EnviroPolitics Blog

Republicans moving to muzzle journalists in Iowa Senate?

By Kim Bellware Washington Post

When Iowa’s 2022 legislative session commences Monday, there will be a notable absence on the floor of the state senate: reporters.

Republican leaders in the state Senate told journalists last week they will no longer be allowed to work on the chamber floor, a change that breaks with a more than a 140-year tradition in the Iowa Capitol. The move raised concerns among the free press and freedom of information advocates who said it is a blow to transparency and open government that makes it harder for the public to understand, let alone scrutinize, elected officials.

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The new rule denies reporters access to the press benches near senators’ desks, a proximity current and former statehouse reporters told The Washington Post is crucial for the most accurate and nuanced coverage. The position allows reporters to see and hear everything clearly on the Senate floor and to get real-time answers and clarifications during debates.

Beginning this session, reporters will be seated in a public upper-level gallery.

“When you take journalists and restrict their access and then you couple that with changes that have occurred in the past couple of years with procedures in Iowa, it makes it that much harder for the public to know what’s going on,” said Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a government transparency watchdog.

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UPDATE: Recycled-content bill is revised, then okayed by NJ Assembly panel

**UPDATE:** S2515/A4676 has been added to the voting agenda in the Assembly for Monday, Jan 10, 2022

TOM JOHNSON, ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT WRITER NJ Spotlight

Bill seeks to reduce plastics pollution by forcing manufacturers to use more recycled material in products

Recycling rates could rise significantly with this simple tweak

A two-year fight to reduce plastic pollution in New Jersey inched forward when legislators approved a bill Thursday to mandate increased use of recycled plastics in manufacturers’ products.

The legislation (S2515/A4676) would require manufacturers to use more post-consumer recycled content in a variety of packaging products including plastic containers, plastic bags and plastic trash bags, as well as glass containers and paper bags.

If enacted, the law will go a long way to boost the market for recyclables, which has collapsed in recent years, and to reduce demand for new petroleum-derived plastics, according to many of the state’s most prominent environmental organizations.

The bill, kicked around by lawmakers since the beginning of the legislative term two years ago, could win final approval if both the Assembly and the Senate pass the measure in Monday’s final voting session of the term. Neither house has posted the bill on its agenda yet.

In releasing the bill by a 7-4 vote Thursday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee amended the bill to reduce the amount of post-consumer recycled content in rigid plastic containers, but increase the amount from 5% to 10% five years after the bill’s implementation.

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**UPDATE:** Recycled-content bill is revised, then okayed by NJ Assembly panel Read More »

Advocates call for posting of NJ recycling content bill for Assembly and Senate’s final voting session on Monday

Legislation Passes Committee 7-4; Bill Will Make NJ the East Coast Leader & Reduce Virgin Plastic Use

By Eric Benson, Clean Water Action

Today, the New Jersey Assembly Appropriation Committee voted to approve the Recycled Content bill (S2515/A4676) by a 7-4 vote. The legislation would require increasing post-consumer recycled content in a variety of packaging products including plastic containers, plastic beverage containers, plastic bags, plastic trash bags, glass containers, and paper bags. Environmental advocates say the bill will go a long way in strengthening the market for recyclables and reducing reliance on new fossil-fuel-derived plastics.

Today’s committee vote comes after extensive hearings and many hours of testimony in both the Senate, where the bill has already passed, and the Assembly, making today’s hearing the seventh hearing for the legislation.

Bill advocates across the state applaud the committee’s vote to advance A4676 and continue to urge Assembly Speaker Coughlin to post the bill on the agenda for an Assembly floor vote this coming Monday, January 10 – the last day of the legislative session – and thank the leadership of the Senate prime sponsor, Senate Environment Chair Bob Smith (D-17).

Environmental organizations supporting the bill include Clean Water Action, Clean Ocean Action, Environment New Jersey, NJ Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Save Barnegat Bay, and Beyond Plastics.

Advocates call for posting of NJ recycling content bill for Assembly and Senate’s final voting session on Monday Read More »

Added NJ committee meeting offers late chance for environment bills

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

On December 13, Assemblyman Chairman John Burzichelli gaveled to a close the last scheduled meeting of his Appropriations Committee for the current legislative session which ends next week.

No one in attendance expected to see him again in that role, since the session was about to expire and Burzichelli and district mate Senate President Steve Sweeney will not be returning to Trenton in 2022 after suffering stunning defeats in the November elections.

The state legislature, however, can be an unpredictable place, especially during lame-duck sessions. And this one underscores that point.

On Thursday (12/6), Burzichelli will rap his gavel one more time. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has ordered the panel to meet again to take up bills that had not reached the committee in time for its last meeting or had been released but are being returned for additional changes.

Several environmental bills (below) are on the long list before the committee,

If the bills, as expected, are released, they likely will be posted for votes during the Assembly’s final session on Monday, January 10, and, following floor approval, will be forwarded to the governor for his consideration.

Among the absolute, last-gasp bills are:

S991 – Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain hazardous materials by rail; requires DEP to request bridge inspection reports from US DOT.

S2515/A4676 – Establishes post-consumer recycled content requirements for rigid plastic containers, glass containers, paper and plastic carryout bags, and plastic trash bags; prohibits the sale of polystyrene loose fill packaging.

S3465/A4336 – Directs Department of Agriculture to pay annual premiums to enrolled dairy farmers for certain coverage under the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program; appropriates $125, 000.

S3732/A5223 – Establishes State purchasing preference for low embodied carbon concrete, provides CBT tax credit for costs of conducting environmental product declaration analysis.

NOTICE: The public may not attend the Committee meeting in person but may view and participate in the meeting via the New Jersey Legislature home page at https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/. The Committee will take oral testimony on bills, by telephone and video, limited to three minutes. If you are interested in registering your position with the Committee, please fill out the Registration Form. For those individuals who wish to testify, please check the box “Do you wish to testify?” on the Registration Form. Instructions for testifying before the Committee will be forwarded to you after you submit your Registration Form. The form must be submitted by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.

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No Trump. No Wolf. No Toomey. Both parties in Pennsylvania can redefine themselves in 2022

Some of Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate candidates include, clockwise from top left, Representative Malcolm Kenyatta and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republicans Mehmet Oz and David McCormick. Staff and AP

By Jonathan Tamari Philadelphia Inquirer

Pennsylvania is politically wide open in 2022 — and it could help set the course for Democrats and Republicans in the wake of the Trump presidency.

With Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey leaving office, the commonwealth is about to host sprawling primaries for both seats, forcing the parties to make choices about who should be their public faces, and what messages they should carry to voters after years in which politics revolved around Donald Trump.

The results, in one of the country’s most closely contested states, could have a massive impact on policy in both Harrisburg and Washington, and provide a blueprint for how to win key battlegrounds in 2024.

The Democratic Senate contest features a direct clash between the self-described populist and progressive Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and moderate U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a contrast embodying the divide splitting the party in Congress. But there are also other distinctions based on identity, tone, and geography. The candidates include a suburban woman, Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, and a gay Black man from Philadelphia, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

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Looming over the Republican races is the long-running quandary over how closely candidates hew to Trump, who no longer dominates the national conversation but still shadows the GOP.

The Senate race is so attractive that three of the top Republican candidates are ultra-wealthy individuals who moved back to the state to run. There’s Mehmet Oz, a surgeon, TV celebrity and political newcomer whose name ID and television mastery in some ways echo the former president’s; David McCormick, a hedge fund manager and veteran with ties to both Trump and longtime Republican insiders, and Carla Sands, a generous Trump donor whom he later named U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

Another hopeful, Montgomery County developer Jeff Bartos, argues that he can duplicate the GOP’s recent path to victory in Virginia. He likes to point out that, unlike the other rivals, he was living in Pennsylvania before the Senate seat came open.

Some gubernatorial candidates are closely affiliated with the Trump brand while others try to speak to the former president’s supporters without fully wrapping themselves in his flag.

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No Trump. No Wolf. No Toomey. Both parties in Pennsylvania can redefine themselves in 2022 Read More »

Snowstorm quenches CO’s worst wildfire

A blanket of snow is now covering the area where nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed.

From National Public Radio (NPR_

As overnight snow finally extinguished the most destructive wildfires in Colorado history, authorities in Boulder County now say three people are missing.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said authorities are planning to bring cadaver dogs, as those missing are likely to be dead.

“The structures where these folks would be are completely destroyed and covered with about 8 inches of snow right now,” Pelle told reporters on Saturday afternoon.

Thursday’s Marshall fire tore through the towns of Superior and Louisville, two municipalities in the stretch of suburbs that reach from Denver to Boulder, forcing the evacuation of more than 30,000 people and leaving piles of ash and rubble where hundreds of homes once stood.

Officials had earlier estimated that at least 500 homes were destroyed, but on Saturday, Pelle said the latest count was 991 destroyed — including 553 in Louisville and 332 in Superior. Another 127 homes were damaged, the sheriff said.

Related news stories:
After Catastrophic Fire, CO Fights New Hazard: 10 Inches of Snow (NYT)
Colorado Wildfires: What We Know (New York Times)

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