EnviroPolitics Blog

Weekend suggestion: Go take a hike

Blue Mountain Lake and Hemlock Pond Loop

Blue Mountain Lake surrounded by pink mountain laurel.

Hike a loop to Indian Rocks, Hemlock Pond, and Blue Mountain Lake in the Delaware Water Gap.

5.5 or 2.6 miles, total round trip. Mostly wide woods roads that aren’t that rocky, with minor elevation gain, but are quite grassy.

5.5 miles	This hike guide: Detailed instructions, photos, and video follow below.
Shorter	2.6 – Just to Blue Mountain Lake, skipping Hemlock Pond. Noted below.
Longer	7.8 – Add a loop around Crater Lake. Noted below.
Nearby	Crater Lake and Hemlock Pond Loop; Crater Lake to Blue Mountain; Buttermilk Falls (falls only); Buttermilk Falls, Crater Lake, Hemlock Pond; Silver Spray Falls; Van Campens Glen; Millbrook Village and Van Campens Glen; Catfish Fire Tower; Tillman Ravine.

Our two cents:

This is an enjoyable, not overly-taxing route on woods roads with a viewpoint, scenic pond, and a pretty lake all packed into a manageable length.

Abundant mountain laurel in the area. The trails should be suitable for snowshoeing or cross-country sking. While swimming is allowed at Blue Mountain Lake, there are no lifeguards – so be careful if you choose to do so.

The “Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area” is located in New Jersey. “Blue Mountain Lake” is not to be confused with the “Blue Mountain Loop” in Stokes State Forest: Blue Mountain Loop – Upper or Blue Mountain Loop – Lower (but these are great hikes too!)

This is an alternate trailhead if you planned on hiking from Crater Lake and found that lot closed. In winter, the road is gated just after this parking lot.

Hike Info:

–Trail Map
–Park info/map
–Interactive Map

Map:

Kittatinny Trails. Follow along on your smartphone with our Interactive Map link above.

Parking: N41.09840° W74.93539°

“Blue Mountain Lakes Parking”, 34 Flatbrookville Stillwater Rd, Layton, NJ 07851. Large paved lot on the left side, with an entrance on either end.

If approaching via Rt 80 W, take exit 12 towards Rt. 521 and Blairstown (several quick turns here). Turn L on Rt 94, then soon turn R on Stillwater Rd, then very quick veer L on Bridge St, then sharp R on High St, veer L on Millbrook Rd. At Millbrook Village, turn R on Old Mine Rd, then R Flatbrookville Stillwater Rd, lot on the left.

Restrooms:

Composting toilet in the parking lot.

Read the full post here

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Here’s where new recycling laws are taking effect this month

Multiple states are banning EPS foam food containers, and Oregon’s packaging EPR program begins. Elsewhere, there are bottle bill and hotel product updates.

By Maria Rachal, Waste Dive

Numerous new state packaging policies have taken effect in 2025 already, including bottle bill updates, PFAS bans and restrictions on certain checkout bags. But the halfway point of the year is another common time for provisions to kick in. Multiple states have packaging-related laws taking force in July, including those related to extended producer responsibility and bans on some items.

New Hampshire’s ban on lithium-ion battery disposal goes into effect July 1. Households and businesses alike will need to dispose of the batteries and devices like cell phones, printers, copiers, fax machines and a range of computer accessories at designated drop-off locations.

A new “commingling cooperative” led by brand owners is set to take over deposit collections for Maine’s bottle bill program on July 15. The cooperative will usher in several changes to the program, including looser sorting requirements for redemption centers. The shift was outlined in a bottle bill update the state enacted in 2023.

In Delaware, restaurants and other food service establishments will be prohibited from providing polystyrene foam containers for ready-to-eat food or beverages come July 1. That’s under a 2023 update that also applies to single-service plastic coffee stirrers, cocktail picks or sandwich picks.

Read the full story here

Here’s where new recycling laws are taking effect this month Read More »

Anti-Musk boycott shows staying power as Tesla sales re-plunge

FILE – President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to reporters as they sit in a red Model S Tesla vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (Pool via AP, File)

By The Associated Press UPDATED: July 2, 2025 at 1:37 PM EDT

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Sales of Tesla electric cars fell sharply in the last three months as boycotts over Elon Musk’s political views continue to keep buyers away, a significant development given expectations that anger with the company’s billionaire CEO would have faded by now.

The 13% sales plunge over a year earlier suggests Musk’s embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe has had a deep and enduring impact on Tesla’s brand appeal. The new figures reported by Tesla on Wednesday also show rival electric-vehicle makers have wasted no time pouncing on the company’s weakness to steal market share, and signals Tesla’s quarterly earnings report later this month could also disappoint.

Sales fell to 384,122 in April through June, down from 443,956 in the same three months last year. During the latest period, Musk formally left the Trump administration as a cost-cutting czar, and hopes rose that sales would recover. Musk himself recently said that Tesla was in a “major rebound” in sales.

Tesla’s quarterly deliveries fall sharper than analysts’ estimates

Anti-Musk boycott shows staying power as Tesla sales re-plunge Read More »

NJ Senate passes bill to spur transmission scale energy storage

News From The NJ Senate Democrats

TRENTON – The Senate approved legislation from Senator Bob Smith and Senator John Burzichelli to require the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to establish a program to procure and incentivize the development of transmission-scale energy storage systems.

In essence, energy storage systems are a technology that stores generated energy for use at a later time. For example, solar panels and wind turbines produce energy when the sun is out or when there is sufficient wind. Absent the correct conditions, they do not produce the amount of energy that may be needed to satisfy the demand for electricity at a given time. Energy storage systems allow surplus energy to be captured and stored for later use, such as when demand is particularly high or when other conditions, like lack of sun, reduce the amount of energy that can be generated. In doing so, they can reduce energy costs, improve grid resilience, and make a variety of different energy types more reliable.

“The benefits of energy storage systems are hard to understate. They enable wider application of clean, renewable energy and they can more broadly reduce energy costs by charging during low-demand, low-cost hours and discharging when demand on the wider electrical grid is higher,” said Senator Smith (D-Middlesex/Somerset). “As projected energy demand rises and electricity costs rise, it is especially important now to invest in these systems and enable the cost savings that they can create.”

The bill, S4289, would define “transmission-scale energy storage systems” to mean an energy storage system capable of at least five MW of storage that is interconnected to the PJM Transmission Network and situated inside a Transmission Zone in New Jersey or is otherwise located within the state and qualified to provide services in the wholesale markets established by PJM. The legislation would authorize the BPU to develop a program to provide a long-term, stable financial incentive to large transmission-scale energy storage projects, with eligibility criteria targeting projects that are further along in the development process and show the most promise for successful deployment.

NJ Senate passes bill to spur transmission scale energy storage Read More »

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.

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

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