EnviroPolitics Blog

Massachusetts raises 2050 waste reduction target, may expand ban on disposal of organics

Cole Rosengren reports for Waste Dive
Oct. 1, 2019

A new draft solid waste master plan from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) calls for a 30% reduction in annual disposal by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2050. An estimated 5.7 million tons were disposed in 2018.
MassDEP plans to ramp up enforcement of existing waste bans and promulgate new ones to support these goals. This may include expanding the current commercial organics disposal ban to generators of a half-ton or more per week by 2022. New disposal bans on textiles and mattresses are also under consideration.
Other draft plan goals include supporting producer responsibility policies for challenging materials (i.e. carpet, paint and electronics), working with the state legislature on single-use packaging reduction policies and establishing minimum performance standards for construction and demolition recycling facilities.

Dive Insight:

This new draft, part of MassDEP’s regular 10-year planning process for solid waste policy, comes as disposal capacity continues to shrink in the state.

According to recent analysis conducted by MSW Consultants, Massachusetts will effectively run out of landfill space by 2030 and will likely have to export more waste. Its incinerators are also running at or near capacity, and space at their necessary ash landfills is also projected to decline.

MassDEP’s previous solid waste plan called for a 30% reduction in disposal by 2020, but the state only saw a 14% reduction between 2008 and 2018. While officials are heartened that volumes didn’t rise as state GDP increased by 46% over the same period, they recognize more needs to be done.

Because food waste remains the largest category of material getting disposed, and processing capacity continues to grow, MassDEP saw lowering the original 2014 ban threshold as a logical move. This has long been a priority for organics recyclers in the region. The next tier of covered organics generators is expected to primarily include restaurants. When asked about going farther to include more businesses (as Vermont has done) the agency said its goal is to keep compliance and enforcement cost-effective.

“Our capacity is actually fairly hungry for food material and we think that will be able to support the ban at a half-ton threshold,” John Fischer, branch chief for commercial waste reduction at the agency, told Waste Dive.

Enforcing that new disposal ban (along with potential bans on textiles and mattresses) will come down to resources. Environmental groups have criticized MassDEP for not doing enough to enforce existing waste bans on cardboard or other recyclables. Fischer couldn’t confirm whether these new policies would be paired with a higher enforcement budget.

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Questions about how MassDEP might engage with the state legislature to push for stalled producer responsibility policies also remain unresolved.

Massachusetts lawmakers have struggled to reach agreement on bills around paint and plastic bags in recent years, let alone the tougher question of packaging. Fischer did not rule out following the leads of Maine or Vermont, which are currently working on some of the nation’s most ambitious packaging policies.

Beyond regulatory tactics, a key theme for MassDEP continues to be supporting municipalities in their own source reduction and material recovery efforts. Compared to many other state environmental agencies, MassDEP’s level of financial and technical support is seen as among the more active in the country.

Still, the agency caught flak from industry service providers for not doing more to stave off rising costs spurred by the state’s disposal crunch.

Fischer said MassDEP isn’t restricting new landfill capacity and confirmed it would also consider replacing current incinerator capacity that could meet or exceed current facility standards. The agency also remains open to 350,000 tons per year of new capacity for “innovative” technologies such as gasification or pyrolysis. According to Fischer, no permit applications have come in for any of those categories and MassDEP still says more disposal capacity is not the primary solution.

“The best way we can address our capacity challenges is through advancing capacity that can manage material in other ways,” he said. “The more material that can flow through those facilities and that infrastructure, the better off we’ll be.”

MassDEP has scheduled five hearings throughout the state and is accepting public comment through Dec. 6.

Trump administration’s canceling of net neutrality rules upheld by federal appeals court

The FCC’s cancellation of Obama-era rules on net neutrality sparked demonstrations in 2017. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

By Tony Rommm /Washingon Post/October 1 at 11:25 AM

A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed the Trump administration acted lawfully when it scrapped the U.S. government’s net neutrality rules in 2017, dealing a blow to tech giants and consumer advocates who argued that the repeal would create a stratified Internet of fast and slow lanes.

In a nearly 200-page opinion, judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals largely sided with the Federal Communications Commission and its Republican chairman, Ajit Pai. While the agency must return to the drawing board on some elements of its repeal, the court upheld the breadth of its work, finding that net neutrality supporters had made “unconvincing” arguments in their efforts to override the FCC’s deregulation of companies such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.

But the ruling still appeared to offer a lifeline to net neutrality supporters: It overruled an effort by the FCC to block states from adopting open-internet protections of their own, a move that could spur states such as California to act.

The ruling marks the latest legal salvo in a decades-long battle between Internet giants and telecom providers over the government’s authority to regulate the Internet.

With the backing of the FCC’s two other Republicans, Pai secured repeal of the government’s net neutrality rules in 2017. Until then, federal open Internet protections had prohibited providers including AT&T and Verizon from blocking or slowing down access to web content or charging services such as Netflix and Hulu for faster delivery of their shows.

Pai justified the repeal by arguing that the rules, adopted under former President Barack Obama, crimped telecom investment, stalling broadband build-out nationwide. In its place, the FCC only required broadband providers be transparent about their practices while shifting enforcement to the government’s competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission.

The repeal triggered widespread backlash: More than 22 states’ attorneys general banded with other city and state leaders as well as Internet companies, such as Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, in challenging the FCC’s efforts in court. Larger tech giants including Facebook and Google also filed supportive briefs through their Washington lobbying group, the Internet Association.

State regulators said the FCC had acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner, ignoring “substantial record evidence showing that [Internet service] providers have abused and will abuse their gatekeeper roles in ways that harm consumers and threaten public safety.” Tech giants, meanwhile, contended that the FCC had embarked on an “abrupt about-face” in response to the election, choosing to subject AT&T, Verizon and their peers to less regulation based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the web works.

The battle played out over four hours of oral arguments in February, where the D.C. circuit’s three judges at times seemed skeptical of the FCC. At least two of them harbored specific concerns about the effects of the agency’s repeal on public safety agencies. First responders from cities such as Santa Clara, Calif., had told the court they feared Internet providers could charge them for faster delivery of critical communications during an emergency, adding the FCC never took their arguments to heart.

Trump administration’s canceling of net neutrality rules upheld by federal appeals court Read More »

Debate over water rights in Maryland divides boaters, anglers, and rafters

Boats docked at Traders Landing on Deep Creek Lake at dusk. (AMY DAVIS / Baltimore Sun)

Scott Dance reports for the Baltimore Sun

Fights over water rights usually wrack Western states, but a similar debate is bubbling in Western Maryland.

On one side are the thousands of boaters who spend their summers cruising and playing in the waters of Deep Creek Lake, the largest of the state’s lakes, all of them man-made. During the driest years, when lake levels drop too low, waters can recede far enough from some docks that they get trapped by dry land.

Those enjoying the waters of the nearby Youghiogheny River, which lake waters help feed, have a different set of concerns.[From The Archives] No, Deep Creek Lake is not going to be drained »

Whitewater rafters and kayakers depend on scheduled releases of lake waters into the river for an exciting ride downstream. The river’s trout, which attract anglers from across the state and region, depend on the surges of cool lake water, because otherwise the river could get too warm for them to survive.

In the middle is a 94-year-old hydroelectric dam that uses the lake water to generate electricity, and also bears some responsibility for keeping water users on both sides of the earthen dike happy. The Maryland Department of the Environment is currently weighing a new permit to govern how the dam owner must manage water flow over the next dozen years.

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The permit, expected to be issued by the end of the year, has been the focus of a months-long debate because the lake and river waters are the lifeblood of the economy in Garrett County, a remote part of the state with few remaining industries. Wherever the water flows, it draws with it tourism dollars, whether they’re tied to recreation with speedboats and jet skis, tackle and lures, or rafts and paddles.

The environmental agency’s John Grace said the state will have to weigh the impacts on both sides of the dam before issuing a final permit. Advocates for the lake and the river will get one more chance to share their concerns publicly at an Oct. 15 hearing at Garrett College in McHenry.

“It’s a really challenging situation to make everyone totally happy,” said Grace, chief of the source protection and appropriations division of the state water supply program. “I don’t think that’s realistic, but I think it’s realistic for us to be consistent and follow our mission.”

[From 2010] Residents concerned about Deep Creek Lake’s future »

A string of wet or wet-enough years has prevented much conflict for the past six or seven years. But those who see the potential for it know it could be just a dry season away.

Drought has developed rapidly across parts of Maryland in recent weeks, and all of Garrett County and the surrounding area is considered “abnormally dry,” a precursor to drought. A relatively small 62-square-mile watershed feeds Deep Creek, so Grace said the lake’s fortunes can change quickly, for better or worse.

As population and development spread around the area, Neil Jacobs said, he’s prepared for more conflicts like this one. The McHenry resident and angler said he expects there will only be more need to share water resources in the future.

“There’s going to be some pain,” he said. “Everyone’s going to have to take a little pain.”

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To residents, many of whom spend summers or weekends there but live elsewhere in Maryland and Pennsylvania, lake access is paramount. Development has been building around the lake ever since its creation, when the Deep Creek was impounded to power the hydroelectric station that began operating in 1925 and is now owned by Brookfield Renewable Power.

Concerns about low lake levels last appeared in 2012, the area’s third dry year in four. It prompted the Deep Creek Watershed Foundation, a nonprofit group, to commission research that found significant potential impacts to water access.

The lake’s surface currently lies at an elevation of about 2,458½ feet, though it’s often higher in the summer. Just six inches below that level, 2,458 feet, about 9% of the lake’s 2,200 boat slips lose access to water, said David Myerberg, the foundation’s president. At two feet lower, 2,456 feet, 15% are affected.

But in some southern coves, the impact is more pronounced, with more than half of boat slips inaccessible when the lake surface lies at 2,457 feet or lower, Myerberg said.

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Minn. regulators reject Xcel’s purchase of Mankato natural gas plant

Elizabeth Dunbar reports for Minnesota Public Radio
September 27, 2019 6:55 p.m.

The King plant will retire in 2028 and Sherco 3 in 2030. — Xcel Energy will retire their last two coal-fired power generating stations. The Allen S. King station will retire in 2028 and the Sherco 3 station will be retired in 2030. William Lager | MPR News file

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Friday rejected Xcel Energy’s purchase of a natural gas power plant in Mankato, Minn., saying it wasn’t in the public’s interest.

Xcel had wanted to purchase the Mankato Energy Center, saying it would help with the utility’s planned early retirement of coal plants in the state.

But the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Xcel’s large industrial customers, the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota and others raised questions about the cost of the plant and said it could hurt Xcel’s utility customers.

Still, other groups backed Xcel’s plan, including several clean energy groups and the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

They had argued having the gas plant in Xcel’s control would give both the utility and Minnesota more flexibility in the transition away from the fossil fuels contributing to climate change.

Xcel’s new plan Coal-free by 2030, nuclear until 2040
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“Any decision about it has input from people,” said Kevin Lee, an attorney for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “That’s decisions like retirement dates, things like operational control. I can imagine a scenario in 2040 or 2045 or 2050 where you keep the gas plant, but maybe you only use it one or two days a year.”

Instead, he said, the Mankato Energy Center will be owned by someone else and could keep burning natural gas long into the future.

Kevin Pranis of the Laborers’ International Union of North America said having Xcel in control of the plant might provide opportunities for union workers leaving jobs at retired coal plants.

“Minnesota is going to be going through a really challenging transition,” he said. “This was an important asset that would have facilitated that.”

But Citizens Utility Board executive director Annie Levenson-Falk said the PUC’s decision protects Xcel’s customers.

“This purchase was not in customers’ interest. For Xcel to spend $650 million of ratepayer dollars to purchase the plant would present too much cost and too much risk,” she said.

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Minn. regulators reject Xcel’s purchase of Mankato natural gas plant Read More »

Republican Rep. Chris Collins resigns House seat ahead of guilty plea to insider-trading charges

The Republican from New York had called the charges against him ‘meritless’ but is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) leaves a courthouse in New York after a pretrial hearing on his insider-trading case on Sept. 12. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Renae Merle and Mike DeBonis report for the Washington Post
September 30, 2019 at 2:10 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK — Rep. Chris Collins is resigning from Congress and expected to plead guilty to insider-trading charges on Tuesday, following allegations last year that the Republican from New York schemed with his son to avoid significant losses on a biotechnology investment.

Collins, President Trump’s first congressional supporter, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors.

He is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court.

Collins’s son, Cameron; and another family member are scheduled to change their pleas on Thursday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received a letter of resignation from Collins on Monday, a senior Democratic aide said. The resignation will be effective when the letter is officially filed at a scheduled House session Tuesday.AD

Collins’ attorney did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment.

Collins, who once called the charges against him “meritless,” has since 2013 represented New York’s 27th Congressional District, which encompasses suburban and rural areas stretching east of the Buffalo metropolitan area.

Rep. Chris Collins charged with insider trading, federal prosecutors announce

Collins won reelection last year after initially suspending his campaign, then reversing that decision despite pressure from Republicans to step aside and allow another GOP candidate on the ballot. Collins was sworn in for a fourth term in January but was not seated on any House committees pending resolution of his indictment.

Several candidates have announced campaigns to challenge Collins in 2020, including GOP state Sens. Chris Jacobs and Rob Ortt as well as Democratic lawyer Nate McMurray, who came about 1,000 votes shy of unseating Collins last year. Should Collins resign, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) would set a special election for the coming months.AD

Despite Collins’s close reelection race, the 27th District is considered reliably Republican — Trump won it by 24 points in 2016.

Collins was among Trump’s earliest endorsers and continued speaking out on his behalf after being indicted — including as recently as last week, when the congressman issued a statement criticizing Democrats’ announcement of a formal impeachment investigation of Trump. The White House and fellow Republicans, however, have kept their distance from Collins.

Collins was indicted in August 2018 and had been fighting the charges. Innate Immunotherapeutics was developing a new therapy for multiple sclerosis. Collins served on the company’s board of directors and was its largest shareholder, according to a federal indictment.

According to prosecutors, while at the June 2017 congressional picnic at the White House, Collins received an email from Innate Immunotherapeutics’ chief executive alerting the company’s board that an eagerly anticipated drug trial had been a failure. Minutes later, Collins responded to the email: “Wow. Makes no sense. How are these results even possible???”AD

Collins immediately tried to contact his son, who owned millions of Innate Immunotherapeutics shares, according to the indictment. Within a few minutes, Collins and his son called each other six times before connecting and talking for six minutes. During that call, Collins told his son about the failed drug trial, according to the indictment, which cites phone and bank records as well as texts.

With that insider knowledge, Collins and his family were able to avoid significant losses before the news became public and the company’s stock price fell more than 90 percent, prosecutors allege.

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$29.6 billion of Philly real estate is exempt from property taxes. Should nonprofits be asked to pay up?

Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia Magazine photo

The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Lincoln Financial Field. The former Aramark Tower.

Together, those Philadelphia landmarks are worth $794 million, according to city assessment records. But they are among the nearly 23,000 properties in Philadelphia exempt from paying property taxes because they are owned by nonprofit or government institutions.

What kinds of properties are tax-exempt?

State law dictates that churches, cemeteries, hospitals, institutions of learning, charities, and government-owned properties are exempt from taxes, as long as their revenue goes toward the support of the institution or charity. Many argue that they help the city in other ways, as large employers, tourist attractions, or health-care providers.

Government properties — owned by the city, state, and federal governments, housing authorities, SEPTA, and other agencies — account for nearly 40% of the value of all tax-exempt properties, the records show. The remaining exemptions are for nonprofits.

Educational institutions in Philadelphia own about a quarter of the value of tax-exempt properties, the Inquirer analysis found.

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$29.6 billion of Philly real estate is exempt from property taxes. Should nonprofits be asked to pay up? Read More »

Massachusetts raises 2050 waste reduction target, may expand ban on disposal of organics

Cole Rosengren reports for Waste Dive Oct. 1, 2019

Dive Insight:

Recommended Reading:

Trump administration’s canceling of net neutrality rules upheld by federal appeals court

Debate over water rights in Maryland divides boaters, anglers, and rafters

Minn. regulators reject Xcel’s purchase of Mankato natural gas plant

Republican Rep. Chris Collins resigns House seat ahead of guilty plea to insider-trading charges

The Republican from New York had called the charges against him ‘meritless’ but is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon

$29.6 billion of Philly real estate is exempt from property taxes. Should nonprofits be asked to pay up?

What kinds of properties are tax-exempt?

Cole Rosengren reports for Waste Dive
Oct. 1, 2019