Bill to ban plastic grocery bags, paper bags, and foam containers is moving ahead in New Jersey

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

S2776, a bill that would prohibit New Jersey grocery stores from using single-use plastic bags and, eventually, paper bags and styrofoam containers as well, was released Thursday by the state senate budget committee in Trenton.  A floor vote is expected on December 12.

An Assembly version of the legislation, A4330, will be heard in the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste committee on Monday.

Under the proposed bill, single-use, plastic carryout bags would be prohibited within one year. Paper bags and polystyrene foam cups and containers would also be banned in two years.

The bill was amended prior to release. Unlike previous versions, it no longer bans plastic straws, which would still be available upon requests at restaurants, a point that advocates for people with disabilities have pushed.

Eight states have banned plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Maine and Maryland have also passed bills banning Styrofoam. Hawaii has a de facto ban on paper bags with less than 40% recycled material, according to the conference.

Opponents included plastics manufacturers, business and industry groups as well as some supermarkets.

Dennis Hart, the executive director of the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, which represents plastics manufacturers, said doing away with Styrofoam would cost millions of dollars for school districts. He criticized the bill for leaving wax-coated paper cups with plastic lids common at cafes untouched, while prohibiting polystyrene — commonly known as Styrofoam.

“It’s just substituting one piece of litter for another,” he said.

Last year, Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a bill that imposed a fee on single-use plastics, agreeing with environmentalists who argued that such an approach would be inadequate in fighting the proliferation of plastics.

We have reports from CBS 17 above and NJTV News below

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Energy Transfer security manager, others in scheme to use constables for Mariner East pipeline security

Those charged include employees from the international security firm TigerSwan.

Susan Phillips reports for StateImpact

The Chester County district attorney alleged Tuesday that Energy Transfer — parent company of Mariner East 2 pipeline builder Sunoco Logistics — hired armed Pennsylvania constables to illegally provide security for the pipeline, then hid how the constables were paid.

DA Tom Hogan said in a news release that he has filed bribery, conspiracy and related charges against Energy Transfer’s security manager, Frank Recknagel; James Murphy and Richard Lester of Raven Knights LLC, a Harrisburg-area security firm; as well as Nikolas McKinnon and Michael Boffo from the international security firm TigerSwan.

“State constables sold their badges and official authority,” Hogan said in the release. “Energy Transfer bought those badges and authority, then used them as a weapon to intimidate citizens. And the defendants attempted to conceal their activity through a maze of companies and payments.”

The charges stem from a criminal investigation Hogan launched in December 2018 following the appearance of sinkholes in West Whiteland Township and an explosion at another Energy Transfer line in Beaver County.

But what began as an investigation of potential environmental crimes quickly included a probe into the security services after a plain-clothed Chester County detective encountered an armed private security guard at a construction site, where the guard tried to prevent the detective from parking on a public street. Residents also reported feeling intimidated by state constables who restricted movement on their own property.

In August, Hogan charged two constables, Michael Robel, 58, of Shamokin in Northumberland County and Kareem Johnson, 47, of Coatesville in Chester County, with ethics violations and other offenses for working as private security guards on the Mariner East site at Lisa Drive, a development in West Whiteland Township.

The constables are elected officials whose tasks include transporting criminal defendants, serving arrest warrants, and in limited circumstances making arrests, Hogan said at the time. They are not allowed to hire themselves out as security guards while working as constables, and must declare any income of $1,300 or more.

Hogan says Energy Transfer’s Security Manager Frank Recknagel engaged in an illegal “buy-a-badge scheme” in which payments to the constables were hidden and difficult to trace back to the company. He says Energy Transfer paid Pennsylvania constables to wear badges and carry guns in order to intimidate residents living along the pipeline.

“There’s a very clear line that has to be drawn between law enforcement who is acting for the public good, and the public good alone, and the corporate employee who is acting for the good of the organization,” Hogan said. “You cannot mix those two together.”

According to the criminal complaint, Recknagel said in an email that it was Energy Transfer’s “unwritten policy” to hire armed law enforcement officials to guard its pipeline projects.

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Pennsylvania and major oil companies agree: Trump administration should not roll back methane rules

Methane gas is burned off, or flared, from a well near Hickory, Pa. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country.
Methane gas is burned off from a well near Hickory, Pa.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports

Several groups that often are at odds over environmental rules are on the same side when it comes to easing methane regulations at oil and gas sites.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection joined major oil and gas companies, environmental groups and lawmakers from both parties last week in urging the Trump administration not to go through with its proposal to eliminate methane control requirements from well sites and pipelines across the country.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back rules adopted in 2016 that require companies to identify and stop methane leaks from new and modified oil and gas production, pipeline and storage equipment.

The agency said existing controls on a separate class of chemicals that is also present in oil and gas — called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs — make direct regulation of methane redundant and unnecessary.

The agency is also proposing an alternate rule to exempt the oil and gas storage and transmission sector from both the methane and volatile organic compound regulations.

But major companies that would see restrictions lifted on their operations if EPA finalizes the rule — including Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Equinor and Canonsburg-based Equitrans Midstream — wrote that they want national rules directly targeting methane.

Several of the companies said that easing methane regulations will erode public confidence in natural gas as a cleaner fossil fuel at a time when addressing climate change is an international priority.

Comments on the proposals were due last week.

“It is a remarkably rare event in which we feel compelled to comment, on an individual basis, on an EPA rulemaking proceeding,” wrote French energy giant Total, which has extensive operations in the United States. “But in this instance, EPA’s proposed action has the potential to undermine the significant actions that Total and others are taking to address the risks associated with global climate change.”

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that traps 86 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after it is released, making it a key target in efforts to mitigate climate change.

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Barbara J. Koonz Joins Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis as Environmental Partner

ROSELAND, N.J., Dec. 3, 2019  Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP is pleased to announce that Barbara J. Koonz has joined the firm as a partner in the Environmental Department.  Ms. Koonz focuses her practice in the areas of environmental and energy law, with an emphasis on environmental permitting for redevelopment, environmental compliance, and renewable energy projects.  She is based in the firm’s Roseland office.

For over 25 years, Ms. Koonz has provided counsel to domestic and overseas businesses related to a broad range of New Jersey state and federal environmental permitting requirements.  She has extensive experience in negotiating regulatory issues and resolving related enforcement actions with public agencies. 

As a geologist and attorney, Ms. Koonz advises private and public entities in the fossil fuel, liquefied natural gas and renewable energy industries in connection with the acquisition, management, development and permitting of energy facilities and related infrastructure.  She also represents solar energy providers and hosts in connection with the development of grid-supply, net-metered and community solar photovoltaic projects, including some of the largest solar projects in New Jersey.

David B. Farer co-chairs the Environmental Department along with Jay A. Jaffe.

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First-year hemp growers know one thing for sure, it’s hard work. But profits are still uncertain

Pennsylvania hemp grower Mitch Shellengerger learned a lot from in his first crop.

Rachel McDevitt reports for WITF 

(Mount Joy) — Mitch Shellenberger’s hands are covered in a dark, oily residue that’s tough to get off. It’s evidence of the long hours he’s spent handling acres and acres of industrial hemp as he rushes to harvest and dry it.

By late October, he’s already invested months growing a variety of hemp to be used for CBD, a compound that’s used in health supplements, and he has a ways to go.

“It feels like a mountain,” he said, “and it is.”

Shellenberger is a third-generation farmer running a hog and heifer operation in Lancaster County. He grows field crops, like corn, to feed the livestock.

Last spring, he was approached by two private investors who wanted to get into the hemp business. It’s a tough time to be a farmer, and he recalls thinking that this was a chance to actually make some money. He dived in.

Shellenberger was one of many in Pennsylvania ready to gamble on what some advocates tout as the state’s next cash crop.

Rachel McDevitt photo for WITF

During a lunch break on on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, one of Mitch Shellenberger’s volunteers holds out her hands to show the residue left behind from handling industrial hemp. The crew was using coconut oil to remove it.

This year, the state Agriculture Department issued 324 growing permits, compared to 37 issued just for research last year.

A spokeswoman said the department strongly recommended farmers line up a buyer before putting seed in the ground, and they believe many followed that.

Even with the first commercial growing season behind them, there’s still a lot of uncertainty for hemp farmers. Questions linger about how much demand there will be for hemp products and whether the crop can add to a grower’s bottom line.

In Shellenberger’s case, his investors’ money covered the financial risk of growing a crop with an untested market, but he had to sink a lot of time and energy into the endeavor.

“It’s been a really uphill climb,” he said. “It’s not just the work. It’s the fact that we need to figure it out. Every step of the way is like, what’s next? Well, I don’t know how to do that.”

Industry advocates say a lot of first-time hemp growers started with just a few acres this year. Shellenberger planted 30.

That complicated matters when it was time to harvest. The plants have to be dried before being sent to a processor. Drying helps cut down on mold and disease. In some western states, farmers can let the crop dry in the field, but Pennsylvania is too humid for that.

Shellenberger found an old hog barn that he rigged into a makeshift drying facility. His wife, in-laws, and friends pitched in to help him unload trailers of hemp and line up the plants — which look like small, ragged Christmas trees — in the slats between the barn’s floorboards, where an industrial-sized fan could blow a steady breeze over them.

Rachel McDevitt / WITF

A variety of industrial hemp used for CBD extraction stands in a field in Mount Joy, Lancaster County on Tuesday, October 29, 2019.

Shellenberger has been promised a cut of the profits from this crop — if it makes a profit.

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Pa orders smelly hemp facility to close down

Sam Wood reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer

Stinking Pennsylvania hemp facility cited for air pollution, ordered to close
BOB WILLIAMS PHOTO FOR THE INQUIRER

Hemp in all its forms carries a strong perfume. Some call it skunky, others consider the scent of hemp and marijuana to be bracingly acrid, but for many, it reeks like a fetid mash of diesel and citrus.

In high concentrations, it can be overwhelming.

RELATED STORIES

Prompted by the stink of a drying facility near Pittsburgh, the Department of Environmental Protection on Monday issued a cease-and-desist order to a malodorous hemp business.

It’s the first time the state has shut down a hemp business since the federal government legalized the mass production of the nonintoxicating plant for industrial uses, according to the DEP.

Patriot Shield Pennsylvania LLC, which operates an otherwise nondescript blue warehouse in Jeannette, Westmoreland County, was given 48 hours to comply.

Patriot Shield did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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