EPA may order certain incinerators to report chemical releases 

To make the change to its Toxics Release Inventory, the EPA would need to launch a rulemaking process. The move would expand the public’s understanding of toxic chemicals released by such facilities.


By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

The U.S. EPA said it will initiate a rulemaking process to require certain incineration, combustion and gasification facilities to report toxic chemical releases through the agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, as is required with other industrial pollution sources. 

The decision comes in response to a petition from the Energy Justice Network and the Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility sent on April 3, 2023. It would expand covered waste incineration entities beyond hazardous waste combustors, which were previously covered by the EPA’s program.

The move is expected to affect 60 facilities around the country, per the EPA. The agency denied part of the petition asking for all kinds of incinerators to be covered, saying it lacks the resources to monitor all such facilities.

Read the full story here

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Why is Trump eyeing Greenland and the Panama Canal


Visitors to the melting Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland in July / Getty Images

By Lisa Freidman, The New York Times

To imagine the kind of future a hotter, dryer climate may bring, and the geopolitical challenges it will create, look no further than two parts of the world that Donald Trump wants America to control: Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The president-elect in recent days has insisted that both places are critical to United States national security. He’s called to reclaim control the Panama Canal from Panama and acquire Greenland from Demark, both sovereign territories with their own governments.

They have something else in common as well: Both are significantly affected by climate change in ways that present looming challenges to global shipping and trade.

Because of warming temperatures, an estimated 11,000 square miles of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers have melted over the past three decades, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Massachusetts. That has huge implications for the entire world. If the ice melts completely, Greenland could cause sea levels to rise as much as 23 feet, according to NASA.

Greenland’s retreating ice could open up areas to drill for oil and gas and places to mine critical minerals, a fact that has already attracted international interest and raised concerns about environmental harms. And, ship traffic in the Arctic has surged 37 percent over the past decade, according to a recent Arctic Council report, as sea ice has declined. More melting could open up even more trade routes.

Read the full story here

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Judge denies request to stall New Jersey’s affordable housing law

By Jessica Perry, NJBIZ

New Jersey’s updated affordable housing law will proceed, following a Superior Court ruling issued at the start the new year.

Mercer County Judge Robert Lougy rejected a motion to stay implementation of the update “on numerous grounds” in an opinion released Jan. 2. Fair Share Housing Center, a defendant in the case, announced the ruling Thursday.

Led by Montvale, several municipalities filed suit in the fall to challenge the legislative overhaul of New Jersey’s affordable housing obligations. Under the state’s landmark Mount Laurel Doctrine, municipalities’ constitutional obligations for providing a fair share of affordable homes are updated every 10 years. The fourth round of obligations, starting in 2025, mark the first under the updated law.

The court will hear oral arguments Jan. 31 on whether to dismiss the complaint entirely.

Read the full story here

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NJ energy veteran recalls President Carter’s contributions








By Michael Winka
Over four decades, Winka helped develop solid waste and energy policies at the NJDEP and NJBPU

One of the many accomplishments of President Jimmy Carter was he created the Department of Energy.

On August 4 1977 he signed the Department of Energy Organization Act consolidating 30 separate energy offices and functions across the federal government, in response to the oil embargos at the time – His comments on signing the Act was “we need to operate government more efficiently – if we are going to be energy independent.

On October 1 1977 he “opened” the US Department of Energy – which is why Oct 1 id EE Day.

New Jersey had a Department of Energy as a separate Department but that was subsequently reorganized a Division of Energy Conservation in BPU which was further reorganized as the Department of Environment and Energy at NJDEP and subsequently re- reorganized back to it current structure at BPU and DCA. 

President Carter is the reason the US is now a net exporter of petroleum and natural gas producing more than we use for the last 3 years.  He is why the US can mine natural gas from shale at such a low cost.  He installed solar panels on the White House in 1979 with a goal to make 20% of our energy from solar by 2000. (New Jersey is about halfway there if you only count electricity).  But he also supported making more energy with coal.  Better to burn a ton of coal – he said than to support importing oil. 

Of course after the election President Reagan took the solar panels down, which started making energy a political football.

He is the reason you cannot buy an inefficient refrigeration or windows of hundreds of other EE appliance today.  Why building are orders of magnitude more energy efficient today.

He is the reason electricity usage has been relatively flat in New Jersey since around 2007, saving ratepayer billions on their energy cost and avoiding millions of tons of CO2. 

Michael Winka  
Sustainable Lawrence

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Most of Puerto Rico back in the dark on New Year’s Eve

Only a fraction of the island’s 1.4 million utility customers had power on Tuesday morning. The electricity provider said it would take 24 to 48 hours to restore power.


By Victor Mather, New York Times, Dec. 31, 2024 Updated 10:38 a.m. ET

A sweeping blackout hit Puerto Rico early Tuesday morning, plunging nearly all of the island into darkness on New Year’s Eve.

As of 10:20 a.m. Eastern, only 13 percent of Puerto Rico’s 1.4 million utility customers had power, according to the tracking page of Luma Energy, which supplies power to the U.S. territory. The company said it was activating emergency operations to restore power and described the blackout as “systemwide.”

Luma said on social media that “preliminary findings point to a fault on an underground line.” It said that it planned to restore power in phases and that “the entire process will take between 24-48 hours, conditions permitting.”

Josué Colón, the director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, told Telemundo that he believed restoration would take several days.

Read the full story here:

Related news:
Most of Puerto Rico hit by New Year’s Eve power outage (CBS News)
1.3 million left in the dark (The Guardian)

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