EnviroPolitics Blog

Republican bill to protect forests clears New Jerseycommittee

From the NJ Republican staff

TRENTON, N.J. – For those who pass through on the Turnpike or Parkway, or who only know it as the comic’s punchline, New Jersey is concrete, smokestacks, and the roar of traffic through exits lined with Wawas and warehouses. For others, it’s a lyric in a Springsteen song or an MTV show about the shore. But natives, transplants, and nature lovers know the Garden State, the most densely populated in the nation, could easily be called the Wooded State, with its woodlands from the Pine Barrens to the northern hardwood forests, comprising 40% of its 5.6 million acres. Most wooded land is privately owned.

Assembly members Sean Kean and Dawn Fantasia want to ensure those areas remain protected from creeping overdevelopment. Their bill (S699/A682), supported by various state environmental groups and released by the Assembly Environment Committee on Monday, will establish a woodlands protection fund to acquire development easements on privately-owned woodlands.

That fund, to be operated by the state Department of Environmental Protection, would use federal money, private donations, and appropriations from the state Legislature to purchase easements. To qualify, woodlands must be at least five contiguous acres in size and be managed by the landowner according to state statute. Landowners would not be required to open those woodlands to the public.

“This bill does two things: it protects these natural spaces and respects property owners’ rights,” Kean (R-Monmouth) said. “With owners facing pressure to sell and build, the state needs to proactively preserve these areas to safeguard these ecosystems and protect private owners from those pressures.”

Some 950,000 acres of forest are privately owned, with 40% owned by people 65 and older. The state, local municipalities, counties, and federal government own the other 1.037 million forested acres.

Preserving forested land helps protect native species, air quality, vital watersheds, and other waterways. Economically, woodlands generate billions annually through tourism and forestry.

“This is personal for me. I live where I live because of the open space, the trees, and the rural landscape. When I’m not working, I’m outdoors, and I can’t imagine northwest New Jersey without those things,” said Fantasia (R-Sussex). “I want to protect our great outdoors from overdevelopment so that future generations can experience the beauty our state has to offer.”

The Senate passed a companion bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert Singer, in March.

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month

Republican bill to protect forests clears New Jerseycommittee Read More »

Contentious public lands sell-off struck from GOP policy bill

Lake Dillon, near Frisco, Colo., ringed by mountains. — *Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, pulled his proposal to sell public lands, including in areas near Lake Dillon in Colorado. Credit…Daniel Brenner for The New York Times*

By Maxine Joselow, The New York Times

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said late Saturday that he had dropped his contentious plan to sell millions of acres of public lands from the sweeping domestic policy package that the Senate will soon begin debating.

Mr. Lee made the nighttime announcement on social media after it became clear that the plan faced insurmountable opposition from within his own party. At least four Republican senators from Western states had said they planned to vote for an amendment to strike the proposal from the bill.

The plan had also triggered intense pushback from conservative hunters and outdoorsmen across the American West, who had warned that it threatened the lands where they hunted and fished.

“Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders and stakeholders across the country,” Mr. Lee wrote on X on Saturday. “While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies — about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns.”

The provision would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public property in 11 Western states. Proponents had argued that the region has a severe shortage of affordable housing and that developers could build new homeA Res on these tracts.

Read the full story here

Contentious public lands sell-off struck from GOP policy bill Read More »

Has Avalon (NJ) become too exclusive for its own residents?

*A couple leaving a party at the private club Union League Whitebrier in Avalon recently. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer*

By Amy S. Rosenberg, Philadelphia Inquirer

AVALON, N.J. — Marc Ziss is hanging on to the old Avalon. At 56, he’s still in a summer share house, a fading subculture he’s come back to every summer since the ’90s. There are not many left.

Ziss may not have moved on from the Avalon of the past — the laid-back beach town of bungalows, a party vibe buzzing from bar to bar — but the town sure has.

And that shift has never been clearer, after the Union League of Philadelphia paid $23 million to buy the sprawling, boozy Whitebrier on 21st Street and two adjacent properties, making them members-only.

Their launch on Memorial Day weekend included the cheeky “Please Shower Happy Hour.”

Marc Ziss, 56, at the bar of the Rock n’ Chair in Avalon. He says the Whitebrier’s takeover by the Union League is the latest symbol of the town’s increasing exclusivity that has left out the old-time Avalon crowd.

“It’s really kind of depressing these days,” said Ziss, who keeps tabs on what remains of Avalon’s live music scene for a Facebook page, Bands in Avalon and Beyond.

“What we knew was going on has now been engraved in stone,” he said.

He mused about Avalon’s expanding layers of exclusivity. “You ever buy tickets to an event, like a festival, and you bought the gold ticket, and you get there and it’s like, oh, the gold ticket is very much a regular ticket, and the platinum is what you really want?” Ziss said. “And then there’s a super platinum on top of that.”

Read the full story here

Has Avalon (NJ) become too exclusive for its own residents? Read More »

After these cuts, SEPTA will go from ‘mass’ to ‘minimal’ transit

By Max Bennett, Patch Staff

PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA’s board Thursday voted on the proposed budget that features drastic cuts to services and also a fare increase.

The board voted to adopt its new budget, meaning major service reductions will go into effect Aug. 24. This also means fares will increase 21.5 percent on Sept. 1, and a total hiring freeze will go into effect that same day.

“This is a vote none of us wanted to take,” SEPTA Board Chair Kenneth Lawrence Jr. said “We have
worked hard as an Authority to prevent this day from coming because we understand the impact it will have on our customers and the communities we serve. To be clear, this does not have to happen – if state lawmakers can reach an agreement to deliver sufficient, new funding for public transit.”

Service cuts include the elimination of dozens of bus routes, significant reductions in trips on all rail services, a 9 p.m. curfew for all rail services that would begin in early 2026, and the elimination of five Regional Rail lines — Cynwyd Line, Chestnut Hill West Line, Paoli/Thorndale Line, Trenton Line, Wilmington/Newark Line.

The impact of the proposed service cuts will be felt throughout the city and region, as reliable options for everyday travel to school and work are greatly diminished.

Beyond regular riders, people traveling to games at the Sports Complex and other special events would have to navigate the 9 p.m. curfew for rail services, along with other restrictions. SEPTA said it would also be forced to cease providing additional service to special events, including plans to support the World Cup, the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, and other 2026 events.

Read the full story here

After these cuts, SEPTA will go from ‘mass’ to ‘minimal’ transit Read More »

NY Governor directs construction of new nuclear energy plant

NY Governor directs construction of new nuclear energy plant Read More »

Inside a Last-Ditch Battle to Save (or Kill) Clean-Energy Tax Credits

Supporters of tax breaks for wind and solar are fighting to retain them in the G.O.P. tax bill. They’re facing a conservative effort to kill them entirely.

Three wind turbines stand against a gray sky above cropland. — *An initial draft of the bill would phase out tax credits for wind and solar power and electric vehicles starting next year. Credit…George Etheredge for The New York Times*

By Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselow, and Brad Plumer, The New York Times

As Senate Republicans scramble to pass President Trump’s far-reaching domestic policy bill, climate activists and energy companies are lobbying to salvage tax credits for wind, solar, and other climate-friendly technologies.

But they are running into formidable obstacles. Conservative activists, fossil-fuel lobbyists, and Mr. Trump are demanding that lawmakers enact even deeper cuts to clean-energy subsidies, or even scrap them entirely.

At stake are hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tax incentives put in place by the Biden administration, the vast majority of which are flowing to Republican congressional districts.

Some are aimed at encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles or put solar panels on their roofs. Others are intended to spur manufacturing of wind turbines, solar-panel components, and other technologies that would help reduce planet-warming greenhouse gases. All the tax credits were greatly expanded as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the Biden administration’s signature climate law.

“What is being proposed now will hurt businesses, and it will risk significant job loss,” said Lisa Jacobson, president of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, a trade group. Her organization was one of several on Capitol Hill this week mounting a last-ditch effort to remind lawmakers of the jobs the law had created and what states stood to lose.

Read the full story here

Inside a Last-Ditch Battle to Save (or Kill) Clean-Energy Tax Credits Read More »

Republican bill to protect forests clears New Jerseycommittee

Contentious public lands sell-off struck from GOP policy bill

Has Avalon (NJ) become too exclusive for its own residents?

After these cuts, SEPTA will go from ‘mass’ to ‘minimal’ transit

NY Governor directs construction of new nuclear energy plant

Inside a Last-Ditch Battle to Save (or Kill) Clean-Energy Tax Credits

Supporters of tax breaks for wind and solar are fighting to retain them in the G.O.P. tax bill. They’re facing a conservative effort to kill them entirely.

Subscribe For Latest Updates