Search Results for: dirty dirt

CBS Sunday Morning report: Drowning in a sea of plastic

Piece by piece, an environmental threat is piling up, and we’re ALL to blame. Worse yet, even those of us trying to bring an end to the problem may not be doing as much good as we think. David Pogue reports our Cover Story:

In the 1950s, a new material burst onto the scene that would change the world forever. Cheap, durable, sanitary, strong, and light.
And today, there are literally thousands of raw categories of plastic, according to Fred Betke, founder of Delta Pacific Products, which makes plastic parts for medical instruments.
The technical name is polypropylene, and all almost everything plastic starts out as pellets. They’re available in every color under the sun. 
Delta Pacific’s clients specify the exact design of the parts they want. Hot plastic gets injected into heavy steel molds.

plastic-pellets-to-molded-plastic-parts-620.jpg

From pellets to molded plastic parts.
  CBS NEWS
After 65 years of making plastic, we’ve pretty much mastered the art. What we haven’t yet figured out is what to do with plastic once we’re done with it.
“It lasts a really long time,” said Roland Geyer, professor of environmental science at UC Santa Barbara. “It doesn’t biodegrade. So, it just sits there.”
Geyer has studied how much plastic we throw away. “We have statistics reaching all the way back to the dawn of plastic mass production, 1950. And if we add it all together, it’s 8.3 billion metric tons. So, if we take that and spread it out evenly over California, the entire state of California would be covered. And that would be an ugly sight.”

plastic-landfill-620.jpg

  CBS NEWS
About 70 percent of our discarded plastic winds up in open dumps or landfills.
“So, a plastic bag probably used once between the cash register and the car, and then how long will it be here in the landfill?” asked Pogue.
“It will be with us for hundreds of years,” Geyer said.

plastic-non-biodegradable-refuse-at-landfill-roland-geyer-david-pogue-620.jpg

Environmental science professor Roland Geyer and correspondent David Pogue at a landfill, with a piece of plastic that isn’t biodegrading any time soon.
  CBS NEWS
But some plastic winds up in an even worse place: The ocean. “Every single year, somewhere between 5 and 12 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean,” Geyer said. “Plastic in the ocean has a tendency to break down into other smaller pieces. And these tiny pieces then get taken up even lower down in the food chain. So, we know that it ends up on our dinner plates.”
“Wait a minute – there’s plastic in my food?” asked Pogue.
“There is plastic in your food. Plastic in your sea salt. And there is plastic coming out of your tap.”
In fact, at this rate, the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish.

floating-trash-island-off-honduras-b-620.jpg

A floating island of plastic waste off the coast of Honduras. Because plastics do not biodegrade, much of our waste that is not recycled ends up in landfills or the ocean.
  CBS NEWS
But wait a minute: Don’t most people recycle plastic? Not exactly. Geyer says that as of 2017, the world recycles only about 9 percent of all our plastic.
Even if you’re good about using your recycling bin, your plastic may never actually get recycled. Its first stop is a material recovery facility, where metal, glass, paper and plastic get sorted. 

plastic-sorting-plastic-trash-at-recycling-center-620.jpg

Sorting plastic at GDB International in New Brunswick, N.J.
  CBS NEWS

We sort everything,” said Sunil Bagaria, the co-founder of GDB International, a corporate recycling facility in New Jersey. His staff sorts the plastic by type and then wraps it into huge bales.  “We will sort hangers. We will sort plastic film. We will sort soda bottles, pill bottles, and make individual bales of each plastic.

“Then it is going to another factory, which is then washing it, grinding, pelletizing it. Then from there it will go to another company which will make another product or maybe blowing another bottle.”
It’s easy and economical to recycle clean, pure plastic. But well over half of the plastic we throw in our bins is contaminated by food, paper labels, or other materials.
For 30 years, we’ve had an easy solution for disposing of that dirty plastic: Send it to China. “China was buying 50% of all graded plastic scrap in the world,” Bagaria said. “Now, that continued for, say, 20, 30 years.  And then there was I think a movie made by somebody, ‘Plastic China.'”
The 2017 documentary “Plastic China” illustrated the brutal truth about the contaminated plastic that developed nations were selling to China. It showed a desperately poor Chinese family eking out a living by hand-sorting these mountains of plastic trash.
“So the Chinese government, the Communist Party is waking up and saying, ‘Why are we doing this?'” Bagaria said.
“There’s some national pride – ‘We don’t wanna be the world’s dumping grounds’?” asked Pogue.
“Yes, there is national pride.”
So, the Chinese government announced a new policy. Staring on January 1 of this year, China stopped accepting other countries’ plastic unless it is impossibly pure. “If you are sending any scrap it should not have more than 0.5% of foreign matter,” Bagaria said.
“So it’s gotta be 99.5% pure?” said Pogue.
“Pure plastic. And that was obviously unattainable.”

plastic-piles-of-plastic-waste-gdb-international-sunil-bagaria-david-pogue-620.jpg

David Pogue with GDB International’s Sunil Bagaria.
  CBS NEWS









In his plant, Bagaria showed Pogue why. A lot of plastic come to recyclers like Bagaria all mixed together, impossible to separate cost effectively.
So, what happens now to the plastic we used to ship to China? Nothing. It’s just piling up.

CBS Sunday Morning report: Drowning in a sea of plastic Read More »

At some Philly homes, toilets get flushed into the city’s drinking water source. Water detectives are on the case

Philadelphia Water Department utility representative Michael Cossie dye-tests storm water and sanitary sewer connections to investigate crossover issues, in which household sewage flows into the storm water system and vice versa (Tim Tai photo)

Frank Kummer report for Philly.com:

Last week, Joe Ferretti, a Philadelphia Water Department supervisor, pried open a manhole next to a scenic Schuylkill River bank, flicked on a flashlight and peered down.

Ferretti saw evidence sewage was flowing freely into the river at a stone outfall known as S050204.

In some Philadelphia homes, human waste, shower water, dirty dish grease and other stuff that belongs in the sanitary sewer system is going down the wrong pipe, sending it to waterways that feed the Delaware River — the city’s primary source of drinking water.

For years, water department workers like Ferretti have been on a painstaking hunt for “cross connections,” a mild-sounding name that means mixed-up pipes that threaten public health. Between showers, toilet flushes, and sink use, a typical Philadelphia resident uses up to 85 gallons of water a day. That equates to about 272 gallons a day for a typical Philadelphia home – and if there’s a cross connection, that could mean 100,000 gallons going into the river each year.

cross connections diagram

The stone outfall Ferretti examined — outfall S05204 — is at Kelly Drive in the city’s East Falls section. Water department crews had methodically worked their way up to a block on Ainslie Street, about half a mile from the river, looking for the home, or homes, that were producing the sewage. On a bitterly cold day last week, the crew spent hours outside on their detective work, literally following their noses.



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Midtown Manhattan might soon be coal country

Robin Eves of Clean Coal Technologies Inc.

POWERING UP Eves says the time for his firm’s cleaner-coal technology has finally arrived.
Matthew Flamm writes for Crain’s:
Madison Avenue may
seem like an unlikely home
for a coal company. But in recent months energy

executives from as far afield as Wyoming, China,
India and Russia have
been visiting the Midtown
office of Clean Coal Technologies Inc. to
discuss
the firm’s methods for making dirty coal a more
efficient fuel.


Founded in 2007
through a merger with another
coal technology company, CCTI once traded at
more
than $70 a share when speculators thought
clean-coal technology would soon
come to fruition.
It is now a penny stock, has no revenue and has
just two
full-time employees: a chief executive
and a chief financial officer.

But it does have
patents. The company’s technology can remove sulfur, moisture, hydrocarbons and
other volatile matter from coal, allowing it to burn hotter and more
efficiently.

CCTI started in
Florida, but in 2010 its CEO, Robin Eves, relocated to a shared space on
Madison Avenue to be closer to investors and leverage the city’s status as an international
crossroads.

The strategy worked.
Coal companies from India and Indonesia have since invested more than $6M,
allowing CCTI to begin building a test plant in Oklahoma. Denver-based



Black Diamond Holdings
and other investors, including
a large Manhattan-based fund, have added $9
million
since 2015.
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U.S. scrap industry frets over new China import policy

Containers ships in Qingdao port, China.

For decades, shipping containers have been loaded with American scrap and waste and dispatched to China for recycling. It’s a $5 billion annual business that is now in danger of sinking.

Jacopo Prisco reports for CNN Money:

Beijing notified the World Trade Organization in July that it plans to ban the import of 24 varieties of solid waste, including types of plastic and unsorted paper commonly sent from the U.S.

China said that the ban would take effect from September, giving American companies little time to prepare. ISRI estimates that roughly a fifth of the trade is at risk.
The announcement has made U.S. recyclers that trade with China very nervous.
“In the short term we’re going to see a significant drop of exports from the U.S. into China, and there is a little bit of panic in the market,” said Adina Adler, an official at the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI).
“We respect what the Chinese government is trying to do … and we want to be helpful, but they gave us practically no time for any kind of transition,” said Adler.
Trade deficit
Scrap and waste is the sixth largest U.S. export to China.
The trade works like this: A huge number of container ships laden with consumer goods sail each year from China to American ports.
But the U.S. runs a massive trade deficit with China, and there is little demand for space on the return leg, or “backhaul.” As a result, shipping companies offer major discounts on return runs to China.
The dynamic has been a boon for the U.S. recycling industry, which has an abundance of the scrap metal, paper, plastic, rubber and electronics that Chinese recyclers crave.
Adam Minter, a journalist, explains in the book “Junkyard Planet” that it can be much cheaper to ship scrap from the U.S. to China than to send it by rail from Los Angeles to Chicago.

china shipping line ship

Exports at risk
Beijing says it’s now banning some of the scrap categories out of concern for the environment.
The government told the WTO that it had found large amounts of dirty and hazardous material mixed with solid waste, leading to serious environmental pollution.
China’s State Council said in a statement that it hoped to “reform … the management system of solid waste imports, promote the recycling use of domestic solid wastes, protect the ecological environment and people’s health.”
Minter, however, has argued that the ban could exacerbate environmental problems.
He wrote in July that imported recyclables are cleaner than their Chinese counterparts, and banning them will force many Chinese recyclers to shut down — meaning more waste will be incinerated or end up in landfills.


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As Philadelphia’s housing market booms, economists warn the city may be in a bubble—or something worse

Drew  Nugent and his band at realtor’s open house in Philadelphia’s  Kensington section

Jim Saksa reports for Plan Philly:


Stephanie Somers knows how to throw a party.

At an open house for a set of townhouses built out the shell of an 105-year-old rectory, the realtor picked a Prohibition theme. Curious neighbors and would-be buyers sipped speakeasy cocktails while a jazz band played and a burlesque troupe dressed up like flappers danced the the Lindy Hop. Between the performances, guests admired the arabesque bathroom tiles, reclaimed-wood floors, and impressive roof deck views.
Swanky open houses are rare, but not unheard of, in some of Philadelphia’s wealthier neighborhoods, where asking prices this high — $680,000 for a three bedroom rowhome — are par for the course.
But not here. This open house is in East Kensington, just a few blocks from some of the most notorious drug corners in the United States, let alone Philadelphia. For decades, this neighborhood attracted more blight than developers, even separated from the most disinvested parts of Kensington by Lehigh Avenue and Conrail’s railroad tracks.
But attitudes are changing enough to justify home values more than four times the city’s median sales price of $143,000. Just a few weeks after the open house, all but one of the five units were under contract (that lone holdout was still under construction, not yet ready to be shown to potential purchasers). According to Somers, the young professionals and empty nesters buying expensive homes in places like Kensington, Francisville, Brewerytown and Point Breeze aren’t letting a neighborhood’s tough reputation keep them away.
“I think there is a level of familiarity that doesn’t scare off these buyers from purchasing an exquisite piece of property there, on the border of Kensington and East Kensington,” said Somers.
“Y’know, it’s Kensington,” added Somers. “I mean, they’re buying in Kensington.”
According to data compiled by Drexel University economist Kevin Gillen, the average home for sale in Philly spends less than two months on the market before it’s sold. That’s a turnaround time Philly hasn’t seen since just before the housing bubble broke in 2007.
After years of anemic economic growth, the city has finally started to recover from the Great Recession. Lots of long-time renters are ready to buy for the first time. Those first-time buyers allow sellers to cash in the equity from their starter homes in order to upgrade. Many are opting to stay in the city and buy new construction filled with amenities: The latest appliances, granite countertops, central air, a roof deck, and off-street parking figure prominently in the listings.
Parrish House
The $168,000 Parrish House townhomes feature granite countertops,
stainless steel appliance and reclaimed wood cupboards
.
The combination of pent-up demand and a housing market where supply is lagging means skyrocketing prices.
“Right now, Philadelphia is outperforming not only most other metro areas in other cities, but even its own suburbs,” said Gillen. “That’s good news for us because, for quite a while, house prices here were depressed. House prices in Philadelphia County fell about 23 to 25 percent from peak to trough during the recession.”
While the timing of the city’s recovery from the recession partly explains the increase in demand for new houses, this may also mark a shift in consumer preferences.
Cities today aren’t as smelly, dirty and dangerous as they were forty, twenty or even ten years ago. Like many other cities growing again after long post-war population declines, Philadelphia has seen its violent crime rates steadily decline.
And the buyers spending nearly $700,000 for a rowhome in East Kensington, or a half-million for homes in Brewerytown or Point Breeze aren’t purchasing a starter home.
Jennifer Tran 
Jennifer Tran and Eric Griffin in the spacious, airy kitchen of their Francisville home

In Francisville, Jennifer Tran and Eric Griffin have no intention of leaving. The couple in their early thirties purchased a lovingly restored four-bedroom rowhome for $500,000 back in 2013. “We tried to build in all the things we need to stay here [and] not have to leave the city just go get a yard or get some outdoor space,” said Griffin.
The house has a large back yard for their dog, Olli, and enough space to raise a family if and when the time is right. “[We] tried to have everything here that would keep us here in the city, longterm.”

Tran and Griffin are the kind of couple that a decade or two ago would have moved to the suburbs. She works at the Navy Yard and he works in Manayunk, which would have made a home somewhere along the Main Line just as convenient a commute as Francisville. But they’ve made a commitment to Francisville, and so far that bet is paying off. 
When they bought it, their home was the most expensive one on the block. Since then, the vacant lots across the street have been replaced with new condos and they no longer own the priciest parcel on the street. As Francisville fills, housing prices continue to rise.
Ruokai Chen made a similar bet along the border of Fishtown and East Kensington, purchasing a home for $415,000 last year. Based on neighborhood trends and comparables, the actuary expects the value of his home to continue to go up. In his late twenties, Chen managed to save for the large down payment thanks to the combination of a high-earning job and having graduated debt-free courtesy of a Curtis Institute education. 
It’s the same story all across the neighborhoods surrounding Center City, fueling the highest housing prices the city has ever seen. “The level of house prices in Philadelphia is at an all time high,” said Gillen. “It’s about 12 or 14 percent higher than its previous peak back in 2007, during the previous peak before the boom.”
Notably, Tran, Chen, and other buyers PlanPhilly spoke with for this article all mentioned—without prompting—the quality of their local neighborhood school, noting it in marked, favorable contrast to their lowly impressions of the School District of Philadelphia as a whole.
Ironically, part of what is fueling Philadelphia’s housing demand, and thus the spike in housing prices, is the city’s relative affordability compared to other metro areas, says Nela Richardson, an economist with the web-based real estate company, Redfin.
“I went to school in Philly 20 years ago,” said Richardson, who graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, “The city already had it [back then], and people finally awakened to the to the fact that you can get the Philly urban experience for half the cost of DC and a quarter of the cost of New York.”


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Climate Change May Be Intensifying China’s Smog Crisis


An extremely polluted December day in China
An extremely polluted December day in northern China. Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Javier C. Hernandez reports for The New York Times

BEIJING — Chinese leaders, grappling with some of the world’s worst air pollution, have long assumed the answer to their woes was gradually reducing the level of smog-forming chemicals emitted from power plants, steel factories and cars.

But new research suggests another factor may be hindering China’s efforts to take control of its devastating smog crisis: climate change.

Changing weather patterns linked to rising global temperatures have resulted in a dearth of wind across northern China, according to several recent studies, exacerbating a wave of severe pollution that has been blamed for millions of premature deaths.

Wind usually helps blow away smog, but changes in weather patterns in recent decades have left many of China’s most populous cities poorly ventilated, scientists say.

The findings, some of the first to link climate change to smog, may escalate pressure on Chinese leaders to move more swiftly to shutter steel factories and coal-fired power plants amid rising public anger over smog caused by soot and gases like sulfur dioxide.

The research could also push China to assume an even more forceful role in international efforts to curb climate change by reducing carbon emissions, at a time when the United States, under President Trump, appears to be backing away from the issue.

“Everyone used to think that controlling smog hinged on reducing regional pollution,” said Liao Hong, a professor at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and the co-author of a climate change study published this week. “Now it’s clear that it will require a global effort.”

As public outrage has grown in China over dirty skies and a rash of respiratory illnesses linked to smog, Chinese officials have redoubled efforts in recent years to fight air pollution. They have sent teams of police officers to inspect factories, closed hundreds of coal-fired power plants and imposed limits on driving and activities like outdoor barbecuing.

Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at the annual session of China’s legislature this month, vowed to “make our skies blue again” and promised to take further steps to reduce the use of coal.

But even if Chinese officials push forward with ambitious plans to cut emissions, they may struggle to offset the effects of climate change, the findings suggest.

Ms. Liao’s study, which examined data on pollution in Beijing from 2009 to 2016, predicted that weather conditions associated with severe smog would become increasingly common in coming decades. The study did not account for possible reductions in carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

Scientists point to the so-called airpocalypse that fell on Beijing in January 2013 as an example of the effects of climate change on smog.

During that episode, Beijing and dozens of other cities in northern China were shrouded in toxic haze for days. Despite emergency measures to cut emissions, the concentration of PM2.5, particles of a size that can penetrate the bloodstream, remained dangerously high.

Researchers now attribute the resilience of smog during that period to unusually stagnant air conditions brought on by climate change. The air was the stillest in three decades during the heavy particulate pollution in 2013, according to a study published this month in the journal Science Advances.

The study found that the melting of ice in the Arctic, combined with increased snowfall in Siberia, contributed to changes in wind patterns across Asia that winter that failed to clear the air over northern China.

Yuhang Wang, an atmospheric scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who was a co-author of the study, said the results suggested that Chinese officials would have an especially difficult time curbing air pollution in the winter, when weather conditions are most conducive to smog and more coal is burned for heating.


The Ministry of Environmental Protection pledged this month to put in place stricter policies to curb winter air pollution. Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympics in 2022.

“In the long run, emission reductions of both pollutants and greenhouse gases are needed to mitigate the winter haze problem,” Mr. Wang said.

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PennEnvironment sees Trump, Detroit driving in reverse

Hummer backing up


David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, is encouraging the members of his organization and others to let the nation’s three major automakers know that Americans do not support the current efforts of Detroit and the Trump administration to reverse progress on automobile mileage standards.  


Masur writes:


Dear _____,

Nearly a decade ago as the recession was crashing down on our economy, Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers were scrambling to stay afloat after putting all their eggs into the basket of big, gas guzzling SUVs—a vehicle that the public had little desire to buy with rising gas prices at the pump.

Now those same auto companies just convinced the Trump administration to overturn climate-fighting fuel-efficiency standards that would have cut global warming pollution by 6 billion tons by 2030.  Those standards drove the industry to innovate with fuel-efficient cars, hybrids and now electric vehicles. [1]

Email Detroit’s “Big Three” and ask them to stop pushing to dismantle fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. 

If the whole thing sounds like a story you’ve heard before, you’d be correct.  For years, the auto-industry fought these same fuel-efficiency standards as they tried to build bigger and bigger SUVs. Even as hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius were selling like hotcakes, Detroit’s Big Three continued building larger SUVs.  And inevitably their failed products helped lead to a multibillion-dollar bailout by us, the American taxpayers—hoping they’d learn their lesson. 
Instead, last week major auto-makers sat down with President Trump to persuade him to undo the very fuel-efficiency standards that helped cut pollution and save their industry.

It’s time for the U.S. to put cars that burn too much gasoline in our rear-view mirror. Unfortunately, the order this week by Trump’s EPA is a green light to keep making dirty gas guzzling cars that pollute our air, endanger our health and threaten our children’s future.

Tell the Detroit Big Three: You want more clean cars, not more hummers.

Sincerely,
David Masur
PennEnvironment Executive Director

PS—forward this to your friends and family and tell them to take this urgent action TODAY!

[1]  “Trump targets Obama’s global warming emissions rule for cars“, The Hill, March 15, 2017.  


—————————————————————————
If you click on either of the links above you’ll be taken to a form. Enter your name, e-mail address, etc., and a letter to the big three will be automatically generated and sent.  

It’s an easy way to help pressure the automakers. It’s also a clever marketing technique, as the information supplied helps PennEnvironment build its database for future communications and, no doubt, fundraising requests. 


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NJ labor, faith and green groups join for climate fight


Powerful union members with deep pockets like NJEA and SEIU could help Jersey Renews achieve its ambitious environmental agenda

Tom Johnson  reports for NJ Spotlight:

Alarmed by climate change, an unusual coalition of labor, faith, community, and environmental organizations is banding together to more forcefully promote steps to curtail global warming.
The coalition, Jersey Renews, cited steps taken by the Trump administration along with years of inaction in Trenton as the motivation behind its efforts to vault New Jersey into a leadership position in curbing greenhouse-gas emissions and advancing clean-energy initiatives.
In a press conference in the State House, the group unveiled an ambitious agenda, including many proposals long pending or neglected in Trenton — increasing the state’s reliance on solar and offshore wind energy, stopping the diversion of money from the Clean Energy Fund, and expanding programs to use energy more efficiently.
Achieving those objectives, however, has proved elusive despite years of lobbying by environmental groups and clean-energy advocates. This time, the coalition vows, will be different. Its optimism stems from new alliances with labor groups that have often been on the opposite side of the issues and from the backing of the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, with the money and political clout that goes with it.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Get ready to hear about Jersey Renews,’’ said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith, an interfaith coalition for the environment. “In your schools, in your places of worship, and in your union halls.’’
A big selling point for the coalition’s agenda is its potential to drive a new green economy, built on well-paying jobs in emerging sectors in the solar, offshore wind, and electric car infrastructure, according to its organizers.
“Climate change is one of the fundamental planks in how we are going to save jobs,’’ predicted Kevin Brown, vice president and New Jersey state director of the Service Employees International’s Unit 32BJ. “We cannot continue denying the reality of what is going on with our planet.’’
In laying out an agenda to fight climate change, the coalition focused on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by more aggressively dealing with problems already being tackled by the state or federal governments. It urged action to increase fuel efficiency in the transportation sector, an issue addressed by the Obama administration, but not likely to come under scrutiny by President Donald Trump.
The coalition wants more aggressive efforts to reduce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, by eliminating leaks from pipes, an increased emphasis on energy efficiency, and an expansion of the state’s renewable-energy commitments.
Finally, the coalition recommended trying to create 100,000 family-sustaining jobs across the state and protecting communities from pollution. “We believe kids should get dirty when they play in the mud,’’ said Kate Schumacher, New Jersey field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, “not from the air they breathe.’’
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Feds to retrofit diesel school bus engines in 5 NJ districts

diesel schoolbus


Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

Five school districts in New Jersey have been awarded grants totaling $810,000 to replace or retrofit older diesel bus engines under a program from the federal government.


The awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are part of $7.7 million given to 88 school bus fleets in 27 states under its diesel-emissions reduction program.
The eight-year-old program is designed to reduce pollution linked to health problems caused by soot, or fine particulates, emitted by dirty buses that are associated with such health problems as asthma and lung damage.
In New Jersey, the school bus fleets receiving the grants are Orange, $145,000; Lakewood, $200,000; North Brunswick, $85,000; Toms River, $180,000; and Wall Township, $200,00.
“Thanks to funding, we are protecting our children from breathing diesel emissions as they travel to school,’’ said Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

“Nearly 17,000 of our country’s schools are located within steps of a heavily traveled road, exposing more than six million children to traffic-related pollution at a time when developing lungs are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of pollution.’’

The federal agency has implemented standards to make newer diesel engines more than 90 percent cleaner, but many older diesel school buses are still operating. These older diesel engines emit large amounts of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and particulate matter, both persistent pollutants in New Jersey.
Since 2008, the federal program has funded more than 700 clean-diesel projects across the country, involving more than 70,000 engines.
New Jersey has its own diesel-engine retrofit program run by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which addresses older diesel engines on school buses and garbage trucks. Since 2008, more than 7,400 school buses have been retrofitted, according to the DEP.
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Public closes Gov’s book deal; newspapers win a reprieve

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
It was the overwhelmingly negative public reaction–phones ringing off the hook in many legislators’ offices–that killed linked bills on Monday in the New Jersey Assembly that would have allowed Gov. Chris Christie to profit from a book deal while in office and also eliminate the long-required printing of public legal notices in newspapers–a revenue source vital to the daily and weekly publications. 



David Cruz puts it all together in this NJTV NEWS report.





Republican Gov. Christie’s unprecedented working relationship with Democratic party bosses (the mostly hidden figures who really call the shots in the State House) allowed the so-called ‘revenge bill’ to fly down the pre-Christmas fast track until newspaper publishers and open-government groups fought back and incited the public reaction.


The Governor who rarely loses in the Legislature didn’t take this one well. Witness the Asbury Park Press by Bob Jordan: Chris Christie in Twitter storm after bill defeats 


Star-Ledger editorial writer and columnist Tom Moran, who has been an pebble in the governor’s shoe for most of Christie’s two terms in office, wrote in Christie & Dem bosses get public spanking they deserve:

In the end, no damage was done, except to the reputations of the politicians who tried to pull off this dirty stunt.

This time, they couldn’t get the votes. The players were all in the regular seats, with Gov. Chris Christie playing the tune, and the three chieftains of the Democratic Party dancing with him. Just like the old days.

This time, though, the followers didn’t follow. This time, on a memorable Monday in Trenton, they revolted.  

The Ledger followed up with an editorial: Dear Gov. Christie: Your priorities are cockeyed. Sincerely, N.J.  It read, in part:

Chris Christie has priorities, and he’s sticking by them. Never mind that they are irrational and that almost no one else shares them: He is convinced that his support of 18 percent is such an ironclad mandate, he could go around kicking kittens each day for the next 12 months and still be applauded for his authenticity. 

So with a resolve that borders on psychosis, our governor continues to ignore New Jersey’s most urgent concerns, authorizing a spokesman to affirm that the effort to eliminate legal notices from newspapers is neither dead nor buried. In fact, he vowed that it will be “a top priority when we return from the holidays.”

Really, you have to give the guy credit for trying, just like you gave credit to Sisyphus for getting pancaked by a boulder for all of eternity.

It would be immodest for a newspaper to rank its own concerns among governmental priorities, so we won’t try – judging by countless calls and emails from our wonderful readers to lawmakers since Friday, that argument has already been made with gratifying gusto.

But we can make this observation: When a governor engages in revenge politics – which is the best way to define this effort to destroy newspapers – he makes it too easy for everyone to question his so-called “priorities.”

As we’ve long noted, Politics is New Jersey’s favorite spectator sport. 


We wish you all a wonderful holiday but almost can’t wait to get back to the Legislature in January. Oh, such fun to ride.

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