EnviroPolitics Blog

Failed reservation pipeline protests led this native American to solar

For decades, Native Americans were reliant on the US government to bring them power. Now, that may be changing.

Indigenized Energy Cody Two Bears founded Indigenized Energy, a native-led energy company installing solar farms for tribal nations in the US (Credit: Indigenized Energy)

By Lucy Sherriff BBC Features Correspondent

It was at Standing Rock, as he watched a fellow protester be cuffed and manhandled into a police car, that Cody Two Bears, a member of the Sioux tribe in North Dakota, decided he would build a solar farm.

“I realized I didn’t want to just talk about it, protest about it,” he says, reflecting on the months-long protests that took place in 2016, to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline from being built on sacred tribal land. “I wanted to be about it.”

At the time, Two Bears was on the tribal council of the Cannon Ball community of Standing Rock. He was a key member in organizing the pipeline protests, which had hoped to prevent a 1,172 mile (1,886km) long underground pipe from transporting crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline was eventually built despite multiple appeals to have the line shut down. However, a lawsuit brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was successful, requiring a complete environmental review of the pipeline.

“I learned about the impacts of fossil fuels on communities like ours, who don’t really have a voice,” says Two Bears. “And it seems these large infrastructural projects always happen in places of low-status communities. And one came to my backyard.”

Organisations across the US are training Native American tribes how to install solar panels in a bid to bring jobs and power to reservations (Credit: Indigenized Energy)

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Waste haulers seek New York rate cap increase due to rising costs

Waste Connections truck in New York — Waste Connections is one of multiple companies asking New York’s Business Integrity Commission to raise maximum price rates. *The image by Eden, Janine and Jim is licensed under CC BY 2.0*

By Cole Rosengren, Lead Editor, Waste Dive

New York haulers are calling for the city’s commercial waste rate cap to increase by at least 9% to help offset rising costs on multiple fronts. The current maximum price allowed is $24.21 per cubic yard or $15.89 per 100 pounds.

Comments from multiple companies cited a 9% increase in the Producer Price Index’s solid waste collection category since September 2022, along with rising costs related to disposal, labor, commercial containerization requirements, and an upcoming congestion pricing system.

Waste Connections, the National Waste & Recycling Association’s local chapter, Mr. T Carting, Century Waste Services, M&M Sanitation, and D&D Carting all weighed in following a recent hearing by the city’s Business Integrity Commission.

Haulers throughout the industry have been raising prices to keep up with inflation and related costs in recent years, but in New York City that ability is more limited due to a regulatory process. Last year, the BIC approved a 9% increase in June and a 7% increase in October, the first time it had done so twice in one year.

The agency is required to hold a hearing on this issue every other year, but it is not obligated to make adjustments to the rate cap. In the past, adjustments have generally come multiple months after the hearings.

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National greenhouse gas monitoring strategy unveiled

President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a climate event. — *U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a climate event at the White House complex on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee via Getty Images*

By Zoya Mirza, ESG Dive Editor

The White House announced on Wednesday a national system to measure, monitor, and share information related to greenhouse gas emissions, aimed at accelerating efforts to reduce the country’s carbon footprint and helping it reach its net-zero goal by 2050.

Related greenhouse gas news:
NASA, Partners Launch US Greenhouse Gas Center

The National Strategy to Advance an Integrated U.S. Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Monitoring, and Information System will be an interagency effort based on a set of national objectives to help integrate efforts by federal government agencies and non-federal entities, including city, state, and tribal governments, NGOs and the private sector.

The strategy includes improving activity-based and atmospheric-based emissions quantification and estimates; making data on greenhouse gas emissions more accessible and interoperable; and supporting the development of science-based standards to ensure consistent and accurate emissions measurements.

The national framework arrived a day before the COP28 climate summit, which President Joe Biden will not be attending — a decision that has been met with criticism, given that climate change is a cornerstone of the president’s policy agenda and his approaching reelection bid. The White House announced Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris would attend the summit instead.

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Oregon rules on what is recyclable and what’s not

In addition to standardizing what can be collected curbside and through special programs, the new rules define “responsible” end markets and require PROs to manage materials accordingly.

Two workers in yellow hard hats stand over a conveyor belt full of recyclable materials, primarily plastics, in an industrial facility — *Workers sort paper and plastic waste at Far West Recycling on Oct. 30, 2017, in Hillsboro, Oregon. Natalie Behring via Getty Images*

By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission has adopted a statewide list of items accepted for recycling and defined “responsible end markets” for such materials. These are major steps in implementing the state’s sweeping extended producer responsibility for packaging law passed in 2021.

The commission, a rulemaking board of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, also approved numerous other rules related to the EPR law, known as the Recycling Modernization Act, on Nov. 16. Many of these rules, such as obligations for producer responsibility organizations and collection targets for specific materials, go into effect in 2025 or later.

DEQ still has plenty to do before the law can be fully implemented. A future round of rulemaking in 2024 will determine more details such as how to establish a “livable wage” for MRF employees and how to determine new operating and performance requirements for MRFs, among other details.

Oregon DEQ has been hashing out details of how to implement the state’s multifaceted EPR law since 2022. The law calls for most packaging producers to become members of a producer responsibility organization by 2025. Local governments will be able to use producer funding for improvements such as collection services and facility upgrades.

One part of the law is to create a statewide list of materials accepted for recycling, which is meant to reduce confusion about what can and cannot be recycled, DEQ has said. The approved list has several parts: One is comprised of items that local governments must collect, either through collection routes or at depots, while another part indicates the types of items for which producer responsibility organizations will need to arrange separate collection strategies. Some of the items on these sub-lists are allowed to be collected commingled.

The list was finalized after months of stakeholder meetings and hundreds of public comment submissions. Items that local governments will be required to collect curbside or at collection depots include cardboard, aluminum cans, most kinds of plastic bottles and tubs, and steel cans. The list also includes scrap metal, polycoated cartons, molded pulp packaging, and other items.

PROs will be required to provide separate recycling services for some other types of items, such as aerosol packaging, blocks of white expanded polystyrene foam, larger HDPE pails, PE film, and single-use liquid fuel canisters.

PROs will be able to suggest other materials to be added to these lists as part of the program plan. PROs will need to provide evidence that proposed materials meet the requirements of the law, or it could show how a PRO’s investment or other actions could help that material meet the requirements, said David Allaway, senior policy analyst with Oregon DEQ.

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All 12 N.J. representatives vote to expel George Santos

By Joey Fox, New Jersey Globe

Controversial Rep. George Santos (R-New York) has been expelled from Congress, with a two-thirds bipartisan majority of the House concluding that his ethics violations and criminal indictments warranted his ouster. He is the first member of Congress to be formally expelled since 2002, and the first without a criminal conviction since the Civil War.

All 12 of New Jersey’s U.S. House members voted in support of the expulsion resolution, including three – Reps. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), and Chris Smith (R-Manchester) – who voted against a previous expulsion effort last month. A fourth, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), had voted “present” on that earlier resolution.

Asked what changed in the month since then, Norcross’s answer was simple: the scathing House Ethics Committee report that was released on November 16 finding that there was “substantial evidence” Santos had committed campaign finance violations and other improper acts.

“Certainly, the recommendation from the bipartisan chairman and the ranking member, and the facts that were laid out, [changed things],” Norcross said. “We were waiting for that report or a conviction to come in, and this one came first.”

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Bill promoting renewable natural gas stalls in NJ Assembly

Sponsor of measure promoting renewable gas to heat homes says bill needs work

Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex)

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

A bill aimed at promoting the use of renewable gas failed to win approval from a legislative committee on Thursday after hours of debate over whether it would advance the state’s clean energy agenda.

The legislation (A-577), kicked around by lawmakers over the past few years, is viewed by proponents as a way to diversify energy supplies as New Jersey moves to transition away from fossil fuels, and still retain the value of billions of dollars invested in utility infrastructure.

But clean energy advocates and others argued the bill would extend the use of natural gas at a time when the climate crisis is worsening, expose the public to increased health risks, and boost energy bills to customers. The Legislature also is engaged in a push to pass a bill requiring renewable energy to produce all of the state’s electricity by 2035.

Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex), sponsor of the bill, acknowledged the measure needed more work at the beginning of the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee. Although neither testified publicly, both the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and state Division of Rate Counsel voiced concerns in letters that asked the committee to hold the bill.

“This is what we need whether it is a permanent energy source, or just an interim source,’’ Karabinchak said, echoing arguments made by labor and business interests, as well as utility executives. The state’s gas utilities are exploring using renewable natural gas from sewage treatment plants, landfills, and agricultural activities as a source of biogas.

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