Meet a prime sponsor of New Jersey’s new electric bus pilot program

Assemblyman Sterley Stanley represents New Jersey’s 18th legislative district.

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

Up to 18 school districts or bus contractors around New Jersey will soon start using electric school buses and charging stations, thanks to a bill Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law on August 4 that sets aside $15 million annually for three years for the efforts.

The state Assembly passed A1274 in May, 47-31, and the state Senate passed it on June, 23-15, with two not voting. Some Republican lawmakers called the bill too expensive and a distraction from students’ pandemic-related educational and mental health needs.

The state Department of Environmental Protection will oversee the pilot program, half of which will serve students in low-income or urban communities, or those disproportionately affected by environmental impacts.

The DEP will choose the districts and contractors from among applicants from north, central and southern New Jersey, with contractors making up no more than half of the grant recipients.

“In order to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions and optimally capitalize on the benefits of vehicle electrification, we must electrify not just the cars that bring us to work, but the buses that safely deliver our children to school,” said Governor Murphy. “Some of the most important vehicles traversing our state’s roads and bridges are the buses connecting our children and families to our nation-leading public school system. It is our responsibility as elected officials to ensure that those vehicles do not adversely affect the health outcomes of our students as they grow, learn, and prepare to lead New Jersey toward a more sustainable future themselves.”

Through the Electric School Bus Program, the state Department of Environmental Protection will issue $15 million in grants in Year One and up to $15 million in Years Two and Three for a total of up to $45 million over the course of the three-year program. Grants will be awarded to at least six school districts or bus contractors annually. In each year, at least half of the school districts or school bus contractors selected by the DEP – and at least half of the grant funding awarded by the DEP in each year – will be allocated to a low-income, urban, or environmental justice community in order to mitigate the disproportionate health impacts of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles on vulnerable populations.

Funding for the program can come from the Clean Energy Fund, the Global Warming Solutions Fund (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative proceeds), monies available from utility programs to upgrade electrical infrastructure for vehicle charging, appropriations, or any other available funding. For Year One, the program’s budget comes from the General Fund.

Democratic sponsors of the bill in the Assembly, Sterley Stanley (Middlesex), Shama Haider (Bergen), and Britnee Timberlake (Essex) said in a statement, “The diesel exhaust from buses negatively impacts our overall health and is a major contributor to climate change.” They said the program will let the state explore the best approaches for electrifying bus fleets in the future.

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Longtime New Jersey lawmaker Maureen Ogden dies at 93

Then-state Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden is pictured in a file photo.

By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com


Former state Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden, known for championing environmental causes in her 14 years in the New Jersey Legislature and as the first female mayor of Millburn, died Wednesday.

The Essex County Republican was 93.

Gov. Phil Murphy ordered New Jersey and U.S. flags at all state buildings to fly at half-staff in Ogden’s honor, saying she “dedicated her life to public service” and was a “passionate supporter of the arts and a steadfast champion of the environment.”

“As we honor her legacy as a leader and trailblazer, we commemorate her many achievements in state politics and conservationism,” Murphy said in a statement. “Tammy and I send our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones.”

Ogden, a Republican, was mayor of Millburn from 1979-81 and was elected to the Assembly in 1981 with running mate Bob Franks, the future congressman.

During her seven terms, Ogden served as chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Conservation, Energy, and Natural Resources, as well as chair of the Committee on Arts, Tourism, and Cultural Affairs.

She supported legislation in 1994 to create a fund to preserve open space in the Garden State. She also sponsored a bill to give adopted residents access to their original birth certificates.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said Odgen “represented the best of the best.”

Read the full story here

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NJ State Senator Steve Oroho labels energy master plan a ‘political whitewash’

The latest ratepayer impact study of Governor Murphy’s Energy Master Plan inexplicably ignores many of the most costly mandates, said Senator Steven Oroho today in a news release.

The latest ratepayer impact study of Gov. Murphy’s Energy Master Plan inexplicably ignores many of the most costly mandates, said Sen. Steven Oroho today, as he blamed the Murphy Administration for continuing to obscure the true fiscal impact.

“It is untenable, but Murphy’s ridiculously expensive Energy Master Plan (EMP) goes into effect in about four months, and New Jersey residents still cannot get a straight answer about how much it is going to cost them,” said Oroho (R-24). “The study released Wednesday omits many of the most noteworthy cost-drivers and shamelessly sugar-coats the price tag of the Governor’s green energy fantasy.

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“The emphasis on offshore wind generation, massive utility-scale solar installations, and behind-the-scenes costs of converting homes and businesses from natural gas to electric demands enormous public and private investment and simply cannot be glossed over, yet the Brattle study does just that,” the Senator continued.

Oroho noted that the study, commissioned by the Board of Public Utilities, touted EMP’s unsubstantiated energy savings projections, but failed to emphasize the expenses associated with the conversion to electric vehicles, including residential, commercial, and governmental infrastructure investment.

“The study simply cherry-picks items to artificially present the plan in the best light,” said Oroho. “But reality is going to paint a far different picture in the future, and the residents of our state, already one of the most expensive places to live in the nation, are going to be feeling the painful impact of it for decades to come.

Families and businesses will be forced to foot the bill to rip out and replace perfectly functional and energy-efficient heating units to convert to electric. In whose world does it make sense to spend as much as $40,000 or more to scrap operating boilers and furnaces?” asked the Senator.

An over-reliance on electricity before the supply chain was capable of handling it has contributed to the current energy crisis in Europe, Oroho cautioned.

“There is a real danger in moving too fast. In Germany and the United Kingdom, electric rates are soaring and there are serious concerns about whether they will be able to meet the growing demand for electricity this winter,” Oroho said. “This should be a warning for the Governor. Pump the breaks and slow down.

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How ‘Mona Lisa’ keeps her cool

An underground cooling system chills the Louvre and other sites in Paris.

Laurent Le Guedart, heritage director of the Louvre, which doesn’t use air-conditioning. The cooling system uses renewable energy by pumping icy water from the Seine through a labyrinth of underground pipes.

By Thomas Adamson and Nico Garriga (Associated Press)

PARIS – The Mona Lisa may maintain her famously enigmatic smile because she benefits from one of Paris’ best-kept secrets: An underground cooling system that’s helped the Louvre cope with the sweltering heat that has broken temperature records across Europe.

The little-known “urban cold” network snakes unsuspecting beneath Parisians’ feet at a depth of up to 98 feet, pumping out icy water through 55 miles of labyrinthine pipes, which is used to chill the air in over 700 sites. The system, which uses electricity generated by renewable sources, is the largest in Europe – and chugs on around the clock with a deafening noise totally inaudible above ground.

Paris’ City Hall has now signed an ambitious contract to triple the size of the network by 2042 to157 miles). It would make it the largest urban cooling system in the world. The new contract intends to help the city to both adapt to and combat the threat of global warming. Many parts of Europe hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in July.

The city is extending the cooling network to hospitals, schools, and metro stations over the next two decades. It’s unclear how much of the system will be operational by the time of the Paris Olympics in 2024, but it’s possible the systems will be used in several Olympic sites.

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Unbeknownst to millions of tourists, the piping currently cools the City of Light’s most emblematic sites, such as the Louvre and the Quai Branly Museum. It might even help cool the tempers of agitated lawmakers as it is used to drop temperatures in the National Assembly.

The scheme is operated by the joint-venture company Fraicheur de Paris – 85% owned by the state’s French energy company EDF and the rest by public transport operator RATP. The company’s officials tout its benefits for the entire French capital.

“If all [Parisian] buildings get equipped with autonomous installations [such as air-conditioning], it will gradually create a very significant urban ‘heat island’ effect,” said Maggie Schelfhaut of Fraicheur de Paris, referring to the increased heat in cities due to less vegetation, which cools, and more urban infrastructure, which absorbs the sun’s rays.

But Schelfhaut said that the pipe network could make the whole of Paris one degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) cooler than if autonomous installations were put up across the city.

“One degree less in the city center is a lot,” she added.

Three of the 10 high-tech cooling sites lie on the Seine river and are accessed by a retractable spiral staircase barely visible from street level – in something resembling the lair of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Read the full story here

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Democrats bid goodbye to carbon pricing, hello to climate-change incentives


By Marianne Lavelle, Climate Change News

The nation’s first comprehensive climate law, sealed with a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, will not look anything like the program imagined by either climate economists or those in Washington and the environmental movement who had faith in bipartisan action.

From the time that the world first agreed to act on climate change 30 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, environmentalists talked about putting a “price” on carbon as a core element of any strategy for reducing fossil fuel pollution that was heating the planet.

Whether imposed by tax, fee, or cap-and-trade system—such a price would discourage carbon-based fuel pollution and encourage investment in and deployment of clean alternatives, said advocates of the idea. And because such a scheme would rely on the market, rather than government mandates, to decide the best approach to decarbonize, proponents argued it was an idea both Democrats and Republicans could get behind.

Instead, Democrats are advancing their climate bill with no Republican support, and their program is one of carrots, not sticks. The idea is that an unprecedented $370 billion federal investment in clean energy—largely in the form of tax credits to encourage its development, as opposed to taxes on carbon to discourage the use of fossil fuels—will be the push that transforms not only the economy but the politics of climate change.

Related environmental and energy news:
What’s in the Democrats’ Climate and Health Bill (NY Times)
Political shifts that produced the climate bill’s passage (Washington Post)

“I’ve always thought that this gives us a chance to get the greatest possible emission reductions and the largest savings possible and still get the votes,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.),  chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who shepherded through the tax credits at the heart of the Democrats’ climate plan. 

The decision that the United States would spend rather than tax its way to a more sustainable future was in large part driven by political reality—Democrats had to win over the vote of a staunch fossil fuel industry supporter in their own party, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who opposed carbon taxes. But the plan also was influenced by a new generation of climate policy thinkers who argued that lawmakers had spent too much time listening to the economists, and as a result, had played into the hands of the powerful foes of climate action. 

Previous climate proposals in Washington focused first on costs, not benefits. That made it easy for the fossil fuel industry and its allies to defeat the Clinton administration’s BTU tax proposal and the cap-and-trade plan that died in Congress under President Barack Obama, whereby carbon emissions would have been capped and polluting industries could have purchased credits from non-polluters.  

Read the full story here

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