Interior Secretary to discuss NJ’s offshore energy


Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is coming to Atlantic City Monday to discuss the future of offshore energy. He says he wants to know what you think, too.

It will be the Obama Administration official’s first stop on a tour of public meetings to be followed by sessions in New Orleans, Anchorage and San Francisco.

Salazar will present information from a U.S. Geological Survey-Minerals Management Service Report and will solicit public comment.

At a recent meeting, Salazar said the report on Outer Continental Shelf energy resources found huge information gaps about the location and extent of offshore oil and gas resources.

“Along the Atlantic Coast, for example, the seismic data we have is twenty-five years old,” he said. “How should we gather the information we currently lack about our offshore oil and gas resources? How do we manage the costs of gathering seismic data? Are there areas on the OCS that should be of priority for information collection?”

Can you guess from those questions how the Obama Administration hopes to frame the “discussion” that proceeds from the meeting in Atlantic City and other cities?

I’m not sure but, if I were an executive at ExxonMobil, I think I’d be a bit concerned.

No doubt some will argue on Monday that we should be moving quickly to exploit offshore concentrations of oil and natural gas to lessen dependence on foreign suppliers.

Others will contend that the nation needs to shift its investment focus to the development of offshore wind farms for a sustainable supply of electric power to serve coastal areas which contain the largest population centers.

The latter is the preference of most (but not all) environmental organizations –and, of course, the wind-power industry.

New Jersey’s major environmental lobbies–Environment New Jersey, the Sierra Club, and New Jersey Environmental Federation—joined today with two of the firms hoping to develop wind power projects off the Jersey coast —Blue Water Wind and Fishermen’s Energy–in a media release urging the public to attend the day-long hearing (9 a.m to 8 p.m.) at Atlantic City Convention Center.

“President Obama’s offshore energy decisions will be with us for decades to come,” said Matt Elliott of Environment New Jersey. “We urge New Jersey residents to attend this hearing to speak out against dirty, dangerous offshore oil drilling, and in favor of clean, renewable energy such as offshore wind, wave, and tidal power.”

No doubt where they’re coming from.

We haven’t seen a press release yet from the New Jersey Petroleum Council (API) but I don’t think the folks there will have much time to play the casino slots on Monday.

Too much at stake here for both sides. Should be interesting.

What’s your take? Use the comment block below. If it doesn’t appear, click on the tiny ‘comments’ link.

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New Jersey DEP to release e-waste recycling rules

[This post has been updated to correct the first date in the timeline at the bottom. Thank you, Jason Springer of BlueJersey, for bringing it to our attention it. ]


A significant milestone in New Jersey’s drive to require the recycling of worn out televisions, computers and computer monitors is expected to be reached in May when the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) rolls out proposed regulations for the program.

New Jersey is one of more than a dozen states that now requires manufacturers of televisions and computers to provide for the recycling of these products when they are no longer useful and might otherwise end up in landfills or waste incinerators (electronic waste).

The state’s Electronic Waste Recycling Act (Chapter 130, 2008) requires every manufacturer of covered electronic products to submit plans to the DEP detailing how they plan to recycle their share of the devices.

The law gives manufacturers latitude in how they will reach their targets. Each manufacturer can establish its own collection centers and processing facilities (something no one company is likely to do because of cost) or join with other manufacturers in a combined recycling program.

Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp is pursuing the latter option in several other states under an LLC named MRM (Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company) which has picked up 21 additional manufacturers since it launched in October of 2008.

Manufacturers also could rely on established municipal and county recycling programs to collect the material, utilize existing commercial recycling companies in the state, or partner with nonprofits like Goodwill, which has established e-recycling operations in Texas and New Jersey.

DEP’s Assistant Commissioner Nancy Wittenberg and Recycling Bureau Chief Guy Watson invited manufacturers, commercial recyclers and county recycling officials to an informal meeting on Monday at DEP headquarters in Trenton. During the session, they provided a few broad hints as to what the regulations will contain, reviewed compliance deadlines for the program’s first year and took the pulse of the regulated community.

Representatives of several county recycling programs expressed concerns that the manufacturers might shut down their programs once they have recycled tonnages equivalent to their market shares. At that point, they say, public programs would end up shouldering the burden and the cost of electronic recycling.

When pressed for a response as to how they might utilize existing public recycling programs in New Jersey, the manufacturer reps played their cards close to the vest. A representative from Sharp said that his company has partnered with Goodwill and other community and retailer groups in other states that require e-recycling.

MRM President David Thompson said “It depends on what services the collectors are offering and whether we can establish a business relationship with them.” He added: “There are very few companies that can properly handle CRTs” (cathode ray tubes).

Watson noted that the DEP would require manufacturer plans to explain how the material would be handled at every stage of the recycling chain to assure that material does not flow to undeveloped countries where lead and other dangerous materials in the products could cause environmental and health problems without adequate safety and processing requirements.

He also warned that no manufacturer would be permitted to sell their TVs or computers in New Jersey after Oct 1, 2010 if the plans they submit are not “administratively complete.” He said that every plan would be required to offer at least one convenient collection point per county.

The Department provided the following:

Timeline for the e-recycling program’s first year

January 1, 2010
– TV manufacturers must register with DEP and pay an annual $5,000 fee

January 1, 2010
– Manufacturers and retailers may no longer sell covered electronic devices (TVs, computers and computer monitors) unless the device is labeled with the manufacturer’s brand and the label is permanently affixed and readily visible.

February 1, 2010
– Computer and computer monitor manufacturers must register with the DEP and pay a $5,000 annual fee.

April 2, 2010
– DEP provides return share data, in weight, to manufacturers.

June 1, 2010
– Registered TV manufacturers must submit plans based on market share
– Registered computer and computer-monitor manufacturers must submit plans based on
return share

January 1, 2011
– Collection and recycling programs begin.
– Disposal ban takes effect on all covered electronic devices
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Black cars are cool…except maybe in California

Black cars are cool.
It’s axiomatic, hardwired into American male genes.

Black cars are powerful and dangerous…


…they leave cop cars in the dust…

…and they’re indispensable when the situation requires a noticeable arrival

Unfortunately, at least in California, black cars are…
very uncool.

As in….

The popular blog, TechCrunch, informs us that California May Ban Black Cars.
It’s true. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is proposing environmental regulations that would effectively ban the sale of black cars.

How? By requiring all new car paint colors to have a 20% solar reflectivity by 2016 with a phase-in period starting in 2012.
(Think climate change, global warming, Ray-Bans for autos)

So, can’t paint suppliers just come up with new, less heat-absorbent dark paints?

Autoblog reports that suppliers have been testing their pigments and processes to see if it’s possible to meet CARB’s proposed mandate and things aren’t looking good.

“Apparently, when the proper pigments and chemicals are added to black paint, the resulting color is currently being referred to as “mud-puddle brown.”

Ouch. Can you imagine Mad Max driving a mud-puddle brown Interceptor?
New Jersey is usually only a half-step behind California when it comes to environmental legislation and regulations. So it may be more a question of when than if the Garden State will see a similar push.

We can already see the state’s environmental organizations getting behind it…

Your opinion? Use the block below. If it’s missing, click on the tiny “comments” link.

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New greenhouse gas rules from the EPA and NY

On March 10, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was proposing new rules requiring annual reports of of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The first annual report covering calendar year 2010 would be due by March 31, 2011 except for vehicle and engine manufacturers, who would report beginning with model year 2011.

The proposal will be subject to a 60-day public comment period after it is published in the Federal Register.

In one of Saul Ewing law firm’s series of environmental alerts to clients, aptly labeled What keeps you up at night?, attorney Carl B. Everett explains that the rule is designed to apply to “power plants and other energy intensive sectors like automakers, iron and steel producers, chemical makers, cement producers, petroleum refineries as well as landfills and large manure management systems.” You can read Carl’s report here.

In its e-newsletter, In-Sites, the Gibbons law firm also reports on the EPA proposal, adding that on March 11–just one day after the EPA rule announcement–New York State unveiled a new initiative to include greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s environmental review of large-scale projects.

Gibbons explains that: “Whenever a project is subject to an environmental impact statement (EIS), where the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is the lead agency and there is a requirement for an environmental review of large scale projects under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR), the newly announced policy will be triggered. “

You’ll find a copy of New York’s proposal, which will be subject to a 30-day comment period ending April 10, 2009, at http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/52508.html or http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/52557.html

You can read the full Gibbons alert here

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Skip the herbicides, hire this lawn crew

Does your town, authority or corporation have a large swath of property requiring mowing an weed control? You might want to employ a hard-working (and all natural) lawn crew like this one….

They work sunup to sundown, drop to the ground for their breaks and never sneak away to Starbucks. And some of them even give birth to new workers on the spot.

But a good work ethic is only one of the benefits of the newest additions to San Jose’s Green Vision. Nine hundred sheep and 100 goats have been on the job grazing around the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant since February, avoiding the use of dozens of pounds of herbicides.

“The joke in the office is you know they’re working hard because their heads are
always down,” said Jennifer Garnett, a spokeswoman for the city’s environmental
services.

By having the sheep and goats do what they do naturally, the city also is helping to diminish pollution of waterways because there is no herbicide runoff where the woolly grazers are working. And, they’re able to get the job done without the use of gas-powered mowers, one of the key goals of San Jose’s Green Vision — reducing the use of nonrenewable energy.

The San Jose Mercury has the full story here

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