After saying no to plastics, Trudeau says yes to the Trans Mountain gas pipeline

Editor’s Note: Environmentalists cheered last week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would follow the EU in adopting a ban on single-use plastics. Those cheers turned to jeers today with the announcement below. – FB

Trans Mountain pipeline opponents rally in advance of Trudeau’s announcement

By Amanda Connolly and Jesse Ferreras of Global News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Tuesday afternoon that the federal cabinet has approved the expansion of the existing pipeline, which the government bought for $4.5 billion last year after regulatory and political uncertainty led Kinder Morgan to abandon the project.P

“Our government has newly approved the Trans Mountain pipeline going forward. The company plans to have shovels in the ground this construction season,” Trudeau told reporters, adding that “every dollar” earned from the pipeline as well as the future sale of it will be invested in clean energy projects.

READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project

The project will proceed under the TransMountain Corporation, the Crown corporation that will be responsible for securing the permits needed to move forward with construction, though the timeline is uncertain — all existing approvals were quashed when the Federal Court issued an injunction last summer.

“It’s likely there will be challenges,” officials acknowledged during a technical briefing on the decision on Tuesday.

Officials say the situation is “unprecedented” but that there will be shovels in the ground this year along parts of the route.

Among the permits the corporation still needs to secure are: approvals from the National Energy Board to authorize construction, authorizations under the Fisheries Act, permits under the Species at Risk Act, approval under the Indian Act, authorization under the Canadian Transportation Act, and approval and licensing under the Explosives Act.

WATCH: Liberals give Trans Mountain pipeline expansion a re-start after review

The approval suggests that the government believes it has met the criteria laid out by a Federal Court judge last year in a ruling that slapped an injunction on the construction, which had only just begun.

It also means the government is confident the court will deem it has done adequate consultations with Indigenous stakeholders and also taken measures to mitigate the marine impact of the expansion if the approval is challenged in court.

Trudeau also said the government will be launching a new round of consultations on how Indigenous communities can get benefits from the project, including how they can get involved in the ownership and financial stakes in the project.

He added he knows the approval will raise a lot of questions for those with concerns about spills and the environmental impact of the project.

“To those who want sustainable energy and a cleaner environment, know that I want that too,” Trudeau said., noting there will be demand for Canada’s existing natural resources even as the world transitions to cleaner forms of energy.

“But in order to bridge the gap between where we are and where we’re going, we need money to pay for it … we should harvest some of what we have and invest the projects in what comes next, building the clean energy future that is already at our doorsteps.”

Owning the pipeline is expected to bring in $200 million in earnings per year for the federal government.

Earlier this year, the government delayed its approval of the pipeline after it did not complete its renewed consultations with Indigenous communities along the pipeline route in time to meet the deadline for cabinet approval of the project.

Following the ruling from the Federal Court, the government restarted consultations with 117 Indigenous stakeholders but refused to set a public timeline for when those talks would wrap up.

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Maine and Vermont governors sign plastic bag bans on same day

Cole Rosengren reports for WasteDive / June 18, 2019

Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill Monday (LD 1532) that will ban single-use plastic bags across the state by April 22, 2020. Reusable plastic and paper bags will be permitted for at least $0.05 per bag.

Shortly after, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill (S.113) that will ban single-use plastic bags by July 1, 2020 and require a fee of at least $0.10 for paper bags. Reusable bags will be encouraged as an alternative.

In addition, Vermont’s law goes a step farther by banning polystyrene foam containers, plastic stirrers and plastic straws (with certain disability-related exceptions) in what has been described as the “toughest” and most expansive state plastics policy yet.

These two developments bring the tally of states with official plastic bag bans up to four, including California and New York. Counting Hawaii, which has bag bans in every county, the total reaches five. Pending expected approval in states such as Connecticut, Delaware and Oregon — as well as ongoing efforts elsewhere — that number can be expected to rise within the next month.

Following passage of the nation’s first two statewide bans on polystyrene foam containers — in Maine and Maryland — 2019 may well become an inflection point for plastics policy.

Canada’s government announced plans for its national plastics policy last week — a development precipitated by rising cultural attention to the environmental effects of plastics production, as well as pollution from potential mismanagement.

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Elcon appeals Falls Township’s rejection of its proposed hazardous chemicals treatment plant

Kyle Bagenstose reports for the Bucks County Courier-Times

Elcon Recycling Services has filed an appeal with the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas after Falls supervisors voted to reject its application on April 30.

A company seeking to build a hazardous waste treatment facility on former U.S. Steel land in Falls has filed an appeal in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, after the township’s supervisors voted April 30 to reject a land development application. The appeal, filed June 13, is a sign that the project’s applicant, Elcon Recycling Services, intends to continue fighting for the controversial facility despite recent setbacks.

Since 2014, Elcon has sought to build a plant capable of treating between 150,000 to 210,000 tons of chemical and pharmaceutical waste annually, located on a 23-acre plot in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in lower Falls. But the effort has suffered multiple recent blows, as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on May 15 released a draft “intention to deny” the application following a 10-month review process.

The DEP decision is currently in a public comment period that runs through July 15, through which Elcon could potentially submit alterations to its application and still win approval. But county court is the venue of recourse for Elcon on Falls’ decision. Joel Bolstein, an attorney with Fox Rothschild representing Elcon, said in a statement the company believes township officials acted in “bad faith.”

“The appeal speaks for itself. For all the reasons set forth in the appeal, Elcon strongly believes that the township acted in bad faith when it voted to deny Elcon’s preliminary land development plan,” Bolstein wrote in an email. “Elcon intends to continue its efforts to obtain all of the permits and approvals needed for its proposed facility.”

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Philadelphia’s trash is Chester’s air pollution

By The WHY, podcast of WHYY

Listen 10:53

The smokestack of the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility looms over a residential street in Chester. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

About one-third of Philadelphia’s garbage goes to a facility in Chester, Pa. where the waste is burned and converted into energy. But that incinerator also pollutes the air Chester residents breathe and researchers say it’s one of the dirtiest in the U.S

Related content

Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility at 10 Highland Ave, Chester, Pa. (Google Maps)

Incinerators in Camden, Chester among nation’s most polluting, report finds

Minority communities, like those near incinerators in Camden and Chester, are disproportionately affected by emissions such as lead and particulates, a new study finds.

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NJ ethics attorney ‘frozen out’ after warning Murphy administration about improper hirings at NJ schools authority?

By Dustin Racioppi, Trenton Bureau, NorthJersey.com

Lawmakers “will be looking into” Gov. Phil Murphy’s hiring practices more thoroughly after NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey published an “extremely troubling” account of an ethics official trying to alert the governor’s office to improper hiring at the Schools Development Authority, Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Friday. 

Exactly how the Legislature will investigate is unclear. After the Network on Friday published a detailed account from Jane F. Kelly, a vice president in charge of ethics at the authority, Republican senators who served on the Select Oversight Committee called for a “renewed special legislative investigation” into the administration’s hiring practices. 

“I agree with the two senators that we’re going to have to look into this,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said in an interview. “We will be looking into this.” 

The decision comes less than two weeks after the oversight committee created last year to investigate hiring in the Murphy administration issued a report of its findings. But the committee focused almost exclusively on the hiring of one individual — Al Alvarez — and how he was hired as chief of staff at the schools authority. 

Alvarez had been accused of sexually assaulting Katie Brennan, a former Murphy campaign volunteer who now works in the administration, during the 2017 campaign. He was not charged and denies the allegation. 

Sweeney said there were similarities between Brennan’s case and Kelly’s. For months over 2017 and 2018, Brennan spoke with multiple Murphy aides about the alleged assault seeking action, but Alvarez was still given a top position in the administration. 

As the oversight committee prepared to begin its hearings last November, Kelly called the governor’s office to warn of improper and potentially illegal hiring at the schools authority. The former chief executive officer of the authority, Lizette Delgado-Polanco, had hired about three dozen people, many of them connected to her and unqualified for their jobs, after laying off about two dozen longtime employees. 

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney listens as Gov. Phil Murphy delivers a speech on the state budget on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, in Trenton.

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney listens as Gov. Phil Murphy delivers a speech on the state budget on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, in Trenton. (Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com)

Kelly said she was trying to alert Murphy’s office so it could take action. She was told to file a complaint, which led to the administration hiring an outside law firm to investigate. That advice was given to Kelly in consultation with the Attorney General’s office, and the investigation is ongoing. 

“I was clear to them: I’m trying to help you,” Kelly said. “The governor’s got a locomotive coming at him.”

That locomotive remained on the narrow track of Alvarez, though, while at least two other questionable hires gained little attention from the committee. Now that Kelly has come forward, Republican Sens. Kristin Corrado and Steven Oroho said in a letter that it’s time for a thorough review of hiring practices.

In the letter to Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, they said the committee should investigate the hiring processes and general operations at the authority and any other state agency, department or political subdivision. 

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The Energy 202: Democrats’ internal climate debate is not going away

By Dino Grandoni, The Lightbulb (Washington Post)

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) speaks during an event at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington. (Susan Walsh/AP)

The debate among Democrats about holding a climate change debate is not going away. 

The back-and-forth between Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and advocates for a climate-themed debate has at times turned acrimonious. The uproar underscores the degree to which ensuring the United States is addressing the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere — and preparing to deal with their effects — has become a priority among Democratic voters.

The DNC came down with its decision last week, writing in a letter to Democratic candidates that “the DNC will not be holding entire debates on a single issue area,” DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said. Democratic candidate and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has tried for years to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions in his own state, had formally asked the DNC for a climate debate in a letter.

Inslee, who has centered his campaign around climate change, fired back at the committee for “silencing the voices of Democratic activists.”

Perez followed up by penning a longer explanation on Medium explaining that the party has received more than 50 requests for issue-specific debates. “And we knew it would be unfair and unrealistic to ask the candidates to participate in so many,” he wrote. 

But activists are not taking no for an answer. In Washington on Wednesday, a coalition of groups delivered a petition with more than 200,000 signatures to DNC headquarters calling for a climate change debate. And that same day in Kansas City, activists with the Sunrise Movement, an environmental group, confronted Perez, accusing the chairman of using the party rules as “a very thin defense.”

Perez promised that portions of the scheduled debates will be on climate change. “You carve out a section of the debate, and it’s on issue A or issue B,” Perez responded. “We will be doing that throughout the course of the debate season.”

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