Enviro/Energy bills set for Dec. 19 2024 votes in NJ Senate, Assembly

Assembly, 12 PM Voting Session. (Revised 12/17/2024)

Find full text of any bill on NJ Legislative site here

A1468[bill added] Requires DEP to consider potential impacts to natural resources when classifying dams according to hazard potential.
A2102Exempts community gardens operating on-site composting systems or other systems of managing organic waste from certain DEP permits under certain conditions.
A2104[bill added] Requires DEP to prioritize funding for certain projects for acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes and certain environmental infrastructure projects that include, or allow for, flood mitigation projects.
A2929[bill added] Requires disclosure of lead drinking water hazards to tenants of residential units; prohibits landlords from obstructing replacement of lead service lines; concerns testing of residential units for lead drinking water hazards.
A4085[bill added] Allows for natural organic reduction and controlled supervised decomposition of human remains.
A4229[bill added] Requires NJEDA to establish loan program to assist beginning farmers in financing capital purchases.
A4513Requires electric public utilities to implement certain improvements to interconnection process for certain grid supply solar facilities and energy storage facilities.
A4556[bill added] Authorizes certain types of permanent structures, recently constructed or erected on preserved farmland, to be used, in certain cases, for purposes of holding special occasion events thereon.
A4603Allows commercial farmer to be awarded reasonable costs and attorney fees for defending against bad faith complaints under “Right to Farm Act”.
A5119[bill added] Appropriates $60 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects.
A5120[bill added] Appropriates $18,518,738 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to NJ Historic Trust for grants for certain historic preservation projects and associated administrative expenses.
A5121[bill added] Appropriates $49.5 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects, and Green Acres Program administrative costs.
A5122[bill added] Amends lists of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding by DEP under FY2025 environmental infrastructure funding program.
A5123[bill added] Amends lists of projects eligible to receive loans for environmental infrastructure projects from NJ Infrastructure Bank for FY2025.
A5124[bill added] Amends list of hazard mitigation and resilience projects approved for funding by NJ Infrastructure Bank under FY2025 Community Hazard Assistance Mitigation Program.
ACR114Urges DEP and EDA to establish plastics recycling marketplace.
ACR138Honors 40th anniversary of Jersey Fresh program.
AR156Requests that federal government offer legal remedies to victims exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and incentivize research into effects of those substances.
S3308Requires electric public utilities to implement certain improvements to interconnection process for certain grid supply solar facilities and energy storage facilities.
Senate, 12:00 Party Conferences; 1:00p Party Caucus; 2:00p Voting Session.
A4571Makes various changes to powers and duties of NJ Infrastructure Bank.
S2788Appropriates $128.241 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for farmland preservation purposes.
S3472Makes various changes to powers and duties of NJ Infrastructure Bank.
S3879Amends lists of projects eligible to receive loans for environmental infrastructure projects from NJ Infrastructure Bank for FY2025.
S3880Amends list of hazard mitigation and resilience projects approved for funding by NJ Infrastructure Bank under FY2025 Community Hazard Assistance Mitigation Program.
S3881Amends lists of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding by DEP under FY2025 environmental infrastructure funding program.
S3922Appropriates $18,518,738 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to NJ Historic Trust for grants for certain historic preservation projects and associated administrative expenses.
S3936Appropriates $60 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects.
S3943Appropriates $49.5 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects, and Green Acres Program administrative costs.

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NJ’s airwise congresswoman’s plan to end the drone mystery

Leave it to a former a former Navy helicopter aircraft commander to concoct a plan to identify the pesky unidentified flying annoyances responsible for so many New Jersey residents casting their eyes skyward at night.

NJ 101.5 reports that  U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J. 11th District, a former Navy helicopter aircraft commander, has called for the federal government to use the MQ-9 Reaper drones used by Customs and Border Protection to identify the source of unmanned aircraft systems causing a public frenzy.

Details here

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NJ drones (if that’s what they are} were back last night over PA, too

The mysterious, flying objects, spotted recently over New Jersey, made scattered appearances in southeastern Pennsylvania last night

By Justin Heinze, Patch Staff

SOUTHEASTERN PA — Drones were spotted throughout the greater Philadelphia area on Thursday night, perhaps the most widespread night yet of the unexplained sightings of aerial objects in the local area.

While sightings have been going on for weeks in New Jersey, there had only been scattered and intermittent reports around Philadelphia and the five county suburban area until Thursday night.

On social media, residents reported sightings in Pottstown, Lower Providence, Kimberton, Audubon, parts of Phoenixville, the Lehigh Valley, across Bucks County, and elsewhere.

“We don’t live near an airport,” one Pottstown resident shared on X. “We never see this many airplanes. And they’re too low and slow and too close together to be airplanes. What the hell is going on? It feels like an invasion.”

The drones — so named for lack of a better word, though they truly are unidentified flying objects — come in multiple sizes, but some are as large as SUVs, residents report. Many have blinking, multi-colored lights. They look similar to drones, and some of them may be drones, but that has never been definitively confirmed.

Read the full story here

Here’s what NJ Congressman Andy Kim, aboard a State Police helicopter, saw last night

Whow! Here’s a report of a drone crashing in Morris County with others circling overhead

And in cased we think this is just a Jersey thing… Pilots report mysterious ‘UFO’ sightings in Oregon

More:

138 UFOs were spotted in N.J. last year. Here’s a map

Inside the fascination and paranoia

Late night TV gets to the bottom of strange events in New Jersey

NJ drones (if that’s what they are} were back last night over PA, too Read More »

Delivery delays of electric mail trucks could end in a Trump quash

From the Washington Post

A multibillion-dollar program to buy electric vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service is far behind its original schedule, plagued by manufacturing mishaps and supplier infighting that threaten a cornerstone of outgoing President Joe Biden’s fight against climate change.

The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,” or NGDVs — mostly electric — from defense contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks. Congress provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden’s chief legislative accomplishments.

But as of November, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the Oshkosh trucks, the agency told The Washington Post — far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected by now. Significant manufacturing difficulties that were not disclosed to the Postal Service for more than a year have stymied production, according to internal company records and four people with knowledge of the events, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals.

Read the full story here

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Climate and equity goals added to long-delayed NJ State Plan

By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight

New Jersey’s top planning officials this week released a draft of the state’s first State Development and Redevelopment Plan in at least 23 years, updating goals around major issues like economic development, transportation, housing and urban revitalization.

Long in the making, the new document would guide state policy on infrastructure and land use statewide, and has new proposals for counties and towns on managing public assets in light of climate change and the demand for equity.

The plan, if finalized over the next year, will be the first to be adopted by the State Planning Commission since 2001 even though a 1980s law that enables it called for a review every three years.

As the overarching statement of state policy on planning and infrastructure, officials said the plan would provide a framework for infrastructure planning over the next 25 years, while recognizing the needs to adapt to climate change and to ensure equitable treatment for underserved communities — neither of which was included in the last report almost a quarter-century ago.

“This is immensely historic,” said Tom Dallessio, vice president of policy for the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association. “New Jerseyans as taxpayers are stockholders in this public corporation called New Jersey. Who owns stock in a private corporation that doesn’t have a plan, let alone a plan that’s 24 years old?

Read the full story here

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month.

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Recent immigration surge is largest in U.S. history

Under President Biden, more than two million immigrants per year have entered, government data shows. Surge is even higher than Ellis Island period

By David Leonhardt, Dec. 11, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET

The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s, according to a New York Times analysis of government data.

Annual net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people.

That’s a faster pace of arrivals than during any other period on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. Even after taking into account today’s larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850.

eriod on record, including the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. Even after taking into account today’s larger U.S. population, the recent surge is the most rapid since at least 1850.

Read the full story here

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month.

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