EnviroPolitics Blog

12 Bills Before the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee on Monday

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee will meet at 10 a.m., Monday, December 18, 20023 in Committee Room 6,
1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

Please note that public testimony regarding S2978 was taken at the November 20, 2023 meeting of the committee. No additional testimony will be taken on the bill at its December 18 meeting.

Meeting Agenda

Bill	Synopsis		Sponsor	Status	LDOA
A2994	Designates Common Eastern Bumble Bee as New Jersey State Native Pollinator.		Calabrese, Clinton	SEN	6/1/2023
A3677	Prohibits purchase, sale, distribution, import, export, or propagation of certain invasive species without a permit from the Department of Agriculture or Department of Environmental Protection; establishes NJ Invasive Species Council.*		Stanley, Sterley S./Verrelli, Anthony S. +3	SEN	6/1/2023
S2186	Requires installation of operational automatic rain sensor on lawn sprinklers as a condition of sale and on lawn sprinklers on commercial, retail, or industrial property and in common interest communities within specified timeframes.		Greenstein, Linda R./Smith, Bob +4	SEN	12/11/2023
S2505	Requires electric public utilities to submit new tariffs for commercial customers for BPU approval; regulates non-volumetric electricity fees charged to operators of fast-charging electric vehicle chargers.		Smith, Bob/Greenstein, Linda R.	SEN	5/12/2022
S2978	Revises State renewable energy portfolio standards.		Smith, Bob	SEN	8/8/2022
S3914	Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding by DEP under the FY 2024 environmental infrastructure funding program.	Discussion Only	Smith, Bob	SEN	6/1/2023
S4097	Amends list of projects eligible to receive loans for environmental infrastructure projects from NJ Infrastructure Bank for FY 2024.		Zwicker, Andrew /Gopal, Vin	SEN	11/27/2023
S4098	Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding by DEP under FY 2024 environmental infrastructure funding program.		Greenstein, Linda R./Stanfield, Jean	SEN	11/27/2023
S4138	Appropriates $58 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects.		Johnson, Gordon M./Schepisi, Holly T.	SEN	11/30/2023
S4165	Appropriates $48 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.		Greenstein, Linda R./Oroho, Steven V.	SEN	11/30/2023
S4229	Designates Common Eastern Bumble Bee as New Jersey State Native Pollinator.		Greenstein, Linda R.	SEN	12/11/2023
SR129	Urges EPA to expend funds from NJ Superfund settlements to remediate sites at issue.		Scutari, Nicholas P.	SEN	12/4/2023

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Tesla Recalls Autopilot Software in 2 Million Vehicles

Federal regulators pressed the automaker to make updates to ensure drivers are paying attention while using Autopilot, a system that can steer, accelerate, and brake on its own.

By Jack Ewing, Cade Metz and Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times

Tesla’s reputation for making technologically advanced cars suffered a blow on Tuesday when the company, under pressure from regulators, recalled more than two million vehicles. U.S. officials said the automaker had not done enough to ensure that drivers remained attentive when using a system that can steer, accelerate, and brake cars automatically.

The recall by Tesla, the world’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, was its fourth in less than two years and the most significant to date. It covers nearly all cars the company has manufactured in the United States since 2012, including its most popular, the Model Y sport-utility vehicle.

Tesla accounts for about half of the electric passenger cars sold in the United States, but its market share has been slipping as General Motors, Hyundai, Ford Motor and other automakers have begun selling electric models. In addition, recent public statements by Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, have been widely interpreted as antisemitic and offended some customers. The recall amounts to another dent in the company’s image.

“There’s no question” that the company’s brand “has taken a hit this year,” Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund, who is generally positive about Tesla, said on the social media site X, which is owned by Mr. Musk.

The recall follows an investigation into Tesla’s driver-assistance system, Autopilot, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began in August 2021 after a series of accidents, some fatal, involving the technology. Autopilot is designed to control vehicles on its own when on highways. Tesla’s owners’ manuals tell drivers that they should keep their hands on the wheel and take over if anything goes wrong.

The recall reflects regulators’ concern that Tesla did not do enough to prevent drivers from misusing the system, including by turning it on while they travel local roads and by becoming distracted because they assumed that their car could drive itself.

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COP 28 ends with historic agreement on fossil fuel’s future — but the world still can’t quit oil

From Politico

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Climate talks in Dubai ended with a deal to curb the use of fossil fuels that was both historic and 30 years too late.

The two-week conference, held in the oil-rich desert kingdom of the United Arab Emirates and presided over by an oil CEO, brought two competing realities into a painful collision. The planet is overheating, yet humanity remains inextricably reliant on coal, oil, and natural gas.

The talks ended on Wednesday with a deal among almost 200 countries that committed to “transitioning away from fossil fuels,” notably by speeding up that shift before 2030. But the agreement also appeased oil-rich Gulf states by explicitly sanctioning those fuels’ use during the transition. And organizers gaveled it through so hastily that representatives for vulnerable island nations, who had a series of misgivings about the text, had yet to enter the room.

Still, leaders of the U.N. summit and representatives of major governments were quick to endorse the nonbinding pact as a historic acknowledgment that the world needs to move quickly to cleaner energy sources.

Read the full Politico story here

A turn away from fossil fuels

From Bloomberg Politics

After marathon talks, delegates from 198 countries at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai hammered out a deal to shift the global economy away from fossil fuels.

The question remains whether the action envisaged is urgent enough to stem the planet’s warming — this year was the hottest ever recorded.

The agreement is a major win for the United Arab Emirates, which had pledged to use its yearlong COP28 presidency to get fellow oil-producing OPEC members onside and commit to ambitious climate action.

At times, it looked like they would fail, with COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber facing a wall of skepticism over his role as chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

In the end, the so-called UAE Consensus calls for countries to quickly transition energy systems away from hydrocarbons in a “just” and “orderly” fashion. These caveats made the deal palatable to oil- and gas-producing nations worried about the impact of the shift on their tax receipts.

Read the full Bloomberg story here

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Visiting the First EV Charging Station Funded by the Federal Infrastructure Law

The Ohio charging station signals the start of a wave of new projects paid for by the 2021 law.

The charging equipment at the Pilot Travel Center near London, Ohio is part of a partnership between General Motors, Pilot Company and EVgo. Credit: Dan Gearino/Inside Climate News — *The charging equipment at the Pilot Travel Center near London, Ohio is part of a partnership between General Motors, Pilot Company ,and EVgo. Credit: Dan Gearino/Inside Climate News*

By Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News

LONDON, Ohio—On the western outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, two doors down from a Waffle House, is a truck stop that, as of last Friday, has the first electric vehicle charging station in the country to be financed in part by the 2021 federal infrastructure law.

The Pilot Travel Center at I-70 and U.S. 42 has four charging ports. They are part of a partnership between General Motors and Pilot that the companies say will lead to chargers being installed at 500 Pilot and Flying J locations.

At about 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, nobody was using the chargers.

The larger significance of this installation is that the federal government is showing progress in turning $5 billion worth of charger funding into completed projects. The expansion of the charging network is an essential part of supporting a shift away from gasoline and reducing emissions from the transportation sector.

“I am very glad to see some steel in the ground,” said Samantha Houston, an analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists who specializes in issues related to EV charging. “I think this is a major milestone. What I would like to see and expect to see is an acceleration of away-from-home infrastructure.”

Ohio was one of the leaders in securing a share of this money and stands to receive $140 million over five years to construct charging stations along major travel routes.

“Electric vehicles are the future of transportation, and we want drivers in Ohio to have access to this technology today,” said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, in a statement.

The arrival of charging stations at the truck stop chain is a counterpoint to concerns from some EV drivers that the nation’s charging network isn’t nearly robust enough and too many chargers are broken or located in places without amenities.

At this truck stop, people can go inside to eat at an Arby’s, a Cinnabon, and from a large selection of other food and drink. They can buy merchandise like a Bud Light baseball cap and a T-shirt that says “The Only Thing Tougher than a Trucker Is a Trucker’s Wife.”

The chargers are capable of offering up to 350 kilowatts, which allows for faster charging than many other stations.

“To see this project go from the whiteboard to drivers charging their EVs is a wonderful and unique experience,” said Tim Langenkamp, vice president of business development for sustainability for Pilot, in an email.

Pilot has chargers at 18 locations in nine states. The Ohio location is the first of those to benefit from the federal program.

Langenkamp said customers have had about 5,000 charging sessions on the company’s network since the first ports went online in September.

The federal money comes from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which is one of many parts of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law.

The country had 141,714 public charging ports as of the end of June, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The Biden administration has set a goal of getting this number to 500,000 by 2030 and would like to see them available at 50-mile intervals on major highways.

Many more federally funded chargers will follow the one in Ohio. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program lists projects in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, and Pennsylvania.

Read the full story here

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Is an era of corporate migration to New Jersey suburbs over? Nokia Bell Labs move to New Brunswick suggests so

Nokia Bell Labs dumps ‘obsolete’ suburban office for gleaming 10-story New Brunswick tower

Rendering of the Nokia Bell Labs research and development facility in New Brunswick.

AT&T built its Bell Labs facility in 1941 on what was rural property in Murray Hill.
Nokia which now owns Bell Labs, was looking for a new space that is more “collaborative.”
It found its spot in a 350,000-square-foot New Brunswick building scheduled to be completed in 2028.

By Michael L. Diamond, Asbury Park Press

NEW BRUNSWICK – Nokia Bell Labs will move its storied research facility from its sprawling suburban campus in Murray Hill to a gleaming 10-story office and laboratory being built for it as part of the Helix project here, company officials said Monday.

The 350,000-square-foot building, scheduled to be completed in 2028, is expected to house 1,000 employees. And it gives New Jersey a major coup. Nokia had looked at some 25 sites, mainly in the Northeast, before settling on the urban setting of New Brunswick.

The site, executives said, had everything they were looking for: the chance to occupy a lab built to their own specifications; the ability to attract employees from nearby universities; and easy access thanks to the New Brunswick train station across the street.

Executives were joined for the announcement by Gov. Phil Murphy, as well as federal, state and local officials at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, a short walk from the Helix project that’s underway.

“The (Murray Hill) campus, while I think it served us really well for 80 years, is not really well fit to bring us into the next, I’m going to say 80 years,” said Severine Siebert, vice president of strategy and technology operations for Nokia. “We want to have a space that’s more collaborative because we truly believe that collaboration will bring our innovation forward.”

It came as New Jersey’s economy undergoes a transformation. Corporate giants that in the 20th century flocked to the Garden State suburbs, where their workers could toil away largely in isolation, need less space in the digital age — and closer ties to colleges and highly skilled workers.

“These were facilities built by corporate giants,” Rutgers University economist James W. Hughes said. “They’re just obsolete now.”

Nokia sets sights on New Brunswick

Nokia Bell Labs at Murray Hill features the Nobel Circle in its courtyard.

Nokia Bell Labs in Murray Hill is the largest of eight research facilities operated by the Finland-based telecommunications company, conducting research in everything from how to expand on the limits of optical systems to new innovations such as artificial intelligence.

The company began looking to replace its Murray Hill campus five years ago. It considered renovating the building, but decided it would make more sense to search for a new location, Siebert said.

It eventually settled on Helix, a three-building complex on the site of a former parking garage that New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill and Gov. Murphy envisioned as a center for high-tech and life sciences research in hopes that New Jersey could stem the tide of highly paid employees moving to hotspots such as Silicon Valley, New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Read the full story here

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Ford trimming production of all-electric F-150 Lightning pickups

Ford employees assemble the Ford F-150 Lightning at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. A report says the automaker is reducing production of the Lightning after the new year.

By Breana Noble, The Detroit News

Ford Motor Co. is decreasing production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck after the new year in Dearborn, according to a report from Automotive News.

“We will continue to match production to customer demand,” spokesperson Jess Enoch said in a statement, declining to provide specifics about changes at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, which employs 2,200 people.

In its report, Automotive News cited a supplier memo that states the automaker will produce 1,600 vehicles per week. The plant had planned production for double that.

The change is the latest in a series of moves by the Dearborn automaker and others in the industry to pull back on electric vehicle production. Availability of charging stations, charging speeds, grid reliability and EV affordability remain obstacles to mass adoption.

Ford in October said it was cutting $12 billion in planned EV investment as the growth in adoption slows. That included almost halving the size of its west Michigan battery plant in Marshall and delaying by a year the launch of production at one of its two battery plants in Kentucky with SK On. The automaker also cut back production in Mexico of the Mustang Mach-E SUV and has decreased requirements for dealers to be EV-certified in the coming years.

Read the full story here

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