based fuel – Daily Review

For more on the energy-funding law, see:
Rendell Signs Bill Establishing $650 Million Energy Fund (Gant Daily)
Solar Energy Big Winner in Pennsylvania Energy Funding Bill (Sierra Club)
Gov. Rendell signs bill establishing $650 Energy Fund (PADEP)

For more on the climate-change legislation, see:
Pennsylvania Assembly Passes First Global Warming Law (ENS)
Pa Climate Change Act Passes (Sierra Club)

Big environmental week in Pennsylvania Read More »

Reviving the Lackawanna Cutoff (Updated 7/16)

Readers of our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics, have been following news stories on efforts to restore passenger service between Hoboken, NJ and Scranton, PA via the old Lackawanna Cutoff, the last railroad line to be built in New Jersey.

The restoration proposal, designed in part to reduce the ever growing vehicle traffic along Route 80 between the Pennsylvania Poconos and New York City (and New Jersey municipalities in between), is hailed by some as visionary regional transportation planning and trashed by others as an environmental affront.

You’ll find links below to recent stories on the proposal and a post from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s web page which mounts environmental arguments against it.

We welcome you views, too. Just click on the “opinion” link at the bottom of this post and fire away.

Putting aside the present-day controversy, however, we found the history of the Lackawanna Cutoff to be fascinating, not only for the size and scope of the project and the impressive marshaling of men and equipment needed to build it, but also for the audacity of its design and excellence of its execution.

It’s the kind of story that must make today’s planners and engineers long for the bold spirit of America’s industrial age.

We recommend that you check out:
The Lackawanna Cut-Off – Wikopedia
Touring the Lackawanna Cut-Off – NJ Skylands Visitor Guide

Returning to the present-day controversy:

N. J. residents view commuter rail plan – July 12 Pocono Record
Train delay for Warren – July 9 Express-Times

Commuter rail plans presented in Stroudsburg – July 3 Pocono Record
Train service still a few years down the line – June 19 Express-Times
Lackawanna Cutoff: Why Now and Why There? – Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Lackawanna Cutoff – New Jersey Voices (Star-Ledger)
Lackawanna Cutoff – New Jersey Transit project summary

Reviving the Lackawanna Cutoff (Updated 7/16) Read More »

Jersey firm to close 105-year old paper mill in MA

Rising energy cost are being blamed for the planned closing of Haverhill Paperboard Corp., which has employed generations of families since it opened in the Merrimack Valley town of Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1902.

A total of 142 full-time and 32 part-time employees will be affected by the closing.

Officials at Haverhill Paperboard said the skyrocketing cost of natural gas and electricity needed to run the mill’s machinery, as well as excess industry capacity for their products, prompted the decision to close.

Haverhill’s mayor said he was told the company was shifting operations to South Carolina where they can take advantage of less-costly coal fuel to run their equipment.

Closing the historic plant, which opened in 1902 as the Haverhill Box Board Co., also will have implication’s for the area’s paper recycling programs. The plant currently takes in some 3,000 tons of recyclable paper goods annually from neighborhoods and the city recycling center and turns it into multilayer products, such as book covers and foldable cartons for the food and gift industries.

Haverhill Paperboard is owned by The Newark Group Inc., an international company based in Cranford, N.J. It operates paperboard, recycled fibers and industrial plants in Newark, NJ, York, PA, North Hoosick, NY, Fitchburg, MA, Salem, MA, Webster, MA and other domestic locations in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and California. The company also operates plants in Spain and Germany.

MORE:

Haverhill Paperboard Turns 100 – BoxBoard Containers International

Jersey firm to close 105-year old paper mill in MA Read More »

NYC says ‘Bag It’ to state recycling bill

Have opponents of New York City’s plastic bag recycling law found a way to subvert it?

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Queens) thinks so. So do the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

They’re all calling on Govenor David Paterson to veto a bill which would supersede a city law on plastic-bag recycling set to take effect in two weeks.

Andy Darrell, New York Regional Director for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Sustainability Advisory Board, says the state bill ” sets a dangerous precedent of handcuffing the state’s largest city to meet its huge solid waste challenges.”

He says that the city’s law applies to stores of 5,000 square feet or more and to chains under a common name, while the State bill only applies to stores 10,000 square feet or more. The 5,000 square feet is better suited to New York City, Darrell argues, since city stores tend to be smaller than in other parts of the State.

The EDF also notes that the States bill only applies to plastic carryout bags, while City Council’s law also requires the recycling of film plastic, such as package wrap, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags.

City Council claims it was blindsided by the state legislation, which was introduced late last week in the Assembly and Senate.

A spokesman for the governor said the state bill hadn’t yet reached the governor’s desk yet and declined to comment any further.
Care to share your views on plastic-bag recycling, or recycling in general? Click the “comment” line below and sound off.

NYC says ‘Bag It’ to state recycling bill Read More »

Verified by MonsterInsights