EnviroPolitics Blog

Bills to promote sustainability in NJ government buildings passes committee

TRENTON – A pair of bills sponsored by Senate Environment and Energy Committee Chair Senator Bob Smith, Senator Richard Codey and Senator Linda Greenstein, which would require an environmental sustainability plan for the Statehouse and promote energy efficiency improvements in school and government buildings, passed the Senate Environment and Energy Committee this week.

“If the state government and the Legislature want to promote sustainability for our buildings, we should start by making our existing buildings more sustainable. There is no better place to start than with the Statehouse,” said Senator Smith (D-Middlesex / Somerset). “As New Jersey’s population increases and its economy expands, so too will the state’s demand for energy. It is imperative we come up with sustainable solutions to ensure energy costs and usage decrease.”

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“The goal of sustainable design, development, and practice is to join economic development with environmental health by protecting resources and systems in both the present and the future,” said Senator Codey (D-Essex / Morris). “Making the Statehouse more sustainable will allow us to walk the walk and talk the talk. We will lead by example and push others in the state to build more sustainable buildings.”

If we are to reduce our carbon footprint and be more sustainable on a statewide level, we need to invest in making our government buildings more energy efficient,” said Senator Greenstein (D-Mercer / Middlesex). “Going green will prove critical to reducing the exorbitant energy costs in the long term for state and local governments, as well as for school districts.”

The first bill, S331, would require the State Capitol Joint Management Commission to prepare, adopt, and implement an environmental sustainability plan for the Statehouse Capitol Complex. This would include energy savings, efficiency upgrades and water conservation techniques. It would also include the involvement of food services and the establishment of performance measures to be reported annually and made available on the Governor’s and the Legislature’s websites. The bill was released from committee by a vote of 3-0.

The second bill, S337, would authorize the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank to issue up to $20 million in bonds to finance cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in State, local, and school district buildings. The bill was released from committee by a vote of 3-0.

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NJ bill to stimulate fuel cell use passes full Assembly on a unanimous vote

Aiming to boost adoption of clean energy alternatives and grow the market for fuel cells in New Jersey, the fully Assembly voted 79-0 on Monday unanimously advancing legislation (A741) that would establish a 15-member task force within the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on the use of fuel cell technologies.

Fuel cells facilitate the combining of hydrogen and oxygen to make water, and convert the chemical energy into electricity. The cells can be used in all-purpose generators as well as integrated with stationary machinery, specialty vehicles like forklifts, portable floodlights, and motor vehicles giving them broad applications.

Sponsors of the bill, Assembly Democrats Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), Herb Conaway (D-Burlington) and Andrew Zwicker (D-Somerset, Mercer, Middlesex, Hunterdon) released the following joint statement:

“As the applications of fuel cell technology continue to grow, we are looking at an ever-increasing capacity to shift away from fossil fuels and toward better, cleaner power sources. By creating a central task force comprised of cross-sector experts, this measure takes the first step in accelerating New Jersey’s implementation of fuel cell technologies.

“Engaging State departments, local government, industry and the public on the topic of fuel cells, the task force would be largely beneficial in helping develop policy recommendations and a course of regulatory action. If we plan to make New Jersey’s goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050 a reality, keeping at pace with innovations and integrating clean energy technologies will be critical.”

The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.

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Facing another climate vote, Oregon Republican lawmakers skedaddle

After leaving the state last year to shut down a climate change proposal, Oregon senators were absent again on Monday.

Most of Oregon’s Senate Republicans skipped a floor session on Monday morning, denying Democrats a quorum to vote on legislation. Credit…Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal, via Associated Press

Mike Baker reports for the New York Times

SEATTLE — Less than a year after Oregon’s Senate Republicans fled the state with passports in hand and hid out in Idaho cabins to avoid voting on a climate change bill, they have disappeared again.

With Democrats seeking to advance a new proposal to cap the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, most Republicans refused to attend a floor session on Monday morning, and a search by the Senate chamber’s sergeant-at-arms failed to find them.

That left the Senate with just 19 members on the floor — one short of a quorum needed to vote — and threatened to derail a range of bills in the final two weeks of the state’s legislative session.

Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, called on senators to return to work, saying the climate bill had sufficient votes to pass in a chamber with a large Democratic majority.

“I implore my fellow senators to please return to this chamber,” Mr. Courtney said. After he announced that there were not enough members to continue work, some people in the gallery clapped; Mr. Courtney rebuked them, underscoring the rising tensions in a state struggling to figure out a path forward amid the threats of a changing climate.

The Senate’s Republican leader, Herman Baertschiger Jr., said in a statement that Democrats had refused to work with Republicans and had voted down all their proposed amendments. “Senator Courtney’s actions leave no other option for Senate Republicans but to boycott and deny quorum,” Mr. Baertschiger said.

The state’s Constitution requires two-thirds of senators to be present before voting can take place. Democrats hold 18 of the chamber’s 30 seats, meaning they need two Republicans to join them to reach a quorum.

While the cap-and-trade proposal has changed over time, the dispute mirrors what occurred last year, when a similar proposal led Republicans to leave the state to avoid potential roundup by state troopers sent by Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat. That showdown ended after Democratic leaders acknowledged that they did not have enough support to pass the measure.

Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon denounced a walkout by Republican lawmakers. Last year, she ordered state troopers to track down senators who used the same tactic. Credit…Andrew Selsky/Associated Press

At the time, Ms. Brown bemoaned the walkout as an indicator that the divisiveness of federal politics had spilled down to the state level. On Monday, she said the Republicans’ “boycott” was undemocratic, calling on them to show up to “make their voices heard rather than shut down state government.”

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Solar Power Just Miles from the Arctic Circle? In Icy Nordic Climes, It’s Become the Norm

As solar prices fall and efficiency increases, countries like Finland are discovering the benefits of summertime solar.

The use of solar is increasing in Finland and other Nordic countries. Aitiopaikka, an apartment complex in Turku, sports 516 rooftop solar panels. Credit: Turku Student Village Foundation (TYS)

Paul Hockenos reports for Inside Climate News

ULU, Finland — For years after northern Finland’s largest printing plant blanketed its facility’s eight roofs with solar panels, the curious beat a path to the extraordinary spectacle.

There were skeptics who doubted that solar power would pay off in this northern city, just 100 miles shy of the Arctic Circle, a geography known not for its sunny climes but rather its dark, snow-bound, sub-zero winters.

“They wanted to see what we’d done, how it worked, whether it worked,” said Juha Röning, chief technician at the Kaleva Media printing plant. In 2015, the 1,604 solar photovoltaic (PV) units made Kaleva Media’s rooftop the most powerful photovoltaic solar plant in Finland, and indeed in all of Scandinavia’s north country.

Today, Kaleva Media’s rooftop PV park is no longer a curiosity—it’s not even the largest solar producer in the city of Oulu, much less all of Finland. Across Europe’s far north, municipalities, businesses and households are increasingly taking advantage of solar power as solar cells’ efficiency increases and costs fall.

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While Germany was experiencing its mega solar boom in the 2000s, in Nordic countries like Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland the sight of a suburban home with a PV panel was an oddity. Today, although still dwarfed by Germany’s solar force, tens of thousands of buildings, from Copenhagen to the Arctic Circle, brandish the cutting edge in solar tech.

While Germany was experiencing its mega solar boom in the 2000s, in Nordic countries like Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland the sight of a suburban home with a PV panel was an oddity. Today, although still dwarfed by Germany’s solar force, tens of thousands of buildings, from Copenhagen to the Arctic Circle, brandish the cutting edge in solar tech.

“The technological developments in PV [cells] have driven the price way down,” said Henrik Borreby, the Nordic representative of BayWa r.e., a global renewable energy developer. “The general perception had been that the further north you go, the harder it was to make a business case, even impossible. That’s not so anymore,” he said, though he acknowledged that the further north one pushes—and the lower the domestic power price—the longer it takes to make the upfront investment in solar pay itself back.

Europe’s Nordic countries, roughly at the latitude of Alaska, are pushing the boundaries of solar power deployment.

They boast some of the world’s most progressive climate protection agendas, and much of the momentum behind the growth of renewables there stems from their national action plans, which are designed to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. Norway is still a major oil producer, but Finland’s new progressive government—led by the world’s youngest prime minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin—has set ambitious decarbonization targets that would render the country of 5.5 million carbon neutral by 2035.

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Climate deniers fight back with a Greta of their own named Naomi. Will the public buy her or her message?

How a group allied with the Trump administration is paying a German teen to question established climate science.

Naomi Seibt poses for a portrait near her home in Munster, Germany. Seibt, 19, uses YouTube to denounce “climate alarmism,” countering the arguments of young climate activist Greta Thunberg. (Sebastien Van Malleghem for The Washington Post)

Desmond Butler and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post

For climate skeptics, it’s hard to compete with the youthful appeal of global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes it’s found an answer: the anti-Greta.

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent and European. But Naomi denounces “climate alarmism,” calls climate consciousness “a despicably anti-human ideology,” and has even deployed Greta’s now-famous “How dare you?” line to take on the mainstream German media.

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“She’s a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism,” said James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, an influential libertarian think tank in suburban Chicago that has the ear of the Trump administration.

In December, Heartland headlined Naomi at its forum at the UN climate conference in Madrid, where Taylor described her as “the star” of the show. Last month, Heartland hired Naomi as the young face of its campaign to question the scientific consensus that human activity is causing dangerous global warming.

“Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: whom should we trust?” asked Heartland in a digital video. Later this week, Naomi is set to make her American debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a high-profile annual gathering just outside Washington of right-leaning activists.

Activist Greta Thunberg on how to make sure the world does not ‘give up’ the climate fight After taking a solar-powered boat from England to New York to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg discussed what activists need to do. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Heartland’s tactics amount to an acknowledgment that Greta has touched a nerve, especially among teens and young adults. Since launching her protest two years ago outside the Swedish parliament at age 15, Greta has sparked youth protests across the globe and in 2019 was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” the youngest to ever win the honor.

The teenager has called on the nations of the world to cut their total carbon output by at least half over the next decade, saying that if they don’t, “then there will be horrible consequences.”

“I want you to panic,” she told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year. “I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”

Naomi, for her part, argues that these predictions of dire consequences are exaggerated. In a video posted on Heartland’s website, she gazes into the camera and says, “I don’t want you to panic. I want you to think.”

Graham Brookie directs the Digital Forensic Research Lab, an arm of the nonprofit Atlantic Council that works to identify and expose disinformation. While the campaign “is not outright disinformation,” Brookie said in an email, it “does bear resemblance to a model we use called the 4d’s — dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing.”

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Steep budget cuts left Alaska with only one operating mainline ferry. Then it broke down.

Rally-goers support Alaska’s ferry system in a demonstration at the state Capitol this month in Juneau. (Becky Bohrer/AP)

Ian Duncan reports for the Washington Post

The change in the noise coming from the Matanuska’s engines was a clue something was wrong with the ferry. A peek out the window was confirmation.

“We were creeping along,” said Adrianne Milos, one of the passengers making what should have been a three-day trip from Bellingham, Wash., home to Alaska in late January.

The crew came on loudspeakers and announced they’d be bringing the ship into Juneau at half speed.

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When they finally arrived, Milos, her husband and their cat, Squeaks, were only 70 miles from home in Haines, a small community up the Lynn Canal from Juneau. But they were effectively stranded.

A 30 percent budget cut imposed on the ferry system last year and unforeseen maintenance problems meant the Matanuska was the only mainline ferry operating on the Alaska Marine Highway System. Now it was broken down, presenting more than an inconvenience to Milos and fellow passengers: Communities already reeling from service cuts faced a month with next to no ferries at all.

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