EnviroPolitics Blog

New leaders announced at New Jersey’s Office of Legislative Services

Maureen McMahon to Serve as Executive Director, Gabriel Neville as Legislative Counsel

From New Jersey State Legislature News

TRENTON – The four leaders of the New Jersey Legislature announced the appointment of Maureen McMahon, Esq. as Executive Director and Gabriel R. Neville, Esq. as Legislative Counsel of the Office of Legislative Services (OLS).

“I am honored and humbled by the support of the Legislative Services Commission in my appointment as Executive Director of the Office of Legislative Services,” said McMahon. “I look forward to serving the Legislature in this capacity and continuing to work with the dedicated and talented staff at OLS.”

“I am fortunate to have spent many years working with the great people at OLS,” said Neville. “I thank the Legislative Services Commission for the opportunity to serve the Legislature in the role of Legislative Counsel.”

McMahon, a graduate of Marist College and Rutgers University School of Law, has worked in the New Jersey Legislature since 2002. In her two decades with the OLS, she has served as Lead Counsel and Section Chief of the Utilities, Transportation and Communications Section, Acting Section Chief of the Human Services Section, and Assistant Director and Director of the Central Management Unit.

Neville, a graduate of Queens University of Charlotte and Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, has served since 2002 with the OLS, first as Deputy / Associate / Senior Counsel in the Central Management Unit, and most recently as Senior / Assistant Legislative Counsel in the Office of Legislative Counsel.

Both McMahon and Neville had been serving since January in their new roles in an acting capacity until their permanent appointments were approved by the Legislative Services Commission on Tuesday following a nationwide search.

“I congratulate Maureen and Gabe on their appointments,” said Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union / Middlesex / Somerset). “The work of OLS is vital to the lawmaking process and to the success of the Legislature in serving the people of New Jersey. “

“The job and expertise of the entire Office of Legislative Services staff is critically important to us as legislators representing the interests of more than nine million New Jerseyans,” said Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin (D-Middlesex). “We are pleased to officially welcome Maureen and Gabe on board in their leadership roles.

The OLS is an agency of the Legislature that provides professional, nonpartisan staff support services to the Legislature and its officers, members, committees, and commissions.

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Enviros want NJ to ditch fossil-fuel energy faster but what’s the cost to ratepayers?

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

The state is debating whether to accelerate New Jersey’s transition to clean energy, a step advocates say is necessary due to a worsening climate crisis, but some fear it could boost already high energy bills for consumers.

A bill to speed that transition (S-2978), is one of two controversial measures discussed during a rare joint meeting of the two environmental committees at a hearing in Toms River on Thursday. It will probably be the primary focus of committee members during the final 17 months of this legislative term.

Related: Divesting from fossil fuels gets a first look

The other bill (S-416), which has been kicked around by lawmakers since 2018, aims to force the state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels, an issue long pushed by environmentalists and others, but so far resisted by the Murphy administration. Thursday’s hearing on the bill was its first despite 44 co-sponsors.

Both bills would sharply curtail the state’s reliance on fossil fuels, probably the most contested part of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan, which aims to have the state rely 100% on clean energy by 2050. The plan has gotten increasing pushback from the fossil-fuel sector, which provides natural gas to heat more than 80% of the homes in New Jersey.

Get a move on

The other bill would ramp up the state’s reliance on clean energy, reflecting Sen. Bob Smith’s insistence the state is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. New Jersey needs to transition to clean energy faster than its current pace, argued Smith (D-Middlesex) who heads the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

His bill would speed the state’s transition to clean energy to 2045, instead of 2050. It also would require that 50% of power used by New Jersey companies by 2030 be generated in-state, a provision that sparked disputes about whether it would increase or lower costs to New Jersey ratepayers who subsidize renewable energy.

Read the full story here

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ISRI rejects ‘advanced recycling’ label, says plastic-to-fuel projects should not count as recycling

By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has recently announced its position on chemical recycling, saying its definition does not include plastics-to-fuel technology as recycling. It announced the position after adopting the language during its July board meeting.

In its first official policy position on the issue, ISRI says it does not recognize the term “advanced recycling,” a name more commonly used in the plastics industry, saying the term creates a “totally inappropriate and untruthful” distinction and does not adequately recognize advancements made in mechanical recycling technologies such as robotics and AI.

ISRI joined other recycling and plastic organizations in advocating for only using chemical recycling technologies for creating new feedstocks for manufacturing, such as “recycled resins and monomers.”

Disclosure: Brill Public Affairs, a sister organization to EnviroPolitics, provides consulting to ISRI

ISRI’s announcement comes as more industries are investing in chemical recycling technologies and some environmentalists decry the process as a potential source of pollution that relies too much on virgin plastics production.

At the same time, numerous states have passed laws reclassifying advanced recycling as a manufacturing process rather than solid waste management. The American Chemistry Council has backed such laws, now operational in more than 20 states, including recently in Mississippi and West Virginia. Matthew Kastner, director of media relations for ACC’s plastics division, said the organization will “definitely be advocating” for similar laws to pass in more states in 2023.

Read the full story here

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If we’re in a recession, waste and recycling companies apparently didn’t get the message

Questions about what’s next for the U.S. economy are top of mind lately for business leaders.

Black trash bin next to blue recycling bin, which has lid propped open — MattGush via Getty Images

By Cole Rosengren, Maria Rachal, Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

The waste and recycling industry, like other industries, has experienced tight labor availability, rising fuel costs, and significant equipment delays. Facing those economic pressures, major companies in some other industries have cut guidance during the second-quarter earnings cycle.

Yet waste companies almost universally raised their 2022 guidance this quarter, with varying degrees of optimism about their ability to weather whatever may be coming next — recession or otherwise — and capitalize. And a newly released July jobs report showed strong signs for the economy. Here’s what top executives had to say about their economic expectations for the near future.

Tracking the waste and recycling industry’s mergers and acquisitions boom

The amount of acquisition spending and consolidation is rivaling historic levels. Follow along with Waste Dive’s running list of dozens of deals from throughout the U.S.

WM

WM CEO Jim Fish, speaking during the earnings call on July 27, said special waste from industrial activity as well as C&D (which is a much smaller piece of the company’s business) could both be leading indicators of a downturn, but neither is showing signs of softening in the months ahead. Fish also noted that a recent report from the company’s 16 area vice presidents gave little to no indication of overall waste volumes slowing down in July.

Overall, Fish described some 75% of the company’s business as resilient to a downturn. Executives also expressed confidence about maintaining pricing trends if that occurs.

“I do think there is a recession coming. I’m not going to kind of buck the trend there because everybody is saying there’s one coming. But I just feel like we’re in a great industry to weather the storm and, ultimately, with some of the things we’re doing with technology and reducing our labor dependency, come out of this thing better than anybody else,” Fish said.

WM executives said they believe wage inflation may have peaked for the moment — due, in part, to heightened wage increases made last year — but they said hiring and retention remain challenging. Company leadership also highlighted how an ease in supply chain challenges could improve the company’s outlook.

“We’re hopeful that in the back half of the year, we start to see a pretty significant ramp-up there in the vehicles that we’ve ordered. That’s a pretty important part of the inflation picture because … maintenance cost is not insignificant as a cost line item. And that obviously is impacted as you’re having to keep older trucks in the fleet,” said Fish.

Read the full story here

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Will ‘worse and worse’ flooding wash Appalachia away?

*A home in Pilgrim’s Knob, Virginia, sits empty after being lifted from its foundation by a recent flood. Credit: Chris Kenning, USA Today.*

By Chris Kenning, Connor Giffin and James Bruggers, Inside Climate New

Devastating floods that killed at least 37 people in Kentucky and recent damage in other parts of Appalachia, including Virginia and West Virginia, are fueling urgent questions about how to mitigate the impact of hazardous flooding that is only expected to increase as climate change fuels more extreme weather.

But in one of America’s most economically depressed regions, there are few easy answers.

The region’s mountainous landscape, high poverty rates, dispersed housing in remote valleys, coal-mining scarred mountains that accelerate floods and under-resourced local governments all make solutions extremely difficult.

Measures such as flood wells, drainage systems or raising homes are expensive for cash-strapped counties. Buyouts or building restrictions are difficult in areas where safer options and new home construction are limited. Many are unable or unwilling to uproot.

And tamping down extreme weather by reducing climate-changing emissions nationwide is a goal that is politically fraught, including in a region with coal in its veins, that promises no quick relief.

“If we had all the money in the world, and we had the political will and cooperation, we could go a long way towards solving these problems,” said William Haneberg, director of the Kentucky Geological Survey and a professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky.

Read the full story here

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New Jersey targets Monsanto in latest natural resource damage environmental lawsuit

*File photo: Men in protective clothing work at a Superfund site in Camden.*

By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight

New Jersey filed its latest lawsuit seeking compensation for alleged damages to the environment, this time claiming that Monsanto and two former affiliates produced toxic PCBs that leaked into the state’s air and water over almost 50 years.

The lawsuit says the companies caused “significant, long-term damage” to the state’s waterways and groundwater, as well as to soil, air, and wildlife by allowing and encouraging disposal of the chemicals that they knew to be hazardous at Monsanto’s plant beside the Delaware River in Bridgeport, Gloucester County.

The companies advised their customers to dispose of PCB waste directly into sewers and to vent the chemical vapors into the atmosphere despite knowing that the actions would cause environmental contamination and expose residents to substances that are linked to health complaints, including liver damage, respiratory infections, and some cancers, the suit said.

“PCB contamination has harmed natural resources and threatened the health of humans and wildlife in every corner of New Jersey, from remote rural areas to suburban neighborhoods, to our cities,” said acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin, in a statement last week.

First of its kind

It’s the state’s first suit alleging that PCBs damaged the natural environment.

The Murphy administration has now filed 19 “natural resource damage” lawsuits against industrial polluters, alleging long-term damage to the environment and public health and seeking a court order for the companies to pay for the investigation and cleanup. None of the lawsuits has so far been resolved, according to the attorney general’s office.

In 2019, the state sued Sherwin-Williams claiming it discharged waste products from manufacturing paints, lacquers, and varnishes into a Camden County creek. Contamination at this location, along with lead and arsenic, also led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate it a Federal Superfund site in 2008. It became one of New Jersey’s 114 Superfund sites, the most of any state.

Also in 2019, the state sued Handy & Harman Electronic Materials Corp. for allegedly discharging hazardous materials including TCE (trichloroethylene), a degreasing chemical, into groundwater near its factory in Bergen County in the 1980s.

Tougher than Christie

Overall, the actions signal that the Murphy administration is taking a more aggressive stance against corporate polluters than its predecessor, the Christie administration, which filed no such suits.

Jeff Tittel, former director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, welcomed this latest lawsuit but said the state would have a better chance of winning such legal challenges if the state Department of Environmental Protection had a regulatory framework that addressed corporate responsibility for damage to natural resources.

“The DEP has never developed rules and standards for natural resource damages,” he said. “Not having clear standards in place hinders our ability to prosecute these cases to the extent that we need to.” The absence of such regulations also limits the amount of money that the state can seek in damages and makes settlements more likely, he said.

“The AG is taking the right approach by suing; the DEP has a lot of work to do to move these things along,” Tittel said.

That criticism was echoed by the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, which said the DEP has failed to comply with a 2004 agreement between the attorney general’s office and plaintiffs, including the council, to develop regulations on natural resource damages and to stop filing those cases until such regulations are published.

Read the full story here

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