NOMINATIONS ADVISE AND CONSENT BY SENATE Thursday, August 27, 2020
DELAWARE RIVER PORT AUTHORITY: Sara Shuttleworth Lipsett, of Cherry Hill, to replace Frank DiAntonio. Aaron T. Nelson, of Marlton, to replace Ricardo Taylor.
MARINE FISHERIES COUNCIL: Richard N. Herb, of Avalon, to succeed himself. Jeffrey Howard Kaelin, of Cape May, to replace Erling A. Berg.
STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE: Warren L. Hollinger, of Port Norris, to replace Daniel Farrand. Holly Sytsema, of Wantage, to replace August Wuillermin.
THOMAS EDISON STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Kemi Alli, of Bernardsville, to succeed herself. Lydia Stockman, of Pennington, to replace Marilyn Pearson. Michael Toscani, of Lawrenceville. Johnnie Whittington, of East Windsor, to replace Richard Arndt.
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT: Fabiana Pierre-Louis, of Mount Laurel.
New Jersey officials today reported an additional 388 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a slight increase from yesterday and bringing the statewide cumulative total to 191,320.
State health officials have said they were keeping tabs on trends in counties with 25 or more new cases and today there were again five: Bergen (49), Middlesex (42), Monmouth (32), Ocean (37), and Passaic (34).
Eight counties saw single-digit increases or no new cases at all.
Another four lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths were reported, bringing that total to 15,933 deaths among New Jersey residents.
Deaths stemming from a confirmed COVID-19 infection have reached 14,153. Another 1,780 are listed as probable COVID-19 fatalities, as determined in an ongoing review of death certificates and other data by state epidemiologists.
Two deaths were reported by state hospitals as occurring yesterday; lab tests will determine whether they are COVID-19 related.
The United States’ death toll from the coronavirus is now 182,175, up more than 700 overnight, according to Johns Hopkins.
The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in New Jersey hospitals was unchanged yesterday.
With all 71 hospitals in the state reporting, 437 patients were being treated for confirmed or possible cases of COVID-19.
88 were in critical/intensive care and 26 of those were on ventilators, up slightly in both cases.
49 COVID-19 patients were discharged, either to their homes or other care facilities.
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The new owner of a vacant, dilapidated Jersey City property that has been the subject of years of litigation was cited by the state for failing to remediate the contaminated site.
The soil and groundwater at 125 Monitor St., contain arsenic, copper, lead, petroleum hydrocarbons, tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE), the state Department of Environmental Protection said in the complaint filed in Hudson County Superior Court.
“These hazardous substances in the soil threaten human health and the environment in several ways, for example, persons handling the soil can come into contact the hazardous substances and suffer adverse health effects,” the complaint says. “The soils at the property remain contaminated with hazardous substances above the applicable standards.”
The owner of the property, cited in the complaint as 125 Monitor St. LLC, faces a fine of up to $50,000 for every day the cite is not in compliance. The address for the LLC, on Bloomfield Avenue in Clifton, belongs to Manage NJ, what appears to be a real estate management company. Company officials did not return a call for comment.
125 Monitor St. was one of 12 sites across the state whose owners were sued for ignoring remediation orders.
A Tonnelle Avenue property in Jersey City was also cited. Fathi and Alia Hassanein, owners of the 111-113 Tonnelle Ave. property, were cited for the removal of underground storage tanks without necessary permits. The DEP also said the property was back-filled with gasoline-contaminated soil and the owners have not complied with the DEP site investigation/remediation orders.
The 2.2-acre site at 125 Monitor St., which includes a six-story warehouse, was purchased for $5.5 million in March 2019, but the deal was contested in a civil lawsuit. On Aug. 24, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Jablonski approved the sale.
DEP officials say the new owners of the property agreed to an administrative consent order (ACO) on April 29, 2019, to remediate the hazardous substances at the site.
The complaint says the owners complied with some requirements of the ACO, but failed to comply with several of the core requirements, including the establishment of a remediation funding source for the cost of future remediation; and applying for a soil remedial action permit.
The Real Deal website reported in 2007 that Landmark Developers planned 180 loft condominiums in the building. Jersey Digs reported in 2015 that the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency had designated Ironstate Development’s Graffiti 125 LLC as the property’s redeveloper, with plans for 152 units and 139 parking spaces.
LONDON (Reuters) – As melting sea ice opens the Arctic to navigation, more ships are plying the loosely regulated polar waters, bringing increasing amounts of climate-warming pollution, a Reuters analysis of new shipping and fuel-consumption data shows.
Traffic through the icy region’s busiest lane along the Siberian coast increased 58% between 2016 and 2019. Last year, ships made 2,694 voyages on the Northern Sea Route, according to data collected by researchers from the Centre for High North Logistics at Norway’s Nord University.
The trade is driven by commodities producers – mainly in Russia, China and Canada – sending iron ore, oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fuels through Arctic waters.
Even the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly slowed shipping worldwide as supply chains have been disrupted, has not prevented traffic increasing on the Arctic artery. Ships made 935 voyages in the first half of 2020, up to the end of June, compared with 855 in the same period last year, the data shows.
The increase in shipping is a worry for the environment. As those heavy ships burn fuel, they release climate-warming carbon dioxide as well as black soot. That soot blankets nearby ice and snow, absorbing solar radiation rather than reflecting it back out of the atmosphere, which exacerbates warming in the region.
The Arctic has already warmed at least twice as fast as the rest of the world over the last three decades. With the region’s warming rate increasing in recent years, governments are gearing up for a future of open Arctic waters.
“The driving concern is the reduction of Arctic sea ice and the potential for more shipping,” said Sian Prior, lead adviser with the Clean Arctic Alliance. “We are already seeing that happen.”
LNG tankers make up the largest proportion of traffic on the Northern Sea Route. They alone burned 239,000 tonnes of fuel in 2019, versus only 6,000 tonnes in 2017, according to previously unpublished data collected by the non-profit International Council on Clean Transportation and shared with Reuters.
EARLIEST THAW ON RECORD
The Northern Sea Route, which traces the coasts of Siberia and Norway, is the region’s busiest artery. It allows cargo ships to save at least 10 days sailing between Europe and Asia, shipping specialists estimate.
The route is about 6,000 nautical miles shorter than sailing via Africa, and 2,700 nautical miles shorter than sailing through the Suez Canal.
That shortcut drew ships to make the 2,694 voyages in 2019, up from 2,022 in 2018, 1,908 in 2017 and 1,705 in 2016, according to Nord University’s Centre for High North Logistics. Those trips are made each year by just 200-300 ships.
This year, unusually warm weather over northern Russia caused an early retreat of sea ice from Siberia.
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William J. Palatucci, one of New Jersey’s most prominent and widely respected attorneys, is joining McCarter & English LLP as a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation Practice, effective August 31, where he will also be supporting the firm’s rapidly expanding Government Affairs Practice. Since working for Gov. Tom Kean in 1985 and later as a law partner with Gov. Chris Christie, Palatucci has developed a well-earned reputation for his strategic advice and pragmatic approaches to complex legal, public policy and governmental initiatives.
McCarter’s Managing Partner Joe Boccassini said, “We are honored to welcome Bill to our team. His extensive experience with legal and public policy issues that affect both private and public sector clients is unparalleled. Our national base of clients will greatly benefit from his knowledge of how major public policy decisions may impact their businesses.”
Palatucci’s legal experience is wide and diverse. He served as General Counsel to the Trump Transition Committee from June 2016 through the election in November 2016; he served as General Counsel to Governor Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, and in the private sector served as General Counsel to Community Education Centers in Roseland, New Jersey. Prior to joining McCarter, Palatucci spent almost eight years at Gibbons, P.C. in the firm’s Corporate Practice, where he handled a variety of issues for clients in a wide range of industries, often focusing on the regulatory aspects of transactions, land use matters or state licensing requirements.
“We are fortunate to have Bill join our burgeoning Government Affairs team in Trenton and Washington and I look forward to developing a deeper friendship and partnership with Bill. Together, we look forward to building an even stronger bipartisan practice,” said Government Affairs Chair, Guillermo Artiles.
Palatucci serves as the Republican National Committeeman for New Jersey, a position he has held since 2010. In addition to his work for Governor Kean, for the past nearly 40 years, he has been closely involved in many significant federal and state elections, with leadership roles in the campaigns of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, and served as Chairman of Governor Chris Christie’s re-election campaign in 2013.
Palatucci added, “I have long admired the work and people at McCarter and now look forward to expanding my practice there with distinguished lawyers like Judge Jose Linares, who I have known for many years. I am truly excited to concentrate on federal and state legislative issues throughout McCarter’s footprint, from Washington to Trenton to Boston.”
In addition to his legal and political experience, Palatucci currently serves as a member of the Seton Hall University School of Law Board of Visitors, the National Advisory Board for the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, and is Chair of the University of Phoenix Board of Trustees for its Jersey City, NJ, campus. Palatucci is on the Board of Trustees of Turning Point, Inc., a nonprofit drug and alcohol addiction treatment center that assists more than 3,500 New Jersey residents each year.
Palatucci has been recognized by NJBIZ on its “Law Power 50” and “100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Business” lists as well as by ROI-NJ on its “Influencers Power List.” Palatucci earned his B.A. from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.
In 2014, Palatucci was presented with the Seton Hall University School of Law’s Distinguished Graduate Award. In 2014, he and Senator Cory Booker were honored with the annual “Good Guy Award” from the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey.
The long-anticipated legislation had key backing from community groups. Despite some business opposition and industry trepidation, waste and recycling stakeholders also expressed support.
UPDATE: Aug. 28, 2020: After stalling in recent weeks, the final version of an environmental justice bill (S232/A2212) passed both chambers of New Jersey’s state legislature yesterday. Prior iterations did not progress for multiple years, making this a significant development in the state. Gov. Phil Murphy has expressed support for the bill and is expected to sign it.
Passage came yesterday despite opposition from many business stakeholders, who have said the legislation is vague with unclear impacts. Some members of the industry have also said they feel singled out, as the bill directly targets waste and recycling facilities, while also expressing support for certain components.
Both Covanta and Wheelabrator operate facilities in New Jersey and the National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) has been closely following the bill. Steve Changaris, vice president of NWRA’s Northeast region, said the organization has expressed its concerns about the bill’s broad scope, which could impact pre-existing facilities along with new projects, including any stemming from New Jersey’s new commercial organics diversion mandate.
“We all know that people have to be heard, and we want to incorporate their views into the decision-making,” Changaris said. But waste operators, he said, “just want to know what’s going to happen in the process.”
The legislation was backed by many lawmakers and members of low-income communities of color in the state, along with growing support for recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
A sweeping legislative effort
Attempts to create environmental justice legislation in New Jersey stretch back over a decade, with this latest bill getting farther than any prior attempt has before and set to become the strictest law of its kind nationwide according to stakeholders.
Under S232, the state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) would have to consider the impacts to “overburdened communities” posed by certain new facilities, along with expansions of those facilities or renewals of major source permits. It would be effective 180 days from enactment.
The bill singles out any sites that are major sources of air pollution, along with “resource recovery” facilities or incinerators, landfills, transfer stations, sludge processing plants, and scrap metal facilities, as well as recycling facilities receiving at least 100 tons of recyclable material per day. Impacted communities are defined within census block groups with either 35% or more of households qualifying as low-income, at least 40% of residents being people of color, or at least 40% having reduced English proficiency. Estimates by lawmakers and various groups find around 300 of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities could have at least one community that falls into those categories.
Sites in those areas would need to prepare an environmental justice statement and transmit it to the relevant municipality 60 days prior to a public hearing. A decision on the site would be delayed for at least 45 days following the hearing, and the department would ultimately be free to deny a permit on environmental justice grounds.
Experts with knowledge of the process said the legislation could prevent the creation or continuation of a number of facilities, and even several supporters said it could hinder business efforts. Some estimated the environmental justice statement and public hearing process alone could cost around $50,000 or more, before accounting for other costs, including any operational expenses that would likely be much higher.
A last-minute holdup occurred on July 30 when Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin did not bring the bill to the floor for a vote — seemingly due to labor pushback over the inclusion of permit renewals. Trade unions have expressed fears about the implications that measure could hold for jobs, according to reporting by Politico. In the days since, lawmakers have said they are working with those groups to address their concerns.
“We are in an extraordinary time in this country… a racial reckoning in our nation,” said Booker, blasting the “disproportionate injustices” that Black Americans in particular face from issues including environmental crises. “It is time that impacted communities are involved in correcting injustices,” he said.
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